Live at the Olympia: A Live Album to Please the Fans
By Eric Shapiro
Published 11/6/09 in Skidmore News
3/5 stars
With high-quality soundboard recordings of concerts floating around the internet, it’s difficult to justify plunking down cash for “official concert releases,” especially for a band as high-profile and as R.E.M. The only band that gave Massachusetts newwavers Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry real competition in their 1980s heyday in terms of commercial success was U2. Recent years have not been as kind to R.E.M., although most modern bands looking to make big bucks would sacrifice their favorite instrument to sell an equivalent number of albums and concert tickets. So naturally, for the minority of listeners who actually care about abstract notions of artistic credibility and self-restraint, Live at the Olympia smells an awful lot like a cynical grab at the wallets of their devoted fans. The fact that a substantial portion of the “setlist” is drawn from a moderately well received studio album released over a year ago doesn’t do a whole lot to dispel such a notion, nor does the fact that they just released a live album in 2005. But wait! This one’s different. Live at the Olympia is not just any live album; no, it’s an “important document” of the band’s creative process. Between June 30 and July 5, 2007, R.E.M. put on five shows to hone material for their April, 2008 LP Accelerate. Devoted fans lucky enough to get their hands on the golden tickets must have been ecstatic. Whether those five shows merit an official release is another question. The answer is yes. the quality of the performances is mostly great. Fans will be happy to hear many of the band’s best tunes that were not released as singles, a disproportionate number of which are drawn from Reckoning, the bands classic sophomore release that is generally regarded as one of their best. “So. Central Rain,” “Harbor Coat,” “Second Guessing,” and, best of all, “Pretty Persuasion” are performed with such energy and enthusiasm that they could have been written yesterday. “Driver 8” and “Feeling Gravity’s Pull,” two underrated and underplayed songs from an equally underrated album, are also highlights. Life’s Rich Pageant is represented by the good but not great “Cuyahuga” (around the time Michael Stipe started writing lyrics with P.C. lyrics), Document by “Disturbance at the Heron House.” A stunning rendition of “Drive” is the only song from Automatic From the People. But it goes without saying that even the less well-known songs in R.E.M.’s long history are great. Fortunately, The new material fits into the band’s repertoire seamlessly, especially “Living Well is the Best Revenge” and “Houston.” Whether or not Live at the Olympia is worth the price of admission depends on just how much you care about R.E.M. It is certainly a topnotch performance and captures the band getting in touch with their roots in order to craft new material worthy of their reputation. Fans will no doubt also want to get their hands on the assortment of previously unreleased tunes. However, casual listeners might be better served picking up Accelerate for a more polished rendition of the best songs R.E.M. has written since the mid-90s. Then again, they would be missing out on the old classics that earned the band their acclaim in the first place. The fact that listeners have to make the choice is a testament to how strong an album Live at the Olympia is.
Published 11/6/09 in Skidmore News
3/5 stars
With high-quality soundboard recordings of concerts floating around the internet, it’s difficult to justify plunking down cash for “official concert releases,” especially for a band as high-profile and as R.E.M. The only band that gave Massachusetts newwavers Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry real competition in their 1980s heyday in terms of commercial success was U2. Recent years have not been as kind to R.E.M., although most modern bands looking to make big bucks would sacrifice their favorite instrument to sell an equivalent number of albums and concert tickets. So naturally, for the minority of listeners who actually care about abstract notions of artistic credibility and self-restraint, Live at the Olympia smells an awful lot like a cynical grab at the wallets of their devoted fans. The fact that a substantial portion of the “setlist” is drawn from a moderately well received studio album released over a year ago doesn’t do a whole lot to dispel such a notion, nor does the fact that they just released a live album in 2005. But wait! This one’s different. Live at the Olympia is not just any live album; no, it’s an “important document” of the band’s creative process. Between June 30 and July 5, 2007, R.E.M. put on five shows to hone material for their April, 2008 LP Accelerate. Devoted fans lucky enough to get their hands on the golden tickets must have been ecstatic. Whether those five shows merit an official release is another question. The answer is yes. the quality of the performances is mostly great. Fans will be happy to hear many of the band’s best tunes that were not released as singles, a disproportionate number of which are drawn from Reckoning, the bands classic sophomore release that is generally regarded as one of their best. “So. Central Rain,” “Harbor Coat,” “Second Guessing,” and, best of all, “Pretty Persuasion” are performed with such energy and enthusiasm that they could have been written yesterday. “Driver 8” and “Feeling Gravity’s Pull,” two underrated and underplayed songs from an equally underrated album, are also highlights. Life’s Rich Pageant is represented by the good but not great “Cuyahuga” (around the time Michael Stipe started writing lyrics with P.C. lyrics), Document by “Disturbance at the Heron House.” A stunning rendition of “Drive” is the only song from Automatic From the People. But it goes without saying that even the less well-known songs in R.E.M.’s long history are great. Fortunately, The new material fits into the band’s repertoire seamlessly, especially “Living Well is the Best Revenge” and “Houston.” Whether or not Live at the Olympia is worth the price of admission depends on just how much you care about R.E.M. It is certainly a topnotch performance and captures the band getting in touch with their roots in order to craft new material worthy of their reputation. Fans will no doubt also want to get their hands on the assortment of previously unreleased tunes. However, casual listeners might be better served picking up Accelerate for a more polished rendition of the best songs R.E.M. has written since the mid-90s. Then again, they would be missing out on the old classics that earned the band their acclaim in the first place. The fact that listeners have to make the choice is a testament to how strong an album Live at the Olympia is.