R.E.M. Reunited, Inducted
R.E.M. may have lost their religion, but at least for one night they regained their drummer.
The alt-rock quartet reunited Saturday for a one-off mini-concert in honor of the group's induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. The gig marked one of just a handful of times the original lineup of Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills and Bill Berry played together onstage since the latter left the band in 1997.
The Grammy winners performed a three-song set to a crowd of nearly 1,500 at the induction ceremony in Atlanta.
"This is going to be loud," Stipe said as the group kicked off its performance with a rendition of the 1986 track "Begin the Begin" followed by "Losing My Religion" and "Man on the Moon."
The chart-topping quartet became a trio nearly a decade ago, when Berry decamped after suffering a brain aneurysm onstage during the 1995 Monster tour.
Until recently, the group continued to record, release and tour without naming a permanent replacement on drums; Bill Rieflin has been tapped to fill-in on the kit.
The induction in the state's hall of fame marked just the fourth time since his departure that Berry jammed with his former mates. In October 2003, he showed up at an R.E.M. show in North Carolina and lent his backing vocals and drum skills to two songs.
In October 2005, he joined the band for seven songs at the wedding of the group's guitar tech, Dewitt Burton; the third reunion came last April, when he, Stipe and Mills joined Buck's side band, the Minus 5, on stage in R.E.M.'s home base of Athens, Georgia.
The reunion comes on the heels of last week's release of And I Feel Fine: The Best of the IRS Years, 1982-1987, a two-CD and DVD anthology chronicling the band's early years on and featuring such classic cuts as "Radio Free Europe," "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville," "Fall on Me," The One I Love" and "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," along with rarities and live performances.
Stipe, Berry, Buck and Mills weren't the only native sons being honored this weekend.
The Allman Brothers' Gregg Allman, hip-hop writer-producers Jermaine Dupri and Dallas Austin, and married songwriting duo Boudleaux Bryant and his late wife, Felice Bryant, who teamed to write such classics as "Love Hurts" and "Wake Up Little Susie," were also enshrined into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
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