R.E.M. Wows Calgary!
Last night was an incredible evening! After four months of waiting it finally came - R.E.M. playing in Calgary at the Saddledome. One of my best R.E.M. buddies, Sheldon, and I made great use of my Fanclub Tickets and were heading to Calgary to sit in row 2 to watch the best band in the world. We quickly left work and began the long trek to Calgary - a three hour drive emeshed with decisions about which R.E.M. song to play next. After two hours solid of great tunes we eased off and listened to the radio a bit - nothing to compare though.
Our first stop in Cowtown was to visit Sheldon's two R.E.M. loving buddies who were joining us in row 2. I kept wondering how anyone could be as much of a fan as Sheldon and I who often quote lyrics to each other at work, when we stepped in the door and were quickly asked "What was that song that had birds in it - or was it called strange?". Dean and Shaun were from Saskatchewan and were definitely great R.E.M. fans - which made for a great evening.
After some refreshments we headed down to the car to confirm the songs from Document that we had debated about earlier (good guess Shaun!), and then began the trip to the dome in search of a parking spot. Several R.E.M. songs and hooker sightings later, Sheldon found us a nice little spot real close to the dome. Before we could leave the car we had to have a final send off from the music box and we all finally settled on "Don't go back to rockville" which forshadowed later events...
Shaun was a little afraid of the dark and was pretty certain that he saw someone or something hiding behind a fence in the dark on the way to the dome so we stayed close :^)
Finally, we headed for the merchandise counter in search of food and souveniers. After quickly donning our new wares and scarfing down some pizza, we headed down to the floor to check out the opening act - Charlie Mars. All the way down, down, down to our seats we ensured that most people knew where we were heading - good ol row 2! Strangely enough the front two rows were filled with people who appeared to lack energy - at least compared to our group. After securing our seats, we quickly began to harass the security guards to let us backstage - but as expected - a no go. Well, Charlie did a great job - although his vocals were great and could have used to be a little louder than the guitar was.
We found out that two girls in row 1 in front had somehow gotten tickets and they were not even crazed fans like us! We bugged them for a bit with some R.E.M. trivia until they turned their backs on us to watch the stage. My next goal was to watch and see if I could get backstage again - sure enough, as I am watching stage right, out comes Bertis Downs with his ball cap and he walks up to the stage and checks out the crowd. I was not close enough and he hurried backstage again, otherwise I would have loved to ask him if we could go backstage and see the band. Finally I settled on bothering the guy in shorts entering the set list into a laptop on stage. I asked him if that was the setlist and what the first song was so we could settle our bet - our picks went something like: Begin the Begin, Finest Worksong, and a few others. Sure enough it was Finest Worksong - I quickly passed the info on to the guys - good job Dean!
Finally, the moment arrives - on stage comes R.E.M. - meanwhile I am chatting with a lady in a red coat who looked official, trying to convince her that we really wanted to see the band later! I rushed back to my seat and the fireworks began!
Michael had his great eye paint on - this time a cool blue (too bad - we apparently almost had the opportunity to do the same back at the crack house :^)
Not much more can be said - the music was the best! Vocals were great from both Mike and Michael, and Peter was fabulous on guitar. We were standing (and jumping) about ten feet in front of Peter and we let him know how awesome we thought he was. We felt sort of bad for Mike as he was on the left of the stage and the crowd (even front row) was rather tame - so it was great when he later sauntered over to our side and we let him know that we love him too!
Michael took over a glazed crowd that at first was pretty lame (I was disappointed in my fellow Albertans - at first), and soon he had everyone involved.
The pinnacle moment was when Dean started shouting to Peter to play Pilgrimage, and we all joined in feeling that there was a good chance of it getting played. No one else around joined in - just us four - not only were we loud - but we were leaping, shouting, waving, and generally totally crazed about seeing our favourite band up so close! Peter quickly took notice and gave us a quick shrug, and after several more shouts for Pilgrimage, he went and spoke with Michael. Sure enough, in the encore, Michael pointed at us and said that they would play Pilgrimage for us! How could the night get any better!
Finally, as the concert ended, the two girls in front of us turned around and said that we really knew how to party and did we want to party with them! Well, it made us feel good, but of course we were all married except Shaun, and also at least twice their age! Hey - we must still have it at forty!
Seeing R.E.M. live for me was a life changing experience. Back in the early 1980's, when my friend Mark Miller used to play me the early R.E.M. tunes to get me hooked I would never have thought that the group would have such an influence on my life. This concert re-affirmed my love for the band, their music, and their dedication to their fans!
Thank you Michael, Mike, and Peter (and we love you too Bill), and hopefully one day we can bump into each other in a restaurant for coffee...?

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