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QUICK DISPATCH FROM A BEAUTIFUL DAY OFF IN BOSTON

Last night’s show at Merriweather Post Pavilion between Baltimore and Washington was to me the highlight of the tour so far: great set (4 or 5 songs not yet played on this tour, and it is only in its 3rd week), massive and exhuberant crowd, band playing as tight as ever as a five-piece, just one of those very special nights, starting with Finest Worksong and traipsing through the group’s rich catalog including rarities like Driver 8, Little America, a Barack Obama button on Michael’s lapel, Mike singing Rockville in a western hat, a plaintive Until the Day is Done and through a rollicking encore featuring Mr Richards for only the second time on the tour. We saw a ton of friends and family from all over and the list is too long to start naming names, but as usual DC was a wonderful turnout and inspired night. (thanks to Chris Sikich for the great photos). As usual, you may want to check out all the tweeters and bloggers and reviewers and photographers on the Tour Page, which is starting to come alive as more and more people discover it and post to it– it is a cool repository for all manner of extranea on every R.E.M. show this TOUR. That aspect of the site is as good as the fans make it, and it is getting better every show– like the shows themselves. . .

We are now in Boston for a true day off. What a town, Red Sox in town, Mission of Burma at the Paradise playing tonight and tomorrow and the Celtics in the playoffs . . .nice timing for the R.E.M. show at whatever they are calling Great Woods these days.

More to come. Time for a walk in the park.

Bertis

PS: since we’re in Boston, home of MOB, here are some links you might want to check out…

My favorite Mission of Burma song, That’s When I Reach For My Revolver and this you tubed, audio-only, cover the band did of Mission of Burma’s classic “Academy Fight Song” way back in 1989: