“a becoming trace of calm derangement”
Fingers crossed on his chest in a stoic cap and shades, or summoning down a refrain with arms stretched vast, he’s suitably enigmatic. The voice is an ideal Georgian tremble, albeit brushed right here and there with a contact of Eddie Vedder. As he tells the story of a person constructing a wall down the center of his home to stay in numerous sides because the temper takes him, there’s a becoming trace of calm derangement.
If Michael Shannon, Hollywood star of Knives Out and Nocturnal Animals amongst many different notable motion pictures, is auditioning for the starring function in a Michael Stipe biopic, he’s a shoo-in.
He has, although, gone critically technique. Having beforehand performed full-album cowl reveals of data by Lou Reed, The Trendy Lovers, Neil Younger and The Smiths in Chicago over the course of a decade, in 2023 Shannon and a backing band put collectively by someday Bob Mould and Robert Pollard bassist Jason Narducy started touring a 40th anniversary tribute present to R.E.M.’s Murmur throughout the States.
Click on right here to learn our interview with Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and R.E.M.
“a dedicated and highly effective impressionist”
Skipping Reckoning’s birthday, they mark 4 a long time of Fables Of The Reconstruction with a full run via, devoted to its southern gothic murk and constructing an archivist’s world across the document in a sprawling second set: The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale”, an R.E.M. stay favorite from the period, given a delicate Athens twist; Wire’s “Unusual” delivered within the post-punk nation rock type it might tackle Doc; a tackle “Loopy” by R.E.M.’s hometown neighbours Pylon. At their Athens cease in February, within the final stamp of authenticity, R.E.M. themselves hopped as much as play the closing “Fairly Persuasion” with Shannon’s band.
Shut your eyes throughout their impressively dense and dank model of Fables… tonight – an album recorded “a stone’s throw for this very constructing” Shannon claims, though you’d want fairly an overarm to hit Wooden Inexperienced’s Livingston Studios from right here, three miles away – and also you’re by no means going to suppose Stipe is within the room.
Shannon is actually a dedicated and highly effective impressionist. These tales of rural eccentrics, railroaders and misunderstood ministers discover flesh in his arms, and he musters some convincingly Stipean wails on “Maps And Legends”, masters the heavenly drift of “Wendell Gee” and carries the Americana pop momentum of “Driver 8” and “Can’t Get There From Right here” with enthusiastic ease.
It is a deep-diving tribute from the center of a super-stan. “That is for the diehard afficionados,” Shannon says forward of a coast via B-side “Bandwagon”, and the second set solely will get marginally extra arena-friendly from there.
“there’s real thankfulness at work”
The mid-‘80s period is the bedrock – “how about some Persistent City?” Shannon asks earlier than a funk-punk “1,000,000” and an effervescent “Gardening At Night time” – and the massive ‘90s hits are handed over for elegant deep cuts from New Adventures In Hello-Fi (“New Take a look at Leper”), Monster (“Let Me In”) and Up (“Daysleeper”). “Romance”, from the 1987 film Made In Heaven, will get a fiery pop outing regardless of Shannon having been advised by a member of R.E.M. themselves that even they couldn’t bear in mind it.
When populism sporadically strikes, it’s with good cause. “World Chief Faux”, by turns melodic and sinister, is indulged as a result of “it feels notably related proper now”. A punchy “Radio Free Europe” is repurposed as a protest in opposition to the dismantling of the titular organisation and a beautiful, chant-along “Cuyahoga” is framed as a preview of a potential future Life’s Wealthy Pageant tour.
As Shannon and Narducy lead the encore with a hushed and tender acoustic “So. Central Rain”, laced with strains from Peter Gabriel’s “Purple Rain”, there’s real thankfulness at work.
And clever reconstruction too.
Setlist for Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and Associates, The Storage, London, August 22, 2025:
Feeling Gravity’s Pull
Maps And Legends
Driver 8
Life And How To Reside It
Outdated Man Kensey
Can’t Get There From Right here
Inexperienced Develop The Rushes
Kahoutek
Auctioneer (One other Engine)
Good Advices
Wendell Gee
Femme Fatale
Romance
Unusual
New Take a look at Leper
Bandwagon
1,000,000
Gardening At Night time
World Chief Faux
Ethical Kiosk
Daysleeper
Sitting Nonetheless
Cuyahoga
So. Central Rain
CrazyRadio Free Europe
Let Me In
Fairly Persuasion
