Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy brought out R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe for a performance of ‘These Days’ and ‘The Great Beyond’ – check out the performance below.
Shannon and Narducy have been on tour across the US playing songs from R.E.M.’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ in celebration of its 40th anniversary. It follows a similar tour in which they played the band’s ‘Fables Of The Reconstruction’ for its own 40th anniversary, which they brought to the UK last summer, and prior to that, ‘Murmur’ in 2024.
During their performance at Brooklyn Steel in New York, the group’s frontman came out with them for two songs, ‘These Days’ and ‘The Great Beyond’.
It hasn’t been Stipe’s only guest appearance during the pair’s live performances of R.E.M. songs, as almost exactly a year ago, he joined them at the same venue for ‘Pretty Persuasion’.
Check out their live collaboration below:
“It dumbfounds and delights me that we continue our crusade through this astounding catalog of music from one of Americaʼs most influential and unique bands,” said Shannon upon the tour’s announcement. “Now we find ourselves at a summit, Life’s Rich Pageant, and weʼre all pinching ourselves in disbelief to be so lucky. The most strange and beautiful adventure.”
Previously, all four members of the band – Stipe, Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills – made a surprise return to the 40 Watt Club venue in their home city of Athens, Georgia during Shannon and Narducy’s ‘Murmur’ tour, also performing ‘Pretty Persuasion’.
R.E.M. broke up in 2011 after 31 years together. Bill Berry had previously departed the band in 1997, with Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills continuing as a trio. The drummer reunited with the group a handful of times in the ’00s, including a performance at the Georgia Theatre in Athens in 2006.
During their interview with CBS last summer, R.E.M. confirmed they’d never reunite as a full-time band, saying that it would “never be as good” if they did.