I missed the last Shannon-Narducy recreate R.E.M. tour, when they came through doing Murmur at the Sinclair. This time I was not going to miss out.

The band includes Jon Wurster (who’s played with Bob Mould, Superchunk, and The Mountain Goats) on drums, John Stirratt (of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco) on bass, Dag Juhlin (Poi Dog Pondering) on guitar, and Vijay Tellis-Nayak in addition to Shannon’s vocals and Narducy’s guitar work. (Narducy has also played in Bob Mould’s band and with Superchunk, as well as Verbow).

Comedian Dave Hill opened, with some musical numbers of his own as well as pickup lines tailored to a Boston Audience.

Honestly they undersell the whole tour – while they are careful to note it isn’t a tribute band, they do recreate what I imagine it was like to see R.E.M. in a smaller venue earlier in their career. (Maybe it should be called Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy play the R.E.M. catalogue). By the time I saw R.E.M. on the Work tour in 1987, they were big enough to play the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul – a 5000 seat arena.

We got there early enough to get seats in the balcony – the view’s a bit obstructed when you’re sitting, but standing it’s a great view.

A few clips:

After playing Fables through, they went into what was actually the longer set of other songs from across the R.E.M. catalogue, including covers they played around the time, like this one (one of several they played from Dead Letter Office):

They also went back and forward in the R.E.M. catalog, to “Daysleeper” from Up and back to Chronic Town (Wolves, Gardening at Night). Some of my favorite Reckoning tracks made it too.

They called this one a deep cut for the true followers:

If you get a chance to catch the show – on this tour or hopefully on tours to follow for other R.E.M. album anniversaries – don’t miss it