R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe has made it clear over the years that the beloved indie rock godheads are definitely done. But on Thursday night (Feb. 28), the original quartet were back on stage together for just the second time since their split in 2011 to play a high-spirited version of their 1984 classic “Pretty Persuasion.”
The totally unexpected moment came during a show by actor Michael Shannon as part of his latest tour with Verbow singer/guitarist Jason Narducy performing full R.E.M. albums, in this case a swing celebrating the 40th anniversary of the group’s 1985 Southern Gothic jangle classic Fables of the Reconstruction. Not only did Stipe take the stage with former bandmates guitarist Peter Buck, bassist/singer Mike Mills and long-retired drummer Bill Berry on tambourine, but they did it at the 40 Watt Club, the legendary 500-capacity venue in their hometown of Athens, Georgia that has been the launching pad for dozens of local bands and a favorite haunt for R.E.M.’s members over the years.
In a thrilling video posted by the 40 Watt, Stipe, wearing red shades and sharing the mic with Mills and Narducy, belts out the lyrics “It’s gone and won/ Hurry and buy/ All has been tried/ Hurry and buy,” as the packed-in crowd jump and clap and, of course, hold up their phones to capture the once-in-a-lifetime moment.
In addition, Berry sat in on drums for the Fables songs “Wendell Gee” and Mills lent a hand on covers of Wire’s “Strange,” Pylon’s “Crazy” and the R.E.M. rarity “1,000,000.” Both Mills and Buck joined Shannon and Narducy for a number of other songs, including Reckoning‘s “Second Guessing” and a pair of Velvet Underground covers, “Femme Fatale” and “There She Goes Again,” both of which also featured the Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye.
Buck also played guitar on another early R.E.M. tune from Reckoning, “Little America,” and both he and Mills joined the band for the encore set cover of “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville.”
It was only the second time that Berry has performed alongside his former bandmates since leaving the group in 1997 citing a desire to quit touring after suffering a brain aneurysm on stage in Switzerland in 1995. R.E.M. soldiered on after Berry’s departure and released five more albums as a trio before calling it quits for good in 2011. They had not all been on stage together since until last year when they stage a surprise get-back at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame induction to perform another of their most iconic anthems, “Losing My Religion.”
Though the 40 Watt is in a different spot now, it has long been an incubator for the local music scene, hosting a number of prominent hometown indie bands (Pylon, Love Tractor, Guadalcanal Diary, Drive-By Truckers, B-52s, Widespread Panic, Vic Chesnutt) over the years, as well as acts that went on to global stardom that popped in for early gigs or serious underplay shows, including Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, as well as Iggy Pop, Run-DMC and Snoop Dogg, among countless others.
And while the second surprise reunion by R.E.M. in a year surely stirred excitement among fans, Stipe has made it clear that their performing and recording days are over. In a 2021 interview with WYNC’s All Of It, Stipe responded to a question about a possible third act by saying, “That’s wishful thinking at best. We will never reunite. We decided when we split up that that would be really tacky and probably money-grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together. We don’t really need that. And I’m really happy that we have the legacy of 32 years of work that we have from 1980 to 2011.”
R.E.M.’s last full concert was in November 2008 in Mexico City. Since then the only other time they’ve performed was at a private party for their manager, Bertis Downs, in 2016.
Check out the video of R.E.M. playing “Pretty Persuasion” below.