10.02.04 - 11:06 a.m.

"It'll disorient him and then he'll get -- the shoe."
--Ben Covington

(Obviously, I was watching Felicity season 3 earlier in the week.)

R.EM. Set List, Philadelphia, October 1, 2004
The One I Love
Begin the Begin
Leaving New York
Animal
World Leader Pretend (a song rarely performed by the boys, but sung last night for a special friend who traveled a long way to be in Philly, according to Michael)
Final Straw
Bad Day
She Just Wants to Be
Around the Sun
Walk Unafraid
Losing My Religion
and...
Man on the Moon - with Bruce!

It was probably worth the price of admission to hear Michael's lyrics coming out of The Boss's mouth. "Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp/Yeah yeah, yeah yeah/Mr. Charles Darwin had the gall to ask/Yeah yeah, yeah yeah" might sound universal - or even Springsteenian - on paper, but are so distinctly OWNED by that one voice when you set them to music that it was surreal to hear them repeated by anyone else. It's not a big song at the karaoke bars, I imagine.

Michael repaid him later in the night by doing "Because the Night," one of the very few Bruce songs I could remotely picture him singing. Maybe he could do "Two for the Road" in an "Academy Fight Song" kind of way, or "Racing in the Streets," but could you imagine him tackling a chestnut like "Badlands"? I don't think he has the gruff, indignant gumption in him to pull that one off.

Nor does poor Conor Oberst. I'm sure he did well during his opening set - which I did not see, as I was walking across a parking lot and trying to wolf down a hot pretzel for dinner - but seeing him try to growl his way through the finale songs ("Peace, Love and Understanding" and "People Have the Power") was priceless in a completely different way (you know, the mocking way) from seeing R.E.M. and Bruce team up. Little cardigan-bedecked Conor amidst the big boys. He did get better as the finale jammed on - perhaps his maracas gave him confidence -

Peter and Mike joined Bruce for "Born to Run" while Michael sang and danced on the sidelines. Obviously both Ms knew the song very well, and Mike even got to step up to the mic (hee!) with Bruce for the final "whoa-oh-oh-oh" portion of the song, but it looked like Peter was getting a lot of help from Little Stevie on what chords to play. Unless they decided to chat the entire way through the song - "Hey man, how you been?" "Not bad, man. God, I could play this song in my sleep. Where you want to go for burritos after the show?"

Of course, I was looking at their backs the whole time, so I could have been completely wrong. Although I won't really complain, because being behind the stage at such a high angle gave me a great birds-eye view of things I'd never typically get to see at a show - Michael dancing to "Born to Run," for example, or Bruce greasin' up his knees before his big slide across the stage - it would have been nice for the cameramen to show Peter and Little Stevie's faces for longer than a flash.

Enough of fanwanking. It was an amazing night, it totally geeks me out for the ALL-R.E.M. show in November, now where's my coffee?