The Pilgrimage Gains Momentum: R.E.M. Reaches 25 Years

R.E.M. Fresh Out Of The Kudzu: (l to r) Mike Mills, Peter Buck, Bill Berry, and Michael Stipe

There will never be a way to understand the mystery that is fate. Who would have known twenty-five years ago that the house band playing your friend's birthday party would go on and become one of the most important rock bands of the past thirty years? Certainly not the band.

On April 5, 1980, R.E.M. performed for the first time during a friend's birthday party in Athens, Georgia. Seven months and twenty-five days later that same year, during a blizzard in Chicago, I was born (nearly named after Ringo Starr, too). It's funny to think that the band that changed my life has existed as long as I've been breathing. I was 13-years-old when I felt the impact of R.E.M.'s music. My aunt randomly selected Lifes Rich Pageant as her gift to me for my 13th birthday. It was the first CD I ever owned. Everything just changed after that.

All things Seattle were dominating music at that time. I liked Pearl Jam. I liked Nirvana. But neither of them hit me over the head the way R.E.M. did with just that sole album. My mornings before school began with "Begin The Begin." All I talked about in 7th Grade was this band called R.E.M. I read every article I could about them, learned about their beginnings, soaked in their words, and soon was caught up with the stories. I listened to Lifes Rich Pageant so much that I knew Peter Buck's guitar changes by heart, and I didn't even play guitar...yet.

By the time I turned 14, I owned all of their pre-Warners Bros. albums. I even wrote a letter to R.E.M.'s home office in Athens, GA asking if they could visit my grammar school for Career Day. I wish I knew where I put the letter they sent back, politely declining because they were busy making what became Monster. Yes, I was a geek, and still am.

The very same aunt responsible for my teenage awakening also provided my first guitar--a classical guitar from Mexico. It may not have been the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar Peter Buck played, but it was the first step in the right direction. I felt free. Once I understood chord shapes I would hunt down the guitar chords and learn practically each album. Upon discovering how to play the songs I would say things like, "All he's playing is a D chord!" and "They wrote a song with three chords?" It was probably the closest to the punk mentality I had ever gotten to by that point. It was that idea that anyone can do it.

Let's not forget the 8th Grade school play. And pray tell what was my audition song? "Fall On Me" from Lifes Rich Pageant. My voice, already plagued by puberty, allowed me to cover Michael Stipe's lead vocals and the bridge sung by Mike Mills. To my shock, I was given one of the lead roles. When it came time to work on dance steps for my part I borrowed from Stipe's moves in the video for "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" Enough said.

Then that crucial musical moment finally happened--the first rock concert. The night before my 8th Grade graduation I stood with a sold-out crowd on the first of what was a three night stand at the Rosemont Horizon, June 2, 1995. That night still makes me smile.

This was the band that mattered the most to me, and they still do. I still remember hearing the announcement on WXRT in my dad's car that Bill Berry was leaving R.E.M. You always hear about the other bands that breakup or lose a member but don't ever think your band will turn into those other bands, other people's favorite bands. It was a reality check. All I could do was wait and see what happened next with R.E.M. When the decision was made to continue without Bill in the band it was tough to accept. Like a fan, I think I was more concerned about the band's legacy than the band. But was it better to not have R.E.M. anymore?

Just as I--and I'm sure many others--never imagined the band losing a member, I never imagined actually meeting one of them, let alone two of them. It was July 2002 at Metro. The Minus 5, Tuatara, and Cedell Davis were touring together that summer. I brought my copy of Lifes Rich Pageant to the show with the hopes that Peter Buck would autograph it. I had met Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5/The Young Fresh Fellows two months earlier at Schubas for a show he performed with his wife, Christy McWilson. Somehow he remembered me when I approached him after the show, and he helped me get my CD signed by Peter. Away I watched Scott leave to the dressing room with my CD. Just as he disappeared, Peter appeared from outside the club asking where Scott was to which I told him where Scott had gone. My first reaction to that quick meeting was, "I just gave Peter directions." I couldn't hold back the geek in me.

Peter entered the very same room Scott had, and, soon, Scott reemerged with my autographed CD. I humored him with the significance of the CD. Scott had joined up with R.E.M. for their '95 tour. At that moment, we were just two guys talking about a band we both loved a lot. With Scott's assurances I stuck around the lobby of Metro for Peter to come back out so I could personally thank him for the autograph. Meeting your musical hero is a scenario where you ALWAYS play it cool in your head. Your words don't stumble over each other, and you keep your geek-hood in check. Telling Peter that R.E.M. was my first concert, the night before my 8th Grade graduation, with my entire family didn't really fall into the latter category. At least for a brief moment I got to say my thanks to the one person who opened my eyes to so much I never knew was there inside me.

While I reserve the right as a fan to criticize and praise the work they have amassed since then I always hope for the best. I see a correlation with R.E.M.'s current commercial status with that of Queen's in the early 1980's. Like Queen, R.E.M. control an exceedingly vast level of success globally except in North America. It's frustrating to think that R.E.M. are not appreciated in the U.S. anymore as they were in 1995. I guess in some way the band saw it coming. They knew that perhaps they may never be in such a position again where their popularity would be so high. But they are in fact far more popular outside of the U.S. than they have ever been.

Winning the popularity contest was never R.E.M.'s game. There's a reason why they are celebrating a body of work that spans twenty-five years. R.E.M. has outlasted the bands that were supposed to be better than them. There remains an audience that wants to hear what they have to offer. That in itself matters more than record sales. If the work continues to make me believe that there's still plenty of music left in the tank, then I say go as far and as long as you guys want.