In what has rather selfishly become one of my favorite show-going events of the year lately, Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy and a cast of supremely talented friends brought their touring REM tribute show to Boston’s Royale nightclub. It’s an idea that really took root close to a decade ago, when Shannon and Narducy started enlisting a few friends to do a handful of one-off shows covering albums they considered staples: Modern Lovers and The Smiths and Neil Young records for example. In 2023, they honored the 40th anniversary of Chicago’s Metro and the 40th anniversary of REM’s Murmur, and it went so well they took the act on the road the following year, adding songs from the Georgia legends’ Chronic Town and Reckoning and a few others to round out a full evening’s set.
Thanks to the success of that run last year – and thanks to the 40th anniversary of REM’s Fables Of The Reconstruction happening this year – the band hopped in the van (proverbially, I think) again for a run of dates that brought them to Boston’s Royale nightclub. The venue – which was previously known as The Roxy, which Narducy played back in 1997 with his old band Verbow – is roughly twice as large as the Sinclair, which was the local stop they sold out on the Murmur run. The larger venue brought with it an expanded venue and a band that was firing on all proverbial cylinders.
Shannon and Narducy and friends (on this run, the “and friends” consist of Narducy’s fellow Bob Mould rhythm mate Jon Wurster on drums, Dag Juhlin on lead guitar, Wilco’s John Stirratt on bass, Vijay Tellis-Nayak on keys) wasted no time diving into the evening’s main event, REM’s 1985 album Fables Of The Reconstruction. Fables is a bit of a weirdly-remembered album. Serving as the legendary band’s third studio full-length, it was also a bit of a transitionary album that still held onto some of the “college rock” sound that made them early 80s critical darlings, but started to dip their toes in waters that were a bit more experimental. It’s an album that I think is received much more fondly in hindsight than it was upon its initial release, but then again, I was 6 when it came out, so what do I know…
ANYWAY, as I was saying, Shannon and Narducy and crew wasted no time, diving right into Fables… opener “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” and proceeded to blitz through the entire album in virtuosic fashion. The band sounded razor-sharp. The addition of keys and a second guitar player gave this lineup the ability to stretch out a little and add a few more textures than the four-piece touring machine that REM was able to in the early-mid 80s heyday. This doesn’t change the core feeling of the songs that so many hold so close to their respective parts, just fills and brightens out the sound. Shannon, for his part, channeled a good deal of Michael Stipe’s stage presence without doing a straight impression. Stipe was a one-of-a-kind ball of energy on stage, especially in the earlier years, and Shannon does a good job of mimicking the energy while not simply aping the entire “thing.” As a critically-acclaimed actor, I wonder if Shannon finds it more important to channel the performance of Stipe himself or his poetic words and the characters they told stories of. Someone should interview him about that; Michael, have your people call my people.
It’s an interesting thing, because it feels cheap to call Shannon and Narducy and Friends a cover band, although I suppose to the letter of the law, that’s what they are. Maybe that’s just semantics – although in the case of two of the Herculean set’s songs, they were technically not covering REM songs, but covering songs that REM were known to dip into in their live show in the early years – Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” and Aerosmiths “Toys In The Attic.” But it didn’t FEEL like watching a cover band, like a group of weekend warriors living out their alternative rock glory days by starting a band called like Dirty Deeds or Stone Temple Posers or something, giving dive bar performances that are equal part messy garage band practice and Halloween costume audition. Instead, it feels like a group of monstrously talented musicians giving life to the songs created four decades ago by one of America’s most iconic bands. They genuinely do the songs justice, and the night is a bit of a marathon; the Boston stop found them hitting thirty-three songs on the setlist; I think DC reached thirty-seven. And yes, the project has been given the blessing of Stipe, Buck, Mills and Barry, who’ve been known to pop up on occasion at gigs and join the group for a massive homage to their iconic work. There were no original REM members in the room on this evening BUT Ingrid Schorr was in the building, and astute REM fans will recognize her as the muse behind the Mills-penned “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” which was, on this night, performed in her honor. Also, the stripped-down version of Reckoning’s “So. Central Rain” that Shannon and Narducy played as a duo to kick off the evening’s third set was goose-bump inducing.
Like last year, the multi-talented Dave Hill (Dave, from before…Dave Hill from showbiz, ringleader of the Dangerous Snakes Who Hate Bullshit) kicked off the evening’s festivities in fine fashion. I generally hesitate to review comedy sets in too much detail at the risk of spoiling the bit, but this is also the social media age, and so you probably know the bit already. If you’ve not taken in the Dave Hill live experience in person, it’s equal parts comedy show and blistering guitar performance art. Like a heavy metal late-stage Elvis, Hill barrelled onto the stage in a full one-piece jumpsuit adorned with flames and wolves and snakes and all other sorts of badassery. From there, it was a barrage of tasty riffs – part of Danzig’s “Mother”! A little bit of “Free Bird”! A cursory “Eruption” appearance! – on his sweet Flying V. For a while, he was joined on stage by a bit of a jazz trio (drums and bass and keys) as he regaled the audience with regionally specific pickup lines that would only work in the greater Boston area (shout out to South Station and the abandoned Medfield State psychiatric Hospital) before diving into set-closer “I Was In A Fight.” If you were at last year’s Murmur show, Hill’s set was pretty similar in tone and context, but his individual performance and stage antics make each night a little unique.
Check out a bunch more pics from the evening below, and stay tuned…word on the street is that Shannon and Narducy and Friends will be out on the road in 2026 to mark the 40th anniversary of Life’s Rich Pageant. (And really, Michael, let’s chat!)