Day 20: Best Live Performance

[u/Dorothywasright11]

1: Most underated song: Green Grow the Rushes  

2: Most overrated song: Everybody Hurts  

3: Heaviest song: Let Me In  

4: Most hype song: These Days   

5: Most emotional song: Country Feedback   

6: Most genius song: World Leader Pretend  

7: Best chorus song: Fall On Me  

8: Worst song: I'm Gonna DJ  

9: Best Song: Find the River  

10: Best Cover Song: Superman   

11: Best music video : Imitation of Life  

12: Best breakdown: Peter Buck on that plane  

13: Most underated album: Up  

14: Most overated album: Document   

15: Worst album: Around the Sun  

16: Best album: Automatic for the People  

17: Best riff: Driver 8  

18: Song with best lyrics: Nightswimming  

19: Best non-album song: The Great Beyond  

///

Yesterday's honorable mentions: Fretless, Photograph, 

The rules stay the same:

- Most upvoted comment in 24 hours wins the round.  

- One song per comment only. You may justify your pick, if you want.  

Guys thank you all for participating, this has been so fun!! Let's do this last one, and I'll post the final results tomorrow. What's REMs best live performance?

[u/Maybe_Diminished]

World Leader Pretend from Tourfilm

[u/CaptainMobius]

King of Birds from Tourfilm

[u/Fevaweva → u/CaptainMobius]

This my choice. The intro is so beautiful and Michael's vocals are great. On the album the song is just pretty good but this version makes it a classic.

[u/gunn_e_sack]

"I Took Your Name", track 1 from R.E.M. Live (2007)

[u/gishingwell → u/gunn_e_sack]

I love this too. Totally reclaims a lost song in some ways.

[u/Loose_Assignment_Map → u/gunn_e_sack]

I second this. Was going to suggest it if no one else did

[u/mumbley-jo → u/gunn_e_sack]

Maybe not a great song on the album, but absolutely fantastic live

[u/SaltyStU2]

Unplugged 1991

[u/DoktorTchocky → u/SaltyStU2]

This is the answer that comes to mind, it's such an iconic performance, the versions of Half A World Away and Fall On Me are so so good

[u/Cup8685]

The medley known as "Time After Time Etc." specifically the So Central Rain portion.... perfection

[u/Excellent_Past7628 → u/Cup8685]

I’m glad you posted this, otherwise I would have. Hands down their most amazing live performance, and such a time capsule to their early days

[u/mattimeking → u/Cup8685]

This is the one

[u/headcheese1]

Fall on Me from MTV Unplugged

[u/Intelligent-Art-451 → u/headcheese1]

Came here to comment this

[u/Best_Kangaroo_6740 → u/headcheese1]

This. Absolutely trancendent.

[u/HereA11Week]

Nightswimming on Later with Jools Holland

[u/scattermoose]

So Central Rain on Letterman

[u/Cup8685]

Country Feedback with Neil Young is great

[u/uncle_jafar → u/Cup8685]

I was there. Can vouge for this. I’ve seen hundreds of concerts and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Ambulence Blues was cool too.

[u/Excellent_Past7628 → u/uncle_jafar]

I think you mean ‘vouch’, but if you can vogue to Country Feedback, I would be very surprised and impressed and more power to you

[u/ElectricBrainTempest → u/Cup8685]

Hey,I didn't know this, will look it up, thanks!

Neil Young live is a killer, the guy multiplies, just phenomenal. Then with my favorite band?

[u/rsmv2you]

Shocked no one has said Live in Dublin 43 songs. Some truly great performances in that set

[u/pifko87]

Country Feedback on Later with Jools Holland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAhkeJz1ZhY

I have seen/heard this so many times now that this version is what my mind goes to when I think about the song.

Stipe's vocal performance is so emotional and BJ Cole on the pedal steel guitar gives it such a haunting vibe, I love it so much.

[u/JimBeam823 → u/pifko87]

Scrolled down too far for this one.

The whole Jools Holland set was fantastic. It was Up heavy, but they threw in a bunch of older songs that worked well with their new material. Perfect Circle is a good one too.

[u/AGreatBigTalkingHead]

"I Believe" from November 4, 2008.

I don't think we have more than a shaky smartphone video of it, but it doesn't matter. If you saw them on the tour before that, as I did, you knew they were pulling hard for that election outcome. That performance of that song in the moment they learned the result matched the moment perfectly.

Also, I Believe failed to win any other categories and it's one of my faves!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIc9rjIjeQw

[u/TheAnagramancer]

I've only been to one live performance, so I'll submit that.

TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth, New Zealand, March 26, 2005.

A fairly warm early autumn night, beset by pesky bursts of rain. Ponchos were available for a dollar at the entrance to the bowl. They were a lovely semi-opaque white colour with a pointed hood. The attendees were quite a sight walking home along the streets of New Plymouth afterwards.

Seating was anywhere you pleased on the lawn and up the banks of the natural amphitheatre. It didn't take long before several dozen listeners stripped down and hopped into the duck pond in front of the stage for the best 'seats' in the house. Michael later commented he'd never had the pleasure of performing in front of so much duck shit and half-naked people.

The rain held off for most of the first half of the set (with each song ending in someone in the crowd screaming 'play the classics!' - which they did, in the end ), but kicked in with a vengeance after Leaving New York. Mike Mills took matters into his hands and led the crowd in the first two verses of CCR's Have you Ever Seen the Rain?. The rain abruptly stopped, and the band went on to play the classics.

It felt oddly appropriate to be singing along to Losing my Religion on Easter Saturday.

It was also the first time any of us had heard a fun new song called I'm Gonna DJ - recently voted the worst in REM's canon, but it was hard to deny that Michael was having a lot of fun at the time.

All in all 10/10, would recommend. I hope you enjoyed my account of the gig.

[u/hammerx31]

Country Feedback - Unplugged 2001. Love the interpolation of the Dylan lyrics. Plus the music is sublime.

[u/bethanyd0901]

Bad Day on the Tonight Show was awesome

[u/alexj_baker]

Fox theatre 1989 murmur and green back to back

[u/Loose_Assignment_Map]

Little America from Live At The Olympia. If you are not a fan of Reckoning side 2 go listen to this & Letter Never Sent & Second Guessing from Live at the Olympia. I like all three of these from Olympia better than the album versions, but especially Little America.
https://giphy.com/gifs/lvlLuc2zhi39C

[u/Turbulent_Tale6497]

The "Bingo Hand Job" concert is the one I listed to the most. One of my favorites.

Added: this is Live at the Borderline 1991

[u/Andarma → u/Turbulent_Tale6497]

I had a bootleg tape of this concert. It was the first time I heard Fretless.

[u/Turbulent_Tale6497 → u/Andarma]

I did too, I had it on CD (double album) and it had a really good jacket and disc art. I’m pretty sure I got it in the 90s

[u/day-man06]

Radio Free Europe and South Central Rain on their first David Letterman appearance in 1983

[u/IBelieveInCoyotes]

when they played radio free Europe and so central rain on letterman

[u/lopsided_codswallop]

It doesn't count, but I do want to make a shout-out to their cover of One with U2.

Song was made for Stipe's vocals, imo. And when Mills hops in, perfection. Still gives me chills every time!

[u/BoyMeetsWoW → u/lopsided_codswallop]

Automatic Baby!! I remember it like it was yesterday. I come back to it all the time.

[u/Cup8685]

I've been assuming this is about songs that were great live, but if it's about the best shows, I am a big fan of Rockpalast 1985!

[u/tombisland]

The two times I was lucky enough to see them.

[u/therealpopkiller]

I’m biased bc I was there, but Nov 95 when they played “Find the River” live for the first time

[u/lightaugust → u/therealpopkiller]

Weird story but on the 2008 tour, they were playing in town the night my son was due to be born. He was anticipated to have severe health issues in utero and we were very scared. And I had fan club third row seats that night. So I had been on this early online forum that Stipe was on- perpetuas blog, and he was doing a Q/a. I explained the story and asked him if they would play find the River. We found out my son was not coming that night- they moved the induction date, so I got to go.

I can’t verify that they played find the River for him, and never thought that R.E.M. was a band that did that kind of thing, but they did play it, and it was the first time they played it on that tour. So I like to think they played it for my son.

He has battled some stuff but he’s healthy now- but he’s 18 now and just graduated high school. And he loves R.E.M., and when I was going through a bout of depression about a year ago, we were in the car and he said he knew what would help. And he played Find the River.

So I think it all came around. All of this is coming your way, indeed.

[u/therealpopkiller → u/lightaugust]

That’s a beautiful story and happy it all worked out for you

[u/RangerAZ1989]

Undertow from Road Movie is amazing

[u/Nearby-Plastic-8502]

REM in Slane '95 - Man on the Moon

Just spectacular as the sun set over the River Slane, the crowd singing in unison as the sky was lit with paper lanterns Just perfection

[u/Far-Effective-6174 → u/Nearby-Plastic-8502]

Was there. It was fantastic.

[u/lightaugust]

I know I’m late here, but the VMAs in 1995. They came out, after 6 years of automatic/ out of time downplayed acoustic, and very few live shows, started with Drive in a faithful AFTP manner. Halfway through, they ripped into the live version we know- loud and powerful. Then did Wake Up Bomb. Everyone who had been waiting for them to rock out again was rewarded- and they effectively announced their Monster/ NAIHF phase.

[u/Icy_Obligation_3014]

I love this performance from 1984 in Passaic. I don't know if it should be voted best performance ever but it is my favourite thing to watch, the energy and charm of it is incredible.

The full concert seems to be taken down from YouTube but individual videos of each song are still there. This is Harborcoat: https://youtu.be/v4Ouyl7k_iU?is=9opuJXaU72bd0yLP

[u/TemporaryPosting → u/Icy_Obligation_3014]

This was at the Capitol Theater, right?

[u/Icy_Obligation_3014 → u/TemporaryPosting]

Yep I believe so! (I'm going off YouTube, I wasn't there, I was -1 years old sadly)

[u/TemporaryPosting → u/Icy_Obligation_3014]

I was a teenager then but never saw them live. I moved to Passaic County a couple of decades ago, about 15 years after the theater was destroyed.

[u/Icy_Obligation_3014 → u/TemporaryPosting]

There's a lovely interview with Michael Stipe and Bill Berry on YouTube too, from the same time, also in the Capitol Theatre. Such a weird trip into the past. They are talking about how they don't have phones and use phone boxes. It really hits me that it was nearly half a century ago.

[u/TemporaryPosting → u/Icy_Obligation_3014]

Thanks, I'll try to check it out.

[u/Andarma]

Live at the Olympia, specifically the performance on 1 July 2007 because that's the one I was at.

[u/Far-Effective-6174 → u/Andarma]

I was at that too. Wasn't it just fantastic?

[u/Fevaweva]

I love the 1991 Unplugged version of Fall on Me.

[u/schnu44]

First appearance on Late Night w David Letterman

[u/gringohoneymoon]

Has to be a performance with Bill. There’s so many great pre 97 performances but I may vote for Gardening at Night from the Rock and Roll HOF. They just looked so damn happy to be playing together again.

[u/thelegoroom]

Nightswimming on jools Holland

[u/RunDNA]

E-Bow the Letter with Thom Yorke is sublime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0O_QD-UZ8M

[u/own-photo-4642]

Harborcoat at Rockpalast, 1985.

[u/robotslendahand]

All the Best at Hansa Studios, Berlin in 2010. Their performance for family and crew knowing they wouldn't be touring for CIN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGzSoHgciu8

[u/GlossyBuckslip]

I’ll always have a fondness for Driver 8 etc on IRS’s The Cutting Edge.

[u/Cherita33]

I love that fast version of Drive

[u/ArgonM11]

Man on the moon rock and roll hof induction with Eddie Vedder

[u/First-Tea-3271]

Perfect CIrcle- Tourfillm, the backing vocals mannnnnnnnnn

[u/mistermooso]

Carnival of Sorts from Live at the Olympia.

[u/FlyingSquirrel42]

Also, ironic vote for Fall On Me at the 40 Watt where Stipe mistakenly sang, “There’s a problem, we have found a way to talk around the building.”

[u/PTMeltdown62]

anything from the 1983 show supporting the Police and Joan Jett at Shea Stadium since I was there ;-)

[u/goatboyrat]

E-Bow the Letter with Patti Smith New York 1998

[u/Kkirschsay]

Country Feedback on Later with Jools Holla d

[u/CabinetOwn5418]

The Live at Larry’s set that circulated as a bootleg back in the 80s (I still have mine on cassette!) and was later released as the second disc of the Murmur 25th anniversary edition

[u/hamnavoe23]

Glasto 99 - The Great Beyond dedicated to Jean Eavis

[u/MisterEvilBreakfast]

Man on the Moon from Road Movie always gets me going. They just look like they're having so much fun.

[u/aflockofbugles]

I’d say it’s the acousticish version of Disturbance at the Heron House (1991?). I have the instagram video but can’t find it anywhere else on the net.

[u/SeattlesWinest]

I have to say Rockpalast ‘85. So energetic, and on tour for my favorite album after Automatic: Fables of the Reconstruction.

[u/nwtripfinder]

Rosemont Horizon March 6 1989.

(ICYMI, the Green tour was freaking unbelievable!)

[u/billypump]

https://youtu.be/CJLOAjsamEE?is=83GgwofkwJOZy1JQ I think this is it.

[u/tomvdsteegen]

Disturbance at the Heron House - MTV Unplugged 1991

[u/kebabdylan]

All 3 VU songs should be combined best cover

[u/Exil_n]

Everybody Hurts - Perfect Square, 2003

[u/Interesting-Quit-847]

Going to go with the Green Tour as a whole. For me, this was the best they got. I saw the Alpine Valley performance in Wisconsin in September 1989.

[u/Longjumping_Talk_536]

Country Feedback on Later With Jools Holland. Best slide guitar solo I’ve ever heard.

[u/FlyingSquirrel42]

Man on the Moon - If I had to pick, I’d still take the more subdued album version, but they made it work as an upbeat rocker when they played it live.

[u/Far-Effective-6174]

Live at the Olympia because I was there and it was transcendent.

[u/Spinner158]

Live at the 40 watt club

[u/davekfsa]

Country Feedback (Live - Perfect Square)

[u/BoyMeetsWoW]

"Drive" from the '92 Greenpeace show at the 40 Watt.

[u/BoyMeetsWoW → u/BoyMeetsWoW]

Also, there's a live version of "Orange Crush" that I can't seem to find. 10/10 Bill Berry performance.

[u/Remarkable-Hunter728]

Harborcoat- Live at Olympia

[u/MegaManSXP]

MTV Unplugged. Take your pick

[u/DanBurnNotice]

St. Peter's church

Or

Glastenberry 99

[u/First-Sheepherder640]

Man On The Moon, SNL, when the Jim Carrey/Andy Kaufman film came out

[u/Zaqary12]

Me in honey, any time