29 August 1999 - Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GA
By Roy Zemanovich Last night, in Atlanta GA, R.E.M played their homecoming concert. It was a truly amazing performance. Before the show even started, It was destined to be a good show because of how the stage was set up. There were so many neon lights in all these different shapes. They had three signs saying R.E.M, a banana, a dolphin, a man smiling, a megaphone, a man and woman, a globe with PRAHA written under it, a moon, a spaceship, a martini glass, a monkey, a two-headed snake, a molecule and DNA, three cameras, a Poloroid, and a giant sign saying thank you. A lot of these are from the limited edition copy of UP.
The show started off with the expected Lotus,which is my favoritew song off of UP. I won't say anything about the other songs except a few. The most unexpected song of the night was nightswimming, which was very well done. Pilgrimage was also another unexpected treat. Suspicion came out very well live and I was surprised because it is mostly an electronic song. The man on the moon was also great. The new song The Great Beyond, off of the man on the moon soundtrack, was a pretty good song.
About halfway into the set, Michael dedicated a song to Bill Berry. I thought that was nice. The next song he also dedicated to Bill. Ok they want to really thank Bill. The whole band kept staring offstage and the crowd started cheering Bill Bill! After about a minute of that, guess who walked out. It was Bill Berry himself. I was so surprised because I thought he would be milking a cow or something. He came out, shook hands with the band, and then they all took a bow. It was great to be there. Everyone was going crazy. He left stage right after that and he didn't play any songs. That was dissapointing, but it's okay.
The three guys were great, but so were the others. Joey Waronker was a fine drummer, and Scott McCaughey added a guitar. The other big surpise was to see Peter Buck actually jumping! He was crazy throwing his legs in the air and dancing around. During another song, Michael got his cord caught up on the microphone stand. He was singing the song and at the same time, trying to untie his mic. He had the stand all upside down. Eventually he got it done.
I knew it was the last song when the drums started playing It's the end of the world. This song was incredibly fast, but I was able to keep up with the words. this lasted about seven minutes, and then they played their last chord and it was over.
I saw R.E.M during the Monster tour, and this was a much better show. I think that the band realized that the fans wanted to hear more of the old songs along with the new ones.
By Roy Zemanovich
Last night, in Atlanta GA, R.E.M played their homecoming concert. It was a truly amazing performance. Before the show even started, It was destined to be a good show because of how the stage was set up. There were so many neon lights in all these different shapes. They had three signs saying R.E.M, a banana, a dolphin, a man smiling, a megaphone, a man and woman, a globe with PRAHA written under it, a moon, a spaceship, a martini glass, a monkey, a two-headed snake, a molecule and DNA, three cameras, a Poloroid, and a giant sign saying thank you. A lot of these are from the limited edition copy of UP.
The show started off with the expected Lotus,which is my favoritew song off of UP. I won't say anything about the other songs except a few. The most unexpected song of the night was nightswimming, which was very well done. Pilgrimage was also another unexpected treat. Suspicion came out very well live and I was surprised because it is mostly an electronic song. The man on the moon was also great. The new song The Great Beyond, off of the man on the moon soundtrack, was a pretty good song.
About halfway into the set, Michael dedicated a song to Bill Berry. I thought that was nice. The next song he also dedicated to Bill. Ok they want to really thank Bill. The whole band kept staring offstage and the crowd started cheering Bill Bill! After about a minute of that, guess who walked out. It was Bill Berry himself. I was so surprised because I thought he would be milking a cow or something. He came out, shook hands with the band, and then they all took a bow. It was great to be there. Everyone was going crazy. He left stage right after that and he didn't play any songs. That was dissapointing, but it's okay.
The three guys were great, but so were the others. Joey Waronker was a fine drummer, and Scott McCaughey added a guitar. The other big surpise was to see Peter Buck actually jumping! He was crazy throwing his legs in the air and dancing around. During another song, Michael got his cord caught up on the microphone stand. He was singing the song and at the same time, trying to untie his mic. He had the stand all upside down. Eventually he got it done.
I knew it was the last song when the drums started playing It's the end of the world. This song was incredibly fast, but I was able to keep up with the words. this lasted about seven minutes, and then they played their last chord and it was over.
I saw R.E.M during the Monster tour, and this was a much better show. I think that the band realized that the fans wanted to hear more of the old songs along with the new ones.
This really was a great concert!