R.E.M. Live

Live albums are almost always disappointing because they boil a multi-sensory experience down to one sense. Something that seemed great with the bass pummeling your chest and the scent of spilled beer in your nose and the lead singer doing cartwheels often doesn't sound great when you're only getting the audio input.Concert movies fare a little better because they at least engage one other sense, but nothing can fully convey the concert experience.R.E.M. have released both in a nice CD/DVD package, and, as you might expect from the post-Bill Berry model R.E.M., the results are pretty mixed.I have to admit that I've filed R.E.M. in the "lost their mojo" file for a while now, and so it's an unexpected thrill to see Michael Stipe, in inexplicable Riddler makeup, cavorting around the stage, flirting with the audience, and putting on a performance that's not just professional, but joyful and exciting to watch.Stipe leaves it all on the stage for the entire performance. Peter Buck and Mike Mills, however, exhibit slightly less showmanship than the animatronic heads of state at Disney World's Hall of Presidents. But that's okay, because it's all about Michael Stipe. At least that's how the DVD is edited. CD and DVD (the CD is simply the audio from the DVD performance) open strong with "I Took Your Name." They then shift into a couple of newer songs, "So Fast, So Numb" and "Boy in the Well." On the CD, this crashes the set. On the DVD, Stipe's showmanship and the excitement of the audience at a concert that's just begun carry through this rough patch.This problem recurs throughout the program. The old songs still pack a punch, and the crowd roars its approval and sings along whenever an old favorite comes up and responds politely and respectfully to the new stuff. After a couple of listens and viewings, I politely and respectfully reached for the fast-forward button when the new stuff came up. The set list remains the big problem throughout the CD and DVD. The DVD has the additional problem of hyperkenetic editing, which is cool and exciting for the first few songs and somewhat nauseating after an hour or so. I honestly don't think there is a single shot on the DVD that lasts longer than three seconds, and a lot of these are handheld zoom-in-zoom-out shots. Maybe I'm just old, but I found myself yelling at the DVD-"Can we just see Peter Buck play the freaking solo? Why am I looking at a closeup of Michael Stipe's shoes?"After the high point of "Orange Crush", the entire thing comes crashing down as Michael Stipe announces two protest songs are coming. "Great," I thought, "'Ignoreland' and "World Leader Pretend" perhaps?" Sorry; instead we get two dreary numbers, "I Wanted to Be Wrong" and "Final Straw." We know this is the important part of the show because the lyrics are projected on screens above the stage. This from the band that didn't include lyric sheets for decades. I'd just like to venture that if you feel like you have to project the lyrics, the song probably isn't working.For the most part, then, this project works on the songs you like, and it doesn't work on the songs you don't like. For me, 12 out of 22 tracks are keepers. It's annoying to me that "Don't Go Back To Rockville," one of my favorites, isn't one of the keepers, because Mike Mills sings it, and let's just say there's a reason why he's not the usual lead singer. This works better on the DVD because he's obviously psyched to step briefly into the spotlight and he dons a cowboy hat and it's kind of fun, but absent the visuals, his vocal shortcomings are hard to ignore. Speaking of vocal shortcomings, Michael Stipe's voice sounds like hell on several tracks--he's mostly hitting the notes, but there's a hoarse, gravelly tone to his voice that's a kind of shocking contrast to the clear tone we're used to. Why the hell can't rock and roll singers take care of their voices? I mean, if you're Lemmy, okay, you don't have far to fall, so smoke and scream all you want, but I think artists who expect decades-long performing careers owe it to their audiences to take better care of their voices. I guess, and I hate to say this because I have a lot of affection for this band, this project does very little to change my impression that this is a band in decline. I understand why they chose to include so much new material, but they have such a deep catalog that I think a set where they gave inspired performances of inspired songs might have done more to put the world on notice that this is a band that still matters.Here's my favorite track from the CD: