After I last saw R.E.M. play the TUI Arena here in Hannover in 2005, I was lucky to see them twice this year on their current 2008 “Accelerate” tour: at the Waldbühne in Berlin (July 16th) and 3 days ago in the Color Line Arena in Hamburg (September 18th).

I must say that they have a pretty steady taste when it comes to their supporting acts: in Berlin they had The Editors, in Hamburg We Are Scientists - both sound pretty similar to me, but hey, that’s just me… I am not so much into that kind of music: they don’t really have a change in dynamics, and the beat is pretty much the same in each song. It’s always this wall of sound with crying guitars and (nicely played) drum rhythms that almost make them indistinguishable. I was hoping more for some slow ballads, but that is probably not what this music is all about. If I had to choose, I’d go for The Editors.

But don’t get me wrong: as supporting acts, they were both pretty cool.

But let’s come to the reason we all went there: R.E.M. and their new album “Accelerate”. I must say that I was a little suprised when I listened to it for the first time… and the second time… and the third time… But the more I listened to that record, the more I liked it, and I think that is exactly what a good record is all about, right?

The funniest thing of all is that I always forget that “Supernatural Superserious” is a part of that record, because - well, I don’t know… I think it is kind of the catchiest one on the album. Maybe that’s the reason that it was the first single.

Berlin, July 16th - Waldbühne

OK, the first show I saw was Berlin. I got the tickets before I even knew they were playing Hamburg additionally later. As I had never been to the Waldbühne before, I wasn’t just excited about the gig but also about the venue.

The photo above shows how it was when we arrived: it was raining! Well, the venue itself is pretty cool, but you don’t wanna be there when it rains. Everyone was using their umbrellas, and later on, this guy right between us and the stage takes out this big red one - we could hardly see what was happening on the stage… but the miracle happened: just when The Editors went on stage, it suddenly stopped - and it didn’t rain again that evening. That’s what you call timing, I guess.

I think it was almost at dusk when R.E.M. started their show. They had some nice “light grids” in the back… well, I don’t know how to call it, but it surely weren’t monitors. It reminded me a lot of the ones used by Katie Melua this year. Pretty cool stuff.

Here is the setlist (via thespaghettiincident.blogspot.com):

01. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
02. West Of The Fields
03. What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
04. Star 69
05. Man-Sized Wreath
06. Ignoreland
07. Begin The Begin
08. Hollow Man
09. Imitation Of Life
10. Houston
11. Electrolite
12. So. Central Rain
13. Auctioneer
14. The Great Beyond
15. The One I Love
16. Pretty Persuasion
17. Fall On Me
18. Let Me In
19. Horse To Water
20. Bad Day
21. I’m Gonna DJ
22. Orange Crush

Encore:
23. Supernatural Superserious
24. Losing My Religion
25. Driver 8
26. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
27. Man On The Moon

This was the first time ever for me to listen to Let Me In live  - and it struck me like a lightning: this version is AWESOME! Go have a look at it on YouTube.

Unfortunately, they did not play my favourite live song, which is - without a doubt - Country Feedback, which sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it being performed live (I had the chance to listen to that back in 2005 in Hannover). The interesting thing is: we were on our way to Dresden where they had played one day before and where they actually did perform Country Feedback - maybe we should have bought tickets for that show… well, nevermind.

In Berlin, they didn’t play Everybody Hurts either, but having so many songs in their back catalogue, I would have been too lucky to hear all of my favourites, right? Besides: they played Fall On Me and Driver 8, so what more could one ask for?

All in all, Berlin was a great show, but I didn’t expect any less.

Hamburg, September 18th - Color Line Arena

After Eventim announced the additional tour dates in Germany and I saw that Hamburg was amongst it, I decided to go and see R.E.M. for the second time this year. I was planning to go with Tim who decided literally in the last minute to come along: he bought the ticket two (!) days prior to the venue.

Well, the problem with Hamburg is the Elbtunnel - if we had taken the way straight through it, we would have got stuck in a 10 km traffic jam… so, we decided to make a little detour through the center of the city - which was also pretty time consuming because of the traffic (that seems to be normal for Hamburg).

We arrived at about 19:00 at the parking space. I was afraid we were running late and that we would only get the “cheap seats” (actually, that is just a metaphor, since we were standing). But that was totally not necessary: the arena was hardly filled when we got there.

After We Are Scientists had played for good half an hour, the stage was prepared for R.E.M. - they started their show at around 21:20.

Here’s the setlist (via msparer.blogspot.com, remurmur.blogspot.com, Pellifotos@Flickr):

01. These Days
02. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
03. I Took Your Name
04. What’s The Frequency Kenneth
05. Little America
06. Drive
07. Ignoreland
08. Man-Sized Wreath
09. World Leader Pretend
10. Hollow Man
11. The Great Beyond
12. Circus Envy
13. Just A Touch
14. Time After Time
15. The One I Love
16. Sweetness Follows
17. I’ve Been High
18. Horse To Water
19. Bad Day
20. Orange Crush
21. Imitation Of Life

Encore:
22. Supernatural Superserious
23. Losing My Religion
24. Animal
25. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
26. Man On The Moon

Yes! They played Drive, and it was awesome, like the rest of the show - though they didn’t play neither Country Feedback nor Everybody Hurts nor my new favourite Let Me In.

What I really like about this band is that they motivate their fans to document what they see - be it on Twitter, Flickr or YouTube. Before the encore, they had this information shown on the screens how to tag your tweets, photos, videos or blogs so that they would be collected on tour.remhq.com.

Thank you, R.E.M., for these TWO GREAT SHOWS in Germany!

–> www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_WeI609ltw

#remberlin #remhamburg