| J-Card Comment | I write this review to you full of laziness and boredom, almost feeling a total lack of desire to do anything
whatsoever. You know I do not have time really to be writing these reviews, I should just pay some person,
not just any person but someone that is not a fan to objectively rate these shows and maybe then we can get a
half of a recording, of a half of a show and then stick our thumbs up our asses and maybe pull out a plum.
And in dedication of the awful bootleg of July 4th, 2007 that skips the inbetween song banter, I can only
offer this show up as a brilliant reminder that we here at REMring do not have everything either. This show is
not a full recording but only a minor half.
This is one of those back of the closet tapes that probably gets little or no attention whatsoever so I
thought I would post it here.
June 15, 1991, in the height of the Out of Time boom, R.E.M. set off for the far and distant shores, playing
at a little known club commonly referred to as the 40 Watt Club, in a very remote part of Southern America in a
humid sleepy college town named Athens in a state called Georgia.
This is a bit of an odd show and not a complete recording. As far as I am aware, only part of this show has
ever surfaced as a soundboard and this would be it. There are some sound issues throughout but still a solid
recording. There is a full recording of this show or possibly 5 by the words of Mike Mills, but as he stated
with all the bass feedback, the 40 Watt Audience recordings have always been notoriously horrible in sound no
matter where the 40 "Mike" Watts been located.
"If you're from out of town, please don't talk to me" - Michael Stipe
I always think back to this show because in it's raw form it still supercedes many a live show that the band
has performed. In a way, it's like R.E.M. performing on your back porch while you stare at the jar of tea that
your mother has sitting in the sun, and realizing there is a huge beehive over the awning that the band is
trying to fight off.
Just as the band would get comfortable, all of a sudden a huge wasp would sting Stipe on the nose while Mike
would try to knock down the hive with a broomhandle only to drop the broom on Bill.
Okay well I am exaggerating but what we notice is a bunch of typical sound problems that the band was trying
to overcome in their hometown.
There is a nice three minute break between Half A World Away and Tom's Diner, with many of Michael's own free
form lyrics interspersed within the song. We are given a partial recording to an impromptu show, but at the
same time the slowness and ease of Athens is felt within the songs that are played. It seemed almost natural
and no problem that the band chose to play the second half of 'Half A World Away' nearly 6 minutes after the
equipment problems.
REM/Athens LLC, is like this, a slowness, there is no hurry, nowhere to be, nowhere to go, noone to see, but
rather just sit and be pleasant and this is a good example of that.
It is odd to think of it that the period of time that the band was most successful record sales wise was the
period where they took this ease into their recordings. Out of Time/Automatic era made sense, a band after a
decade of rocking out, chose to unplug their instruments and think of Global Warming. Electric was replaced by
acoustic and the result was arguably their most beautiful, their most engaging and it was not just the songs
that they performed on these albums but the earlier songs that they performed during these shows.
'Heron House' one of their best lyrically. A song in reference to George Orwell's Animal Farm, it was always
the standout track on Document. 'World Leader Pretend' feels delicate and also features Stipe at his best with
the dual-play-on-words-meaning 'I'll raze/raise the walls'. 'Swan Swan H' or 'Swan Swan Huh' as Stipe would
have called it sounds as if R.E.M. actually dug that song out of the south. A civil war song, it feels as if it
was an old folk song the band decided to cover and just all of a sudden slipped on the back side of Lifes Rich
Pageant. It fit the bill for this hot summer night in Athens.
Definitely not the best recording but still one of those little gems that deserves a spot on your list I
offer it up here for the masses to delve into.
Contents
6/15/1991 - 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
Track 1 - Endgame
Track 2 - World Leader Pretend
Track 3 - Disturbance at the Heron House
Track 4 - Half A World Away (Part 1)
Track 5 - Tom's Diner
Track 6 - Untitled
Track 7 - Half A World Away (Part 2)
Track 8 - Swan Swan H (Cut)
The remainder of this set is not included on this recording.
Slippin' and Slidin'
Unknown
Fretless
Fall On Me
Belong
Love Is All Around
Losing My Religion
Get Up
Country Feedback
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