Watch R.E.M. reunite to play “Pretty Persuasion”

The four original members of R.E.M. reunited on Thursday, February 27 and Friday, February 28 to perform “Pretty Persuasion” at the 400 Watt club in their hometown of Athens, Georgia.

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Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry took to the stage during two Athens dates on Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy‘s current tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the band’s Fables Of The Reconstruction album.

When Shannon and Narducy played the 40 Watt last year, as part of their Murmur tour, all four members of R.E.M. shared the stage at one point. This year, however, they all appeared on stage together, for “Pretty Persuasion“. “This is a special place where dreams come true,” said Shannon.

The band members also appeared separately or in other configurations at various points during both shows – including “Wendell Gee” (Berry), a cover of Wire‘s “Strange” (Mills), a cover of Pylon’s “Crazy” (Mills) “Find The River” (Mills), “1,000,000” (Mills), “Sitting Still” (Buck, Mills), “Harborcoat” (Buck, Mills), “Second Guessing” (Buck, Mills, Berry), “Cuyahoga” (Buck, Mills, Berry), “Little America” (Buck), and “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville” (Buck, Mills).”

On the first night, Lenny Kaye joined for Velvet Underground covers “Femme Fatale” (Buck, Mills) and “There She Goes Again” (Buck).

The line-up also included Jon Wurster (drums), John Stirratt (bass), Dag Juhlin (guitar) and Vijay Tellis-Nayak (keyboards).

Shannon and Narducy bring their Fables tour to the UK later this year. Check here for further details.

You can watch R.E.M. perform “Pretty Persuasion” below…

… meanwhile here we present a gallery of photos taken by REM’s long-serving manager Bertis Downs and his wife Katherine Downs.

The main image was taken by Karen Ryan.