Friday night, the tour of Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and Friends Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of R.E.M.’s “Life’s Rich Pageant” came through Boston with a killer show at Royale on Tremont.

As they did with “Fables of the Reconstruction” at the same venue, they played the album in sequence. Yes, this included Shannon (who played General Zod in Man of Steel) singing “I Am Superman”:

Last song on side B: “I Am Superman” – an unlisted track on the original

After the playing the full album, which sounded great but short, they launched into an extended set of songs from throughout the catalog – forward to Up and New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and back to Chronic Town.

Boxcars, which for some reason audience members kept asking for even after it was played early in the set.

After a pretty lengthy set, they also came back for an encore.

Shannon with Vijay Tellis-Nayak do “Nightswimming” to open the encore
“Camera” from the encore set

This time the “Friends” included Dag Juhlin (Poi Dog Pondering, Sunshine Boys, Exo ’76) , John Stirratt (Wilco, The Autumn Defense), Vijay Tellis-Nayak (composer, arranger, in Kick The Cat), and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats, Bob Mould). What a great band! I think they are spot-on with all the music from Chronic Town through Document (coming next year), though there were some stumbles in a few of the more recent songs deeper in the set – maybe the first time they’ve played them.

Look forward to seeing the Document tour.