Product Description

R.E.M. are one of the key driving forces behind modern American guitar music - helping to inspire a generation of alternative guitar bands all over the world. 'Live At the Olympia' was recorded in Dublin in 2007 and features the band playing at the top of their game to an adoring crowd. Lead singerMichael Stipe is at his provocative best while his band areas well-tuned as anything else you will find on any stage. The set draws upon much of R.E.M.'s pre-Warner material, while this edition includes a bonus DVD.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Living Well Is the Best Revenge
2. Second Guessing
3. Letter Never Sent
4. Staring Down the Barrel of the Middle Distance
5. Disturbance at the Heron House
6. Mr. Richards
7. Houston
8. New Test Leper
9. Cuyahoga
10. Electrolite
11. Man-Sized Wreath
12. So. Central Rain
13. On the Fly
14. Maps and Legends
15. Sitting Still
16. Driver 8
17. Horse to Water
18. I'm Gonna DJ
19. Circus Envy

Disc 2:

1. These Days
2. Drive
3. Feeling Gravity's Pull
4. Until the Day Is Done
5. Accelerate
6. Auctioneer
7. Little America
8. 1,000,000
9. Disguised
10. The Worst Joke Ever
11. Welcome to the Occupation
12. Carnival of Sorts
13. Harbor coat
14. Wolves, Lower
15. I've Been High
16. Kohoutek
17. West of the Fields
18. Pretty Persuasion
19. Romance
20. Gardening at Night

Disc 3:

1. DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1841 in Music
• Released on: 2009-10-26
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Live, Box set
• Dimensions: .40 pounds

Customer Reviews

A must have for fans
When the live shows in Dublin were announced, I was dead jealous of those who got tickets and now I'm even more so. The two CDs comprise REM testing out tracks for Accelerate and playing older songs from their back catalogue. And it has to be said, the emphasis is on the early stuff from Murmur, Reckoning and Reconstruction. I've had the package for a few days and the thing that I've noticed is that I s am skipping to a lot of the older tracks that I've not had a live recording of. Some of these are simply stunning - 1,000,000, Harbourcoat and Wolves Lower are all wonderful as they really show all of the members of live band contributing to make an overwhelming sound. Mike Mills base and Michael Stipe's vocals are very strong on this recording which does not sound over-produced.

For those who have Accelerate, it's really fascinating to hear songs while they are still being developed. The obvious example is Supernatural Superserious which at the time this was recorded, lacked a chorus. Overall, the experiment of the live rehearsals worked and this by-product is a gem.

Although this package won't appeal to the same crowd that would by REM's Best of collection, for fans who have seem them live it's great and a must.

R.E.M have always been a live band and this proves why!
I have been a REM fan since the beggining stipe is just a genius lyrically, no one writes songs that have been thought about so well and feature such complexity, songs that will stand the test of time. REM defined their own sound and it was a new sound too, very few bands have ever achieved that.

What seperates REM from the rest is that they can perform live much much better than on the record! I saw them live a while ago and they absolutely blew editors out of the park and editors are supposedly a good live band!

I wont go on about just how good this band is as most people know already, truely one of the best live releases ever. If your looking for their most commercial hits though you will be sadly dissapointed this set list is for the fans not the casual listener featuring some of their best and least known tracks, in summary fan bloody tastic!

As good as it gets
I can only agree with all that has been written. A simply incredible sumation of what makes REM great. Not just for long term completeists by any means this is a damn near perfect set of their finest stuff with the emphasis firmly on the earlier 'classic' albums. I promise you will hear seemingly familiar songs with new ears, go listen to Circus Envy and tell me I'm wrong. Buy it.