It is great to be in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, where the band has so much history over the years and so many friends, many of whom are coming tonight, most notably Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. I think it is safe to say that it has been a good long while since those guys attended an R.E.M. show together, and it will be great to see them. The shows have been going great, two weeks in, and we are now in the home-stretch of the North American part of the tour, with big shows in the northeast coming up in the next week, then home-metropolis Atlanta to finish up. The band continues to mix up the setlist trying different openers, throwing in chestnuts that they haven’t played in ages almost every night, and it has been fun to follow along on the toursite off of HQ to see people’s reactions and interactions with the shows. More to come as the whole thing has the feel of the band just getting going on what promises to be a wonderful run of shows. Every night is different, that’s for sure.
I just saw this article from an online part of the Washington Post about tomorrow night’s show at Merriweather Post Pavilion including a nice interview with Mike Mills.
Soundcheck is over– time to go to work.
Bertis