martinlittle.com:thinkThin

Last Saturday six of us headed over to the R.E.M. gig at Balloch, on the side of Loch Lomond. By the time we got ourselves organised and over there, the Zutons were on stage ... and we still had all our booze to drink, seeing as you couldn't even take cans into the concert. After some refreshments, we headed in, caught the end of Feeder and managed to get a pretty decent spot just behind the soundboard position but with a pretty decent view of the stage.

A very short while later, the boys were on stage, rocking out I Took Your Name straigh into What's The Frequency Kenneth?. My memory is a little hazy (in general, plus I was far too into the music to care :-D ), but the set flew past far too quickly.

Highlights for me were definitely the (slightly) older tunes: One I Love, Drive, Cuyahoga, Electrolite, Orange Crush & Find The. To me, some of the material from the last album was a little lacking, although in saying that I had only heard it once the night before. Finally seeing R.E.M. live on stage after SO many years of listening to them was incredible. They really did have a lot of energy, and connected well with the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, it was a weird one. It wasn't quite a festival crowd, but it was certainly more than a normal concert crowd. There were an incredible number of really drunk people, especially young people, and a lot of people for whom R.E.M. being on stage will have been forgotten.

The venue also was not the greatest. Whilst it was cool to be outside in a nice park, anyone behind the soundboard had a broken view, plus there were quite a few trees in the 'arena'. To complete my list of moans, the crowd control at the end of the concert was terrible. Before R.E.M. came on stage, we were told there would be a delay for safety at the end. What this turned into was a lot of slightly inebriated people standing for about 30 minutes to get through one set of gates (for most of that time, with absolutely no movement in the crowd), only to be presented with another set of gates to go through.

Predictably, people started climbing over the 15 foot high fence and others tried to push through it. Eventually the police took away a section of the fence to allow people out, before a serious crush occurred. Rock Steady Security (oh, if ever a name was ironic) really did not win any points on that one, although it may not entirely have been there fault.

Whenever I go to a gig, I always mean to remember or write down the setlist ... but invariably forget. Thanks to Gordon for helping out:
I Took Your Name
Bad Day
What's The Frequency Kenneth?
The One I Love
Wanderlust
Drive
The Outsiders
Cuyahoga
Animal
Leaving New York
Everybody Hurts
Electron Blue
Electrolite
So Fast So Numb
Final Straw
Orange Crush
Walk Unafraid
Losing My Religion

--ENCORE--
Imitation of Life
Great Beyond
Star69
Find the River
I’m Gonna DJ
Man on the Moon

During the day I only took a few pictures, but there are some more on the R.E.M. site (see the live photos section).

Overall, it was wonderful to see a band I've been listening to for over half my life (YIKES!). Next time they tour, I'll defniitely sort tickets now my duck has been broken.