{"id":9258,"date":"2026-03-08T17:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/michael-stipe-shannon-narducy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T17:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:15:12","slug":"michael-stipe-shannon-narducy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/michael-stipe-shannon-narducy\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Stipe Joins R.E.M. Tribute Pals In New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2024\/02\/image7.jpeg\" width=\"1080\" height=\"721\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>Michael Stipe onstage with Mike Mills and Michael Shannon at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Ga., on Feb. 8, 2024 (photo: Cameron Flaisch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the second year in a row, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe made a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/03\/michael-stipe-rem-tribute-new-york\/\">surprise appearance<\/a> with Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy\u2019s R.E.M. tribute project at New York\u2019s Brooklyn Steel, singing \u201cThese Days\u201d from the group\u2019s fourth LP <em>Lifes Rich Pageant<\/em> and \u201cThe Great Beyond\u201d from the 1999 soundtrack to the Jim Carrey-starring Andy Kaufman biopic <em>Man on the Moon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Late last month, R.E.M.\u2019s Peter Buck and Bill Berry guested throughout a two-night run at the 40 Watt Club in the band\u2019s hometown of Athens, Ga., following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/02\/rem-reunion-athens-georgia\/\">historic Feb. 27-28, 2025, shows<\/a> at the same venue when Stipe, Buck, Berry and bassist Mike Mills all took the stage at various points for just the second time since 2007.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/fugazi-steve-albini-sessions\/\">Fugazi Releasing Long-Bootlegged Steve Albini Sessions<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/5-albums-i-cant-live-without-jt-woodruff-of-hawthorne-heights\/\">5 Albums I Can\u2019t Live Without: JT Woodruff\u00a0of Hawthorne Heights<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/deep-cut-friday-mortal-man-by-kendrick-lamar\/\">Deep Cut Friday: \u2018Mortal Man\u2019 by Kendrick Lamar<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"_RiouUSsOIs\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Despite nursing a bad cold, Narducy hopped on the phone with SPIN to discuss Stipe\u2019s appearance, his ongoing insights into performing the R.E.M. catalog and what the future holds for the project, which also features the talents of Mountain Goats\/Bob Mould drummer Jon Wurster, Wilco bassist John Stirratt, guitarist Dag Juhlin and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak. The tour wraps March 16 in Bloomington, In., but will resume for dates in the U.K., Ireland and the midwest in September.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It seems like it\u2019s a new tradition for Michael Stipe to appear when you guys play in New York<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This is different than last year in Athens because all four of them were in the house. We haven\u2019t seen Mills yet. We hope we do, but we don\u2019t know. When we found out that two of them wouldn\u2019t be in Athens, I said to Michael Shannon,\u00a0well, doesn\u2019t that make last year even more special? I\u2019m not disappointed at all.\u00a0And by the way, to spend a second with Bill Berry or Peter Buck is glorious. All of this is surreal and fun for us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell me about last night\u2019s show.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I love that room. When you walk in, it\u2019s like a concrete box, but there\u2019s something about it that\u2019s actually very musical. The stage feels great, and we were flattered that it was our first sold-out Brooklyn Steel. We were already excited. Michael said he was gonna come, and for a while he was like, I\u2019m just gonna come to watch. The day before, he said, I really want to do \u2018These Days.\u2019 That\u2019s the second song on the record \u2014 it would be wild to bring him out that early and then he\u2019s gone for the next two hours. So Michael Shannon had the idea, why don\u2019t we just do it twice? He came to soundcheck, which is different than last year too. We ran through the song and it felt great. He walked over to me and kind of pointed at the set list and said,\u00a0are you doing \u2018The Great Beyond\u2019 right after \u2018These Days?\u2019 Maybe I\u2019ll sing on that too. I just said, well, we would love that (<em>laughs<\/em>). And then he waved Michael Shannon over, we had a powwow and then it happened. Pretty fun (<em>laughs<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p><strong>And this is right after spending two days in Athens with Peter and Bill<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It ended up being three because Peter reached out to me a couple of weeks before that run and asked if I would either join him and Kevin Kinney at a show the night before we were playing. He asked me to either join them and or open the show. I said, I\u2019ll be there. I would love to see you guys. There was no contact from Peter after that, and a week later the venue announced that I\u2019m opening the show (<em>laughs<\/em>). It was great \u2014 a sold-out, fun crowd. I do my set and walk off into this little storage room behind the stage. I\u2019m putting my guitar away and Peter comes in holding this plastic trophy. He says, you win an award. I took it and I said, thank you so much. Where did you get this? The venue was in a hotel, by the way. He goes, oh, I stole it from a shelf in the hotel (<em>laughs<\/em>). That was very Peter Buck-ian.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Berry came to that too, which was really surprising. He\u2019s introverted, but he came to support me and Peter and we talked a bunch. Bill wrote \u2018Underneath the Bunker.\u2019 He asked if he could play drums on it and he sounded amazing. The crowd just roared when he came out because he did this walk where it seemed like he didn\u2019t know where he was. Peter only played on a couple songs the first night but he did four or five on night two. Scott McCaughey joined us as well and he was in so in his element. He played the two <em>Monster<\/em> songs because that\u2019s the tour when he joined the band, and he knew those songs backwards. He even caught on when he realized I was having trouble keeping the tremolo guitar tone in rhythm during this section of \u2018Crush With Eyeliner,\u2019 like, oh, I remember how much trouble we had with that 30 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What felt really special to me is that we kind of handed the show over to the ladies. We had Linda Hopper from Magnapop do \u2018Me in Honey\u2019 and Vanessa from Pylon sang three songs, including \u2018Crazy\u2019 by herself with the band. Michael\u2019s sister played viola on \u2018Nightswimming.\u2019 There was a real strong\u00a0female energy that I loved that felt completely different. The set list is also completely different from last year, so it says a lot about R.E.M.\u2019s catalog when you can do that, people love it and it has nothing to do with the previous year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What kind of feedback are you getting about reproducing the <\/strong><strong><em>Pageant<\/em><\/strong><strong> arrangements so faithfully onstage?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The songs that Michael picked for the second set this year are expansive and linear and longer. They take a little bit more patience \u2014 \u2018How the West Was Won,\u2019 \u2018Lotus,\u2019 \u2018The Lifting,\u2019 \u2018E-bow the Letter\u2019 and \u2018Fretless.\u2019 These are all five-minute songs that\u00a0 are pretty chill (<em>laughs<\/em>). What we\u2019re hearing the most is that people are appreciative that not only are we playing these deep cuts, but it really highlights the band R.E.M. itself. Even if the band was together, they wouldn\u2019t be playing these songs. It\u2019s so cool to shine a light on songs that people don\u2019t usually pick for their R.E.M. playlists. I picked \u2018Me in Honey,\u2019 \u2018The Lifting\u2019 and \u2018The Great Beyond.\u2019 Those first two are really emotional for me, and \u2018Great Beyond\u2019 moves us close to playing an actual R.E.M. hit, but it\u2019s not like \u2018Losing My Religion\u2019 or \u2018Everybody Hurts,\u2019 which we will never play.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Document <\/em>is the next album in sequence. Will you keep going?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every night, Michael takes a poll amongst the band and it has been been a pretty positive reaction. We\u2019ve been playing \u2018Fireplace\u2019 as kind of like, if we do, here\u2019s a little glimpse. In North Carolina, Matt Douglas from Mountain Goats played sax on that with us and in Boston, Dana Colley from Morphine did as well. So, we would love to do it. We\u2019ll see. We\u2019re just trying to get through this tour and then we\u2019ll revisit everything.<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Stipe onstage with Mike Mills and Michael Shannon at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Ga., on Feb. 8, 2024 (photo: Cameron Flaisch) For the second year in a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5555,5556,4386,6,5557,24,2325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jason-narducy","category-michael-shannon","category-michael-stipe","category-news","category-peter-buck","category-pushly","category-r-e-m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}