Customer Reviews

Live At The Olympia (2CD/1DVD)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of the best R.E.M. packages in their very long & very great career. This IS rock & roll.

R.E.M. has assembled a great collection of some of their most under utilized songs and polished them up with spectacular production and some new twists. Long-time fans from the IRS years will love the jewels from Reckoning, Chronic Town and Fables. Songs like "Harborcoat", "Feeling Gravity's Pull" and "Maps and Legends" still sound fresh and relevant. Middle period R.E.M. doesn't get the same emphasis, but "Circus Envy" and "Electrolite" fit in perfectly. I have a whole new appreciation for them. The newest material from Accelerate is killer. Nearly all of Accelerate is here. Some of these songs sound different than their final versions, and that makes it even more interesting. "Until the Day is Done" is nearly perfect. "Living Well is the Best Revenge" will peel the paint of the walls. Turn this up loud!

Production credits are top notch. Mike Mills amazes. His bass playing is so unique and creative. I'm in awe. Stipe & Buck are in top form too. And I can't say enough about the packaging. It is very classy. Each song gets a write-up from Peter Buck. Extensive liner notes & great photography too. The entire package design is very classy. I've often wondered why R.E.M. didn't spruce up their CDs with better packaging, but this time they really did it right. Don't get this one on digital. Buy the physical product. And get the DVD version too.

Thanks R.E.M.!! One of the best live albums I've ever listened to.

If you are a long time REM lover you remember how Chronic Town and Murmur sounded so different from anything at the time. Then a string of consistently great output. Then... well some bumps along the way, but Accelerate (for me) restored much of their past glory. I enjoy their live release of 2 or so years ago (REM Live). But this is the crown jewel.

Do you love this band? Like them? Did you look at the track list? Then I assume you have bought this. If not I can only offer a few comments to urge you to do so.

Rehearsals or whatever, this comes across as a concert. Another review noted the compression of the recording, but it is to my ears not that bad (at least compared to the majority of other live releases of late). For the most part, the instruments are quite clear and the overall sound very good. Here and there it does seem too loud. But I 100% forgive this for the quality of this performance and the songs.

The band is inspired. Michael is in fine form and is fairly chatty. He has a couple of hilarious moments ("Thank you search engine..." made me laugh out loud). The lyrics are clear. Buck is fantastic as always. Mills is his usual demon on bass but what this recording reminded me is how great his backing vocals are. He kind of circles around Stipe which really fills out the songs. The drumming is fine, and the second guitarist (who I cannot always find in the mix) does fill things out when present.

The band seems very relaxed and is clearly having fun (listen to the on stage banter) despite all Stipe's claims that they are terrified. There is an urgency in the performance. If these were rehearsals, they seem intent to bring their "A game" and just nail the songs. These are a good balance of the muscle of their later period with the intricate jangle of their earlier stuff, with a few ballads interspersed. You see the set list. It leans heavily towards the early 80's. Most of Accelerate is here. And then a song from every release (I think?) except Out of Time, Green and Up. As I lean towards the earlier material I am thrilled with this set. Most of Chronic Town is here (yay), and a lot of my personal faves. I would think that any of us could bemoan a missing favorite or two, but given what is here that would be pointless. And finishing with Gardening at Night? How unexpected and cool is that? (Given all the early material, I half expected them to jump into 20th Century Boys, Crazy or even Jacques Cousteau!!!)

REM seems to have a had a lot of "periods". There were the early releases with their jangly sound and great lyrics. Then the arena friendly, heavier releases such as Green, Monster and Document. Lots of hits and misses after that; I felt Automatic for the People was their last cover to cover masterpiece. But given their (almost) 30 year history, a lot of us became fans of a certain period. What I like about this performance is that they are so amped up and enjoying themselves, no matter which phase of REM you prefer, you will really like this.

So... the boys really are on fire here, they are playing with passion and purpose, the sound is very good (A-), you get a heavy dose of early songs which got pushed from their set lists a long time ago, and a video as well (not my cup of tea). 5 stars is a no-brainer on this one for me.

ps - the dvd is just OK - I might watch it again - i.e. twice; but I am not a huge video fan when it comes to music. The dvd has 12 songs - 1 not on cd (Olive Branch) and some other footage. It is b&w, very jumpy and herky-jerky style, might appeal more the "video generation" but does not do much for me - aging baby boomer that I am. I thought it would mirror the cd's 39 songs which it does not. The 2 cd set might be a better choice. Here is the dvd track list: DJ; On the Fly; Accelerate; Until Day is Done; Houston; Mr Richards; Man Size Wreath; Drive; Horse to H2O; Olive Branches; Box Cars; Living Well is the Best Revenge.

pps - I wonder if the prominently displayed "39 songs" is an assurance we are not getting an EP for the 2nd disc a la their previous live release??

Almost to the day 2 years ago, REM released its first official live album in its illustrious career ("REM Live"), but unfortunately that live album pretty much collapsed under the weight of far too many weak recent songs (6 no less from the dud that is "Around The Sun"). Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for this to be corrected.

"Live At the Olympia" (2 CDs; 39 tracks; 149 min.) is as astonishingly strong and fresh as "REM Live" felt forced and unnatural. (Interestingly, both these live albums were recorded in Dublin, albeit at different venues.) From the opening chords of "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" (also the opening track from the equally excellent "Accelerate" studio album released last year), the band plays with vigor and an extra kick not heard since.... well, probably since Barry left the band. Sprinkled throughout this opulence of 39 tracks are 8 of the 11 tracks from "Accelerate", which is actually a good thing (strangely, the single "Supernatural Superserious" is not on here). Thankfully missing on here are tried songs like "Everybody Hurts" and "Losing My Religion", which I simply can't stand hearing any more, ever. Instead we are treated to a boatload of old nuggets: half the track from the "Reckoning" album ("Second Guessing", "So. Central Rain", "Little America", "Harborcoat" and "Pretty Persuasion", all one better than the next), 4 tracks from "Fables of the Reconstruction" ("Maps and Legends", "Drive 8", "Auctioneer" and "Kohoutek"), and even the band's first EP "Chronic Town (1982) is covered by 3 tracks here: "1,000,000", "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)", and the last track on this album (and also closing track on the EP), a beautiful "Gardening At Night".

There is minimal (only 3 songs) overlap between the 2007 live album and the new one, so you can make a clear choice. Whereas the 2007 live album felt tired and tiresome, "Live at the Olympia" features a band that is completely on top of its game, playing tight and rocking hard. I had the good fortune of seeing REM in concert last year on the "Accelerate" tour, and was shocked how good they sounded, and how much fun they seemed to be having. Meanwhile, "Live At the Olympia" is a momentous and fantastic live album. Highly recommended!

In June and July 2007, REM did a brave and unique thing for an established, hall of fame rock band to do. They conducted five open rehearsals in front of live audiences at Dublin's Olympia Theater. Thankfully for REM fans, they recorded it and have produced for us a great live album to help us forget the lackluster REM Live from two years ago.

Not surprisingly, the album contains the majority of Accelerate. Though these are rehearsals, most of the songs seem to have been in playing shape because they sound exactly the same as they would on the album. The lone exception to that is 'Supernatural Superserious', which appears here as 'Disguised' without the chorus and thus a much weaker version than the final product. What makes this album so damn good though is that the rest of the selections are not the usual greatest hits, like 'Losing My Religion' or 'Man on the Moon'. Instead, they opt to dig deep into their early albums and pull out some of the best and often overlooked cuts. We hear most of Chronic Town. We hear a good chunk of Reckoning and Fables. And, since the new album had put them in the rocking spirit, these versions all sound good and chunky. 'Circus Envy' for example, a song from Monster, is given a new treatment and vitality that it lacked on the album version. The casual atmosphere also encouraged the band to be more playful, as they rap back and forth with the crowd between a number of songs. At one point, Bono even heckles them from the crowd! (Before 'Man-Sized Wreath', while the band is bantering about whether or not the song will appear on the album, he yells, "B-side!") Combine this with a few previously unreleased songs (Staring Down the Barrel, On the Fly) and this album is a must purchase for any serious REM fan, especially those fans of the IRS years.

As good as the album is, the DVD disappoints just as much. Rather than giving us a concert film, or even a documentary of the band's unique idea, we get a disjointed mess. Vincent Moon and Jeremiah calls the film 'sketches', but why not a fully developed work of art. And I'm not sure what they were trying to do stylistically. The shots are always jumping around, seemingly looking for the most obscure shots of the band possible. There are some good chunks of film towards the end, but as soon as it starts to resemble a decent whole, it ends. Perhaps they thought a straight film of the rehearsals would be boring. But the crowd there obviously loved it, so why wouldn't we love watching it?

If you're a serious fan, you should probably get the CD/DVD version anyway and see what you think about the movie. Worst case you spent a couple bucks more and never watch the movie again. Either way though, the album is a must.

I discovered REM as a young high schooler in Georgia. There was this great band over in Athens, a buddy of mine told me, played at the 40 Watt Club all the time. He gave me a bootleg cassette of Life's Rich Pageant and Fables of the Reconstruction. I wore out the tape over that summer and fall, and then added Document to the rotation when it came out. I quickly bought all the previous albums. My favorite was the quirky Dead Letter Office of odd tracks that had never made it onto any album.

I was in my early 20s when R.E.M. lost me. It wasn't when they got internationally huge or when they moved to Warner -- I thought Green, Out of Time and Automatic for the People were excellent albums; I was right there with them. But I remember only kind of liking Monster (and feeling irritated when I paid huge money to see the band live in Charlotte only to have Stipe show up grumpy and unpleasant) and then feeling totally lost listening to New Adventures in Hi Fi. I didn't buy the next several.

Until Accelerate. This was a return to the R.E.M. sound I knew: the bass track driving the songs and Mike Mills' backing vocals turned up to set off that one-of-a-kind Stipe vocal sound, the guitar snarling as well as jangling. Joyful or urgent, not mopey.

The release of this live set makes it pretty explicit that R.E.M. intentionally returned to its essence for Accelerate. They heavily revisit the great deep tracks of the IRS albums alongside much of the Accelerate material. The energy they bring to these songs is incredible, and Stipe's clearly in a better mood now. The handful of mistakes that make it onto the album give it a humanity, and the band handles them with humor. The between-song banter at the mic by Stipe is so much fun. A couple of these speeches make it apparent that Stipe had to Google the lyrics to many of his own early songs. It's a shame they've been out of the rotation that long.

Anyway, R.E.M., welcome back to the 40 Watt. This album makes me feel like I've stumbled into one of your gigs under a pseudonym in a small club. Well done.

NPR aptly called this album a thank you to their long time fans. This live set has the raw energy of a young REM coming into its prime decades ago, combined with the maturity of musicians that have played together for almost 30 years. Michael Stipe's vocals sound fantastic, and the selection of tracks is inspired by the years. While this isn't a greatest hits compilation like you tend to see with live albums, it does have some hits. Mostly, this is an album for the fans who have been around for a long time and enjoy the old songs even more than the new. All in all, "Live at the Olympia" is a really great listen.

This is an oustanding disk. Call me a throwback guy, but owning this on CD was a great idea. The songs are a great mix of early stuff and the latest stuff from REM. I like the interaction between the band and the crowd and the songs are great. This band has stood the test of time and still are great. Buy it.

Great combination of new and IRS years. The live but intimate setting adds positively to the end result.
A definite must for an REM fan and their collection.

The banter is quite funny, especially considering some of Stipe's self-important mumblings of the days of yore (I say this as a rabid REM fan of almost 20 years). My favorite part is when he proclaims that "Man Sized Wreath" won't be on the next record, and then Mills quickly tells him that it's too early to make that call. Mills was right - not only did it make the Accelerate album, but it's the best song of the new bunch.

I only dock one star for the still-lackluster Around the Sun tracks and the absence of any songs from either Green or Out of Time. That being said, this is a wonderful collection from a beloved band finding its way again.

These live tracks are near perfect renditions of some of REM's best studio work, with enough of Michael Stipe's miscues to remind you that the song they are playing hasn't been played in 10 years. Great playing, sounds like the REM gig that every fan would have wanted to be at.