Singer joins tribute band to perform “These Days” and “The Great Beyond” for first time since 2008
Michael Stipe made a rare onstage appearance Saturday to sing two R.E.M. tracks during Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy’s Brooklyn concert.
Shannon and Narducy have been touring as a R.E.M. tribute act over the past few years, and actual members of the Rock Hall-inducted band have occasionally joined them onstage, including a 2024 gig in R.E.M.’s native Athens, Georgia that brought together all four core members of the group.
At a pair of 2025 gigs, in Athens and Brooklyn, Stipe joined Shannon and Narducy for a rendition of “Pretty Persuasion.” To close out Saturday’s show at Brooklyn Steel, Stipe opted to sing two other R.E.M. cuts, Lifes Rich Pageant’s “These Days” (Shannon and Narducy’s tour is celebrating the 40th anniversary of that 1986 album) and “The Great Beyond” from the Man on the Moon soundtrack:
The performance marked the first time since 2008 that Stipe has sang both of those tracks live.
While R.E.M. have been reluctant to have a full-fledged reunion, the group continues to celebrate their legacy in unlikely ways, including their cameos on the Shannon and Narducy shows, as well as their surprise one-off performance at the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony in June 2024.
“It would never be as good,” guitarist Peter Buck previously said of a reunion, noting the band was right to break up in 2011. “At that point, there wasn’t anything we could agree on really, musically: what kind of music, how to record it, are we gonna go on tour. We could barely agree on where to go to dinner. And now we can just agree on where to go to dinner.”
