R.E.M. "The Great Beyond" (21.2 MB) from "Man on the Moon" United Center Chicago, IL June 6, 2008

We were in New York last weekend, and the torrential rainstorm that washed out the second half of the first day of Emily's craft show also delayed R.E.M.'s performance at Jones Beach by a couple hours. The next morning it was all over the news, which leads me to think that they're "back" in a way they wouldn't have been had a 2004 show been delayed. Which is an interesting reminder that it wasn't so long ago that they needed to make a comeback at all -- "Man on the Moon," the Andy Kaufman biopic named after one of their songs and including this then-new single came out in 1999, when it seemed their first Bill Berry-less album was just a blip rather than a herald of several years in the wilderness. Their return to greatness couldn't have been more welcome.

[ #remunited ]