Michael Stipe and company know how to give a phenomenal concert. On Sunday night, October 1, in Hartford, I had the good fortune of attending R.E.M's second leg of their American tour. Having previously gone to one of their concerts in June, I was expecting a spectacular concert by the quartet from Athens, Georgia. They didn't let me down.

Opening the show with "I Took Your Name" from last years album Monster, they rocked Hartford's brand new, Meadows Music Theater for approximately two and a quarter hours. The concert was filled with music from the group's last three albums, with bits and pieces from Document, Green, and Life's Rich Pageant. The focus of the concert was clearly on Monster . The band played 8 songs from it.

Stipe is not only an excellent vocalist, but he also enjoys getting the audience involved in the performance. He made frequent comments about his wishes of being down on the lawn; where the majority of the concert goers were located. His desires to sip iced tea and rum on the lawn and have people jump on him and kiss him were, unfortunately, not satisfied. I doubt that he was terribly disappointed, though.

According to Stipe, the band's favorite song is "Country Feedback" a B side song on their best selling album, Out of Time. They performed this song with Michael's back to the audience. I think he was disappointed with the fan participation in the front row. Anyway, the tune was amazing. Peter Buck ended the song with a beautiful solo on his vintage Rickenbocker. Among the other spectacular performances were "Losing My Religion" and "Undertow," a new song the band composed earlier this summer. As expected, they finished their set with the fan favorite "It's the End of the World As We Know It."

Despite getting older and facing a variety of health problems, the band members are still out producing excellent rock and roll. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming security at the Meadows Music Theater, the crowd remained relatively calm. Stipe was aware of this and motioned to the crowd with his arm to come on down. Again, he was not humored.

As expected R.E.M provided the audience with one hell of a concert. To my dismay, I was held back by certain unruly members of my group and arrived moments after Radiohead concluded their set with "Planet telex." The concert proved to be worth every bit of the twenty five dollars I spent. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go see them in either Boston or Providence. Fans should make their best effort to go see R.E.M before they conclude touring in November. It has been a long six years since their last tour, and there is no telling when they will be around again.

© Trincoll Journal, 1995.