•
Rating: A year ago, one of the most beautiful concerts...a unique experience, an indelible memory...
REM - Rome, June 10, 2005
Back in the capital after 10 years…from the Monster Tour to the Around The Sun Tour, quite a leap.
Many things have changed, not least the absence of Bill Berry for 8 years now, but REM remain the same, in their genuineness, in their desire to have fun and entertain. On stage, well...a guarantee of a show!
After 10 years back in the south of our country, after 10 years our capital welcomed them with open arms.
That it would be a unique concert was already known, that it would be so special…well, we only realized it there.
What seemed to have transformed from a stadium into an amphitheater welcomed notes and sounds of pure and crystalline rock from the very beginning for two hours.
The opening with I Took Your Name threw us back to 10 years earlier, when their sound and songs came from their latest work “Monster” so loved and so hated. An album that had shocked fans at the time who perhaps never expected such a 'nasty' and so rock album…but so sexy that it’s one of my favorites.
Some sound problems but after the aggression of I Took Your Name with its seventies years, the sublime rock continues making the entire Curva Sud of the Olimpico jump with WTF Kenneth…ladies and gentlemen...REM!!
The evening of nice surprises begins after a few minutes when by "request" "These Days"... starts again, the people of Stipe thank you again.
When REM are on stage performing everything is possible and it’s so that their most outlandish song takes on a special charm, "The Outsiders" is sung by almost everyone (at least those who like me were at their feet) with Stipe also singing the part of Q-Tip…it's fun.
But it is still time for the past and "Driver 8" once again asks, after Padua '03, for a unique song from the audience.
It’s the moment of "Bad Day", what can almost be defined as the replacement for "End Of The World", and Stipe with his moves, beautiful to watch with the harmonica, transmits electricity to everyone.
“This next song takes place in New York City” Leaving New York gathers the 15,000 in a unique chorus that embraces Stipe's voice that has never been so clear and bright.
We were saying it, we've already been talking about it for a while...the evening of nice surprises has just begun and it’s so that, never performed live until the beginning of their summer tour, here is finally "Leave"...with a Stipe at his best moving as usual sensually and with the audience now within a dream.
There is still time to jump and sing with "Animal" before the moment of calm and emotion that will come later.
Lighters in the air, chills on the skin…it’s time for "Everybody Hurts", the highest point of emotion at each of their concerts. A unique chorus, in a single voice the Curva Stadio Olimpico sings this moving and tireless ballad…a piece performed divinely and that at the end makes you jump again and an applause seems to move Stipe himself.
There is even time for dedications, to one who had made them a reason for life, to the one thanks to whom they went to play in his city (Catania), Stipe dedicates his favorite song from the last album, "Electron Blue", to his now deceased friend Francesco Virlinzi.
Excellently performed, it is welcomed by the audience as if it were a classic.
“The song took place in Los Angeles”...Mills at the piano, it's the moment of Electrolite. Here we sing and dance with pleasure and we are Martin Sheen, we are Steve McQueen, we are Jimmy Dean, Michael is amused. He is the star tonight!
We have already said it and we've even reiterated it, it’s the night of wonders and it’s so that some of that wonderful album ("Out Of Time") that is not "Losing my Religion" or "Country Feedback" descends upon us all…there’s even time for a beautiful "Me In Honey", and all present sing the chorus frantically.
Now Stipe holds a megaphone in hand…we know it’s Orange Crush! Bill Rieflin starts on the drums like a machine gun and here it’s pure energy folks, the hands in the air are endless and it is pure delirium.
“This song is a protest against our government” so Stipe presents to the public The Last Tear, "Final Straw", and Buck's guitar is followed by drum beats and a scream that is an angry stance of Stipe. Wonderful and followed by all.
The regular set is about to end and here it’s time to still have a voice, breath, and strength in our legs...comes what more than anything else turns their concert into something that resembles and is a unique anthem... "The One I Love, Losing My Religion" (the world anthem is an indescribable moment) and "Walk Unafraid", a favorite song of many, resulting from a confused Stipe and once again a fundamental Patti Smith.
Here the Curva Sud Stadio Olimpico is completely overwhelmed, it is immense explosion and the 15,000 seem like 30,000…“that was just a dream”
Insatiable, the audience loudly calls for REM during the Break.
They return, and with them the contagious pop of "Imitation Of Life" and the voices reach beyond limits for everyone…
Here comes another of those stars fallen upon us that night of June 10th in Rome … "Get Up" is pure fun mixed with surprise and here the audience has reached dessert because after "The Great Beyond" and an excellently performed Wandrelust tears can’t be stopped…emotion tightens the entire Curva Sud, the highest, too awaited, too dreamed moment, becomes reality before our eyes, finally materializes and it’s so that the notes that begin are hers…they are from Nightswimming…a single suspended breath, crying is normal, because it’s her and she has finally touched Italy with her perfect melody. A touching applause thanks after the wonderful performance of Stipe and Mills tenderly close to the piano.
The Pearl has arrived, nobody knows how but it has arrived, four minutes of emotion. An immense gift for everyone.
Now it’s time for the electrifying "I’m Gonna Dj" which precedes the now established closing of "Man On The Moon" where now everyone sings, where all hands move towards Michael and these are the last intense jumps of another unforgettable concert.
Stage of the Winter Tour, nothing new, just two screens on the sides of the stage and then them, simply them: REM
Loading comments slowly
