The Beat Surrender

Don’t mention the return to form……R.E.M. have been notoriously prickly of late in interviews when that phrase has been brought up. Even the normally mild mannered Mike Mills (!) almost walked out of an interview with ‘Q’ magazine for daring to bring the subject up. Actually, they’re not far wrong. 2004’s ‘Around the Sun’, despite its anaemic production was hardly a disaster, and this years ‘Accelerate’ has three or four excellent songs on it, and, well, not much else.

They’ve always been a terrific live act though, so a sense of enormous well being permeates the crowds tonight.

First off, it’s ‘Editors’, who deliver a sterling set, Front man Tom Smith appears to be morphing in to a hellish mix of Chris Martin and Luke from Big Brother but he has a terrific presence. He will however, have to stop the Ian Curtis impressions if the band is to be considered seriously.

The headliners come on and launch in to ‘Living Well Is the Best Revenge’. It’s probably the best thing on ‘Accelerate’ and the band throw everything in to it tonight. Peter Buck in particular seems a lot more comfortable with this sort of material, (rumours persist that during the ‘Around the Sun’ sessions his main job was filling up the others iPods), spraying out punk rock riffs like Johnny Marr on speed.

‘I’m Gonna DJ’, ‘Man Sized Wreath’ (Wow!), and ‘Supernatural Superserious’ are all viciously raped and pummelled. This really is early era R.E.M. attitude with latter day R.E.M. sophistication. ‘The Wake up Bomb’ is positively incendiary.

What surprises (shocks?) is how engaging a front man the alleged sourpuss Michael Stipe actually is. His first words to us all? ‘How the f!!k is everybody doing?’ He even does a Bono, and goes walkabout in the crowd. Twice.

The best moment occurs with Stipe’s first impassioned speech; ‘This is a good year for America. And for the world. Because this is the year we get that f!!king Bush administration out of the White House.’ This gets the biggest cheer of the night by the way. The band then launch in to a storming ‘Ignoreland.’.

Before long, we get to ‘It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’. The last time I saw them play it (on youtube), was after Dubya somehow managed to get himself four more years. The atmosphere was like a wake. Tonight, by contrast, the mood is euphoric, electric; ‘I feel fiiiine!’ As an audience participation number, it’s going to take some beating.

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