Growing up in the '80s has its landmarks. Reagan leaving office after a second term, the cold war ending, Star Wars being the #1 movie even a decade after its release (this was before the prequels folks!) and of course, R.E.M. albums as a life soundtrack year after year!
R.E.M.'s new live DVD release entitled simply Live contains more than a handful of these 80's moments performed in this new millennium with all the artistry and guts they had and then some.
As a child of the '80s, I saw R.E.M. play 18 times. That was just here in California; imagine how much they played in that decade all across the globe! You can say many things about R.E.M., but one major thing is that they strove to be and in fact were a global sort of band.
Well, many things have changed since we left the '80s nearly two decades ago, but one thing hasn't changed: R.E.M. is still a global item!
All over the earth R.E.M. still draw legions of fans and their records become hits upon release. This latest DVD, a compilation of their live material, rocks the globe better than ever and with the same southern-rock/other worldly spell it had all those years ago and adds the element of video that also-film-producer (i.e.; "Being John Malkovich") Stipe excelled at creating.
This compilation of tunes is perfect for the curious new generation of smart fans or for the diehard early fans like me that permeate a new millennium culture.
The early die hards should buy this album for these live renditions that bring Stipe's soulful vocal and Buck's jangly guitar to a new place. Riffs where there once were none make the live tunes familiar yet entirely different and worth having on your ipod or on your DVD player for that matter:
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