Review and Photos by Stephen Bloch
The band Dark Star Orchestra is known for taking Grateful Dead shows from their entire career and playing them note for note in their entirety. The well versed audience regularly spends the first handful of songs trying to figure out the date and location of the show being “covered”. Pretty impressive feat. There are also plenty of cover bands out there that do their own reinterpretation of a band’s material. On Thursday night, Milwaukee’s Turner Hall Ballroom played host to Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends did just that, but maybe even more. They are currently on tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s 3rd album Fables of the Reconstruction. Last year they did the same thing for their album Murmur (and next year they will do the same thing for Life’s Rich Pageant)
This is a very well studied group. They seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the band, their songs, their tone, and in the case of Michael Shannon, the mannerisms and appearance of R.E.M. frontman, Michael Stipe. Shannon doesn’t seem to have intentionality for this; he just seems to love everything R.E.M. and wants to do the band/songs justice. Kudos for being more than just a fan boy. Shannon et al are no strangers to paying tribute to the bands or albums they love. They have done this for the Velvet Underground, The Smiths, and The Modern Lovers, to name a few. Yes, we are talking about the ACTOR Michael Shannon known for a myriad of roles in tv and film.
The first set was composed of Fables in its entirety. Shannon, Narducy, and their bandmates that included Jon Wurster from Superchunk & Mountain Goats on drums, Poi Dog Pondering’s Dag Juhlin on lead guitar, Vijay Tellis-Nayak on keyboard, and Wilco’s John Stirratt on bass played the album seamlessly with only some banter from Shannon. Very Stipe. He really does stay true to form with the painted nails, cap and glasses. Even the way he handles the mic is all Stipe.
The second set was an unadulterated deep dive into R.E.M.’s catalog. Shannon repeated a couple of times, “deep cuts only for those who really know”. Even before playing the three songs from their 1982 EP, Chronic Town, he said, “we should really just play the whole album, there are only five songs”. Both Murmur and Reckoning got ample time in the 2nd set and lengthy encore. Highlights were “Strange”, “Sitting Still”, and “Talk about the Passion”>>>”Disturbance at the Heron House”. It was 100% evident that the crowd, which leaned heavily on 50+ males, knew R.E.M. on a very deep level.
The five song encore was the absolute icing on the cake. Veritable trifecta in “So Central Rain”>>”Cuyahoga”>>”Radio Free Europe”. There wasn’t a soul abstaining from singing along.
The show concluded with opener Dave Hill jumping in for a cover of Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic”. Hill and Juhlin were going head to head in a shred competition. No clear winner.
We were all winners on this night. We got to take in a 40+ year career’s worth of music from a beloved band, being performed by a bunch of super talented individuals who share the love. Can’t wait for future projects.
