Re: Patti with R.E.M. tonight at London's Hyde Park (July 16th, 2005)

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

R.E.M.
by David Sinclair at Hyde Park
The Times, 18 July 2005

R.E.M. returned to Hyde Park on Saturday for the final show of their
marathon world tour. It was not the triumphal occasion it might have
been. The concert, which had been postponed by a week because of the
London bomb attacks, followed the group's appearance on the same stage
as part of the Live 8 concert. The euphoria of setting the world to
rights so abruptly dissipated by subsequent events, it was back to
business as usual as the band piled into the opening number: "It's
been a bad day/please don't take a picture," Michael Stipe sang on a
blissful summer evening.

His eyes buried in the band of blue warpaint that has been his public
image in recent months, Stipe resembled a particularly camp Batman
villain as he pranced and posed. The bass player, Mike Mills, and
guitarist Peter Buck put in workmanlike performances while various
session players, including the drummer Bill Rieflin, discreetly
fleshed out the sound as they forged on with a muscular What's the
Frequency, Kenneth? and a rousing version of The One I Love.

The tall screens either side of the stage gave an unusually artistic
representation of the show, involving complicated vision mixing which
worked particularly well during The Outsiders, when Stipe's blackened
eyes were repeatedly frozen to eerie effect. But although R.E.M. have
clearly got the experience to cope with these enormous venues, they
are not an instinctively large-scale theatrical group and compared
with recent shows by U2 and the Rolling Stones this was a tame
presentation.

The band was joined by Patti Smith for a performance of E-Bow the
Letter. As usual in these situations, Smith contributed more to the
sense of occasion than to the song. Clasping Stipe's hand like a
lifeline, she occasionally mumbled while Stipe was left to navigate
the rich, Dylanesque wordplay.

The vague pieties of the anti-war song Final Straw gave way to the
best moment of the set when they played Orange Crush. The stage was
bathed in orange light, prompting the audience to raise a sea of
mobile phone cameras. Then the band were on to the home straight with
favourites such as Losing My Religion and Nightswimming. They shook
off the chains of nostalgia and performed a new song, I'm Gonna DJ,
before wrapping up a professional show with Man on the Moon.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-1698271,00.html