Michael Shannon commits to a part, be it an overwound repressed fed in a suit, or as the singer in an REM tribute band. He was doing the latter at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on Valentines Day, the final night of his tour with Jason Narducy where they played R.E.M.’s Murmur in full, plus a lot more.
Seriously, a lot more. There were no special guests in Brooklyn, unlike many of the other stops on this two-week tour (like Athens, GA where all four members of R.E.M. were there), but for this last show of the tour they blew it out with a marathon two-and-a-half-hour set that, in addition to Murmur, included all of REM’s debut EP, Chronic Town, a good chunk of Reckoning and then a smattering of songs from Fables of the Reconstruction, Life’s Rich Pageant, Document, Out of Time, a couple covers and more.
Shannon and Narducy, who do full album cover shows in Chicago for charity every year, did not half-ass it, and they and their band — drummer Jon Wurster (dressed in Bill Berry attire, complete with western bowtie), guitarist Dag Juhlin, bassist Nick Macri, and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak — sounded great and were clearly having a blast.
I wouldn’t call what Shannon did a Michael Stipe impersonation per se, but they have similar voices and he nailed it most of the night. Likewise the band stuck to the R.E.M. version of the songs, though Dag Juhlin added some lovely atmospheric parts to the end of “A Perfect Circle.” Shannon, who said he was living out a childhood fantasy on this tour, didn’t do a ton of talking between songs, but when he did he got some good laughs from the crowd, like when he teased that the show was over after the Murmur set. “Luckily for you, it’s Williamsburg so there’s lots of other fun things to do.”
The show ended with a storming version of Life’s Rich Pageant‘s “These Days,” followed by a cover of Roger Miller’s “King of the Road” that was nearly as shambolic as the one R.E.M. included on Dead Letter Office. Fun night.
Speaking of laughs, guitar hero, comedian and occasional BrooklynVegan contributor Dave Hill opened the show. Check out pictures from the whole night by P Squared, along with the main setlist and some fan-shot video, below.
SETLIST: Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy & Friends @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 2/14/2024
Murmur:
Radio Free Europe
Pilgrimage
Laughing
Talk About the Passion
Moral Kiosk
Perfect Circle
Catapult
Sitting Still
9-9
Shaking Through
We Walk
West of the Fields
There She Goes Again
Chronic Town:
Wolves, Lower
Gardening at Night
Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
1,000,000
Stumble
Songs from Reckoning:
Harborcoat
Letter Never Sent
(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
So. Central Rain
Pretty Persuasion
Little America
Encore:
Driver 8
Swan Swan H
Fireplace
Time After Time (AnnElise)
Just a Touch
Country Feedback
Finest Worksong
These Days
King of the Road
