Welcome to the R.E.M. Up Tour interactive question and answer forum presented by "Life And How To Live It". This is your opportunity to discuss the Up Tour on the internet by having your comments included at this site. If you've been to an Up Tour concert, why not tell other R.E.M. fans what you thought of it by posting your thoughts here. Thanks for visiting and I hope you find somthing that interests you here.

-- Craig Lawson (craig_lawson@geocities.com), June 15, 1999

Answers

Hi! It's very early in the morning and I've just got back from R.E.M. at Earl's Court in London. WOW! They were fantastic. They even played my favourite song, Country Feedback, an extended version. I liked the way they mixed the very old songs in with the new, it was nice to hear the old ones played live. Was anybody else reading this there tonight? What did you think?

-- Jennie Want (Jennie.Want@btinternet.com), June 23, 1999.

i recently attended the 8/11 show in irvine, and it was great for me, but maybe not so much for a lot of people there. in orange county kids go to big shows just to go to big shows regardless of band, although the age diversity was high (say, murmur fans to monster fans). anyway, the band would build momentum with a rocker (or sometimes a hit) and then deflate that build with a ballad. i liked that dynamic but not many others did. no shortage of applause, but i only knew how many people were really there after the band played a big hit. michael tried to play solo acoustic on "home" but it only worked okay and mike backed him up for "why not smile".

here is what i remember of the set, out of order (or by album?)

so.central rain the one i love it's the end of the world as we know it stand (!) pop song 89 losing my religion sweetness follows find the river man on the moon what's the frequency kenneth tongue crush with eyeliner low desert so fast so numb how the west was won lotus suspicion (including a faster false start by joey waroneker (sp?) home at my most beautiful the apologist (faster and it rocks!) walk unafraid why not smile daysleeper great beyond

-- Keir DuBois (jeankeir@hotmail.com), August 13, 1999.

I attended the 8/13 show in San Francisco (Mountain View, really) last night... note that it's my first R.E.M. show, so I'm still reeling from how incredible it all was. We arrived about two hours before showtime, and sat right in the front of the lawn section. Mercury Rev, the opening band, played a pretty good set... my friend compared them to Kula Shaker, as they have a Brit-pop kind of sound. They weren't too highly received, though, but they got a round of polite applause.

Then R.E.M. came on... I can't go on describing how "wow" the show was, but here's the setlist, in order, as I wrote it down during the show:

Airportman/Lotus | Wake Up Bomb | Pop Song 89 | Suspicion | Song from the Year 3 (??) | Daysleeper | Sad Professor | The One I Love | The Apologist | So Fast, So Numb | Sweetness Follows | Great Beyond | Losing My Religion | Find The River | At My Most Beautiful | Star 69 | Walk Unafraid | Man on the Moon | Hope (acoustic - Michael) | Why Not Smile (acoustic - Michael w/ Mike) | Whats the Frequency, Kenneth? | Tongue | Cuyahoga | End of the World

-- Marisa Louie (spootster@yahoo.com), August 14, 1999.

I had the sincere priviledge of seeing the Monday 9/30 show in Atlanta. It was way better than the Green tour which is the last time I saw them. Judging by the set lists of other shows, R.E.M. didn't play anything here they haven't played in some other city-- with the notable exception of Nightswimming, the highlight of the show. Michael brought out a violinist and clarinet player for those respective parts of that song. Both musicians came courtesy of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

-- John Spalding (john@src-online.com), September 17, 1999.