heads up: R.E.M. - 40 Watt Club Athens GA Nov 19 1992 in ab.music.shn
Beatcomber
gig at the 40 Watt Club in their hometown of Athens, GA. The
show was put on for the benefit of Greenpeace and was taped
by a solar-powered mobile recording unit, the plan being to take
one track from the recording and contribute it to an all-live
compilation CD entitled 'Alternative NRG' (which would feature
15 more tracks by various artists).
Before too long a DAT audience recording of the show was put
out on bootleg-CD (remember, this was the heyday of CD-
bootlegging). If I recall correctly, 'Automatically Live' on the
legendary Kiss The Stone imprint (KTS 141) was the first to hit
the streets. Countless other discs would follow, the best of which
(and the most complete) being 'This Is It' (Red Phantom
RPCD 1117). The popularity of the show is hardly surprising,
given that the band gave a sterling performance that night and
did no other gigging in support of 'Automatic for the People' (the
then-current album). To boot, Buck & co were in great spirits,
entertaining the homecrowd with amusing in-between banter,
AND the available audience recording was remarkably clear (if,
ultimately, a bit dull sounding).
In due time, a soundboard recording of the first song played at
the gig (a great funked-up version of Drive) appeared on the
aforementioned Greenpeace CD (January 1994). The bulk of the
show was later released in the form of bonus tracks on the four
CD-singles released to promote the Monster album (three tracks
apiece). However, while the songs themselves sound incredible
(especially 'Country Feedback', which by late 1992 had not yet
been turned into the pompous dirge it became during the
'Monster' tour), the end result did not add up to a complete
presentation of the show: apart from the first take of 'Drive', one
more song was left off (a not particularly strong version of 'Love
Is All Around', the Troggs cover which the band had performed
so well in acoustic guise during the promo-tour for 'Out Of Time'),
as well as the major part of the great chats inbetween songs.
What I'm posting today is my attempt to mix the missing parts &
song, retrieved from bootleg (an original silver disc copy of 'This
Is It'), into the officially released soundboard recordings (from the
original silver CD-EPs & Greenpeace CD), in order to recreate
the performance in its entirety in the best possible sound quality.
R..E.M.
40 Watt Club, Athens GA
November 19th, 1992
1.. Intro
2.. Drive (take 1)
3.. Monty Got A Raw Deal
4.. Everybody Hurts
5.. Man On The Moon
6.. Losing My Religion
7.. Country Feedback
8.. Begin The Begin
9.. Fall On Me
10. Me In Honey
11. Finest Worksong
12. Drive (take 2)
13. Love Is All Around (from DAT audience recording)
14. Funtime/Radio Free Europe
On the night, R.E.M. was augmented with a fifth player, long-time
friend and collaborator John Keane (whose studio the band have
been using for years to make demos etc.). Interestingly, the set
list in Peter Buck's handwriting which was printed on p. 406 of
the fully revised and updated version of Marcus Gray's excellent
book, 'It Crawled From The South: An R.E.M. Companion', gives
a precise breakdown of who played what during which song. In
return for the lack of any artwork, I decided to add a scan of that
set-list to my posting.
Enjoy!
Mr. PB
the "We Supprt Greenpeace" CD. Heck I have even seen the video of this show.