Michael Stipe brings two REM songs back live after 18 years

Michael Stipe is back to sing two REM classics live that he hasn’t brought to the stage in a long time. It happened at Brooklyn Steel in New York, where the artist joined the show dedicated to the band’s music led by actor Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy. During the evening (here is the complete setlist), Stipe made his entrance on stage towards the end, before the encore, performing “These days” and “The great beyond”, songs he hadn’t performed live for 18 years. The first is a song originally included in REM’s 1986 album, “Lifes rich pageant”, while “The great beyond” was released in 1999 as part of the soundtrack to the film “Man on the Moon”, dedicated to the life of comedian Andy Kaufman, played on the big screen by Jim Carrey.

The connection between Stipe and Shannon and Narducy’s project dates back to February 2024, when the singer joined them on stage at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, hometown of REM. He didn’t sing on that occasion, but the event still marked a historic moment seeing Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry together on stage for the first time in 17 years. The group’s real reunion would then come a few months later, during REM’s induction ceremony into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

During 2025 Stipe had already returned to perform with Shannon and Narducy, singing “Pretty persuasion” in both Athens and Brooklyn.

Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy’s current show celebrates forty years of “Lifes rich pageant”, with the two protagonists joined by guitarist Dag Juhlin, keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak, bassist John Stirratt and drummer Jon Wurster. The concert series concludes next week in Bloomington, Indiana, but the project will return to the road in September with new dates across the UK, Europe and the US. When the tour stopped in Athens last week, Bill Berry, Peter Buck and longtime collaborator Scott McCaughey also made surprise appearances on stage.

In the meantime, Michael Stipe has also released a new solo song, “I played the fool”, created in collaboration with Andrew Watt and chosen as the theme song for the HBO series “Rooster”.