So last night I went to see R.E.M. perform at the shoreline. Its been 4 years since I last saw them, so it was a little strange to look back and think how much things have changed since then. That was the end of the summer after my freshman year of college... It's amazing how time flies and how different a person I was then. I'd just met Laura that month. I went down to Virginia to pick up ben from his first month of college, we drove up, saw the concert, got our 5 lyric sheets, and then dropped him off at a bus terminal for a 2am busride back from D.C. to blacksburg. He had just recently been dumped by Allison, yeah, its that long ago... Then I went to St. Johns and arrived at 3am to visit meg who was in her second week at college and crashed on her floor. This was long enough ago that not only was I surprised that my parents didn't disapprove of my crashing on the floor of a platonic female friend's room, I also probably wouldn't have done it if they did think it was wrong... The next day Meg's friends were teasing her relentlessly about liking some guy in their class, and she was insisting she didn't and was ticked off at me for not agreeing with her... Of course she just got engaged to this guy last month.

Anyway, enough silly noah what has changed in the last 4 years stuff... Here was the playlist:

1. Begin the Begin
2. So Fast, So Numb (one of my favorite upbeat R.E.M. songs)
3. Drive (slow like on the album, not like the monster tour version)
4. Animal (a new song, didn't care for it much)
5. Fall on Me (!)
6. Orange Crush (surprisingly great fun live, especially with the megaphone)
7. Bad Day (another new one, better than animal, but still not great)
8. The One I love (accoustic and slow, just piano and accoustic guitar, haunting)
9. Daysleeper
10. Imitation of Life (better live than on the album)
11. So. Central Rain (!!!)
12. At My Most Beautiful
13. Nightswimming
14. Don't Go Back To Rockville (this was great fun, and mike mills sang)
15. Losing My Religion
16. She Just Wants to Be
17. Walk Unafraid
18. Man on the Moon
------ Encore
1. Everybody Hurts
2. Weclome to the Occupation
3. Country Feedback (every bit as good as you'd think it'd be)
4. Permanent Vacation (announced as the first time they've played it in the states since 1981, he had to say at the end, "oh I forgot to say that wasn't a cover. We wrote that song, when I was 21.")
5. The End of the World as we Know it.

All in all an excellent show. Michael was rather on speed at the beginning, but got in plenty of bizarre remarks. South Central Rain was a definite highlight, "go build yourself another dream, this choice it wasn't mine... I'm Sorry..."