R.E.M. was really fucking great

And now I will bore you with my R.E.M. story. I dragged my roommate to an R.E.M. show at The Stone on Broadway in San Francisco for the 1983 tour. This was on the back of the "Murmur" album, which was mostly known through college radio. I had heard Radio Free Europe once on KSAN or some such free-form commercial station and I was smitten. "C'mon," I told my skeptical roommate, "This band is really great. I'm not kidding. We gotta go see them." I was like something out of a Brady Bunch episode.

So on the basis of that one unarguably great song, we went to see R.E.M. The Stone was a nondescript rec-room of a club, generally booked by heavy-metal and up-and-coming indie acts. Its main distinction was a black-and-white tiled floor and a clothing boutique across the street that could outfit you like a member of Poison, if you so desired.

Since there were only a couple hundred people there (I think capacity was 350), we just parked in front of the stage and drowned ourselves in R.E.M.'s youthful, talented musical energies for the entire set. Mike Mills winked at us a few times which freaked us out because we were 19 and thought of him as an "older man." And also I was very insecure and assumed he might just have an eye tic, but maybe not. Michael Stipe was the Frank Sinatra of indie rock, voice-wise but was adorably shy in that "sitting in the corner of English class" college way. Still: Peter Buck was the man. He has double-jointed fingers, I'm sure of it. No one can play like him then and now. Oh, and lest we forget: Bill Berry was/is a great drummer and the heart of R.E.M. It was really sad when he had to quit the band. It took a lot out of them, I think we can all agree.

That show was as excellent as they come. Really one of the finest nights in my life. I never saw them again because I knew they could never surpass that show in my mind. It's twisted and probably wrong of me, but I was happy with my memories without sullying the situation with possibly inferior outings in the future. Plus I saw Peter Buck and his magical fingers numerous times with his other bands, so I'm good. They really opened up music for a lot of people, injecting energy and innovation into folk/punk-rock. Thanks guys.



Man, I'm old.