Saturday Live

I found a copy of the 25th Anniversary edition of Reckoning by R.E.M. recently, cheap and second hand, a double CD re- issue of the album with a second disc of the band playing live in July 1984 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. There aren't many live discs that stand up to repeat plays but this does and will, mid- 80s R.E.M. at the peak of their powers, the Reckoning songs fresh and honed on the road, the band tight and with the faster, energetic, distorted punky/ indie feel they had early on. On some songs Peter Buck's Rickenbacker jangles but on some the Wire/ Gang Of Four influences are obvious. Michael Stipe's vocals are wayward in places, nicely so, words and syllables extended and the three way harmonies with Bill Berry and Mike Mills have a rough quality that really works. The gig in Chicago is sixteen songs long,  opening with their cover of Femme Fatale and ending with a two song encore- Second Guessing and (Don't Go Back To) Rockville. This is a selection of songs from the live disc. 

Gardening At Night (Live In Chicago, July 1984)

Sitting Still (Live In Chicago, July 1984)

Harborcoat  (Live In Chicago, July 1984)

Little America  (Live In Chicago, July 1984)

Second Guessing  (Live In Chicago, July 1984)

A month earlier, 9th June 1984, they played at the Capitol Theatre, Passiac, New Jersey. The gig was filmed, an hour and five minutes of R.E.M., a similar set but played in a different order but with first debut appearances for Hyena (later to show up on 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant) and Driver 8, freshly written and soon to be one of the centrepiece songs of 1985's Fables Of The Reconstruction. They look great, Peter with red shirt sleeves flapping, Stipe with long curly hair and Mills bopping about. They look like they're having fun too. Amusingly, when Reckoning was reviewed by Rolling Stone on release the  reviewer, Chris Connelly, wrote that  Stipe's evocatively gloomy baritone... and ... erratic meanderings will prevent R.E.M. from transcending cult status'. Not quite eh?