R.E.M original. Os membros aparecem juntos no palco pela primeira vez em quase 17 anos / Original R.E.M. Members Appear Together on Stage for the First Time in Almost 17 Years
- 10/02/2024
- 0 Comentário(s)
“Falando em nome de Bill, Mike e Peter, estamos muito emocionados por estar aqui esta noite.”
The original members of R.E.M. surprised the audience at a recent concert, taking to the stage together for the first time in almost 17 years.
The event took place on Thursday, February 8, at a concert featuring musician Jason Narducy and actor Michael Shannon, who have been on the road while playing R.E.M.'s "Murmur" album every night. Singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry climbed the stage at the end of the show, standing together for the first time since their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2007.
Unfortunately, the band didn't perform, simply choosing to come together in support of Narducy and Shannon. "Speaking on behalf of Bill and Mike and Peter, we are so fucking thrilled to be here tonight," singer Michael Stipe said to the audience. To make the matter more touching, the concert took place at the 40 Watt Club in the city of Athens, Georgia, where R.E.M. began its career. While the full band did not perform together, Buck, Mills, and Berry did join in during the set, playing with Shannon and Narducy.
Among many of R.E.M.'s qualities as a band, singer Michael Stipe's vocal style is often cited as distinctive and instantly recognizable. In a 2022 interview, the singer explained how he formed this singing style, contrasting the speed of his bandmates' playing with slow singing and long wovels: "We were playing clubs to seven people... Nobody knew who R.E.M. Nobody cared. And that's fine. It was just it was like throwing raw meat to dogs. [The audience] had no idea who we were. We were on and off before they could get angry and like throw bottles at us.
"And you know, everything was very [tight], very like Ramones speed at that point with R.E.M. So actually, I kind of developed a singing style because the band refused to play slower than they did. Mike [Mills, bassist] really loved the Ramones and really loved a really fast bass part. So everything was really like rockabilly, Ramones kind of fast. And I got tired of singing that fast and I thought it was boring.
"So I started slowing down my part. It's one thing I could do, they wouldn't slow down. So I slowed down my part and that actually became a singing style for me. By the time we recorded our first album and a song like talking about the passion, they were playing everything really fast and gangly, and I was just singing very, very slowly and holding my vowels and that became something like a singing style, I guess."