R.E.M. @ Royal Albert Hall

It was my first gig at the Royal Albert Hall, and I must say, what a dodgy venue! This gig was definitely awkward for everyone, from the sat audience, to the bands playing without any atmosphere, via the journalists-only stalls.

The fist supporting act was Foals. Live, they were fantastic. Too bad the atmosphere was so poor, because they have very dance-y music , but I'll definitely go see them in Brixton in October.

Then they were followed by The Duke Spirit. Not bad at all, definitely older so there is less energy than Foals, but their songwriting is way more subtle as well. An other one to follow. Plus, they are fronted by a very hot blond singer, which never hurts... (or at least she seemed hot from my seat, but I was so far from the stage,she could be a dog one closer view...)

Then Robyn and John Paul Jones played. No idea who this Robyn is, but John Paul Jones was Led Zep's bassist. Nevertheless, their act was absurdly bad: Robyn's voice is quite disagreeable, and their folk stuff was OK at best, simply ridiculous at worst. I was wondering what they were doing there, until Robyn called 'The Boys', and Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey walked on stage to play 2 songs with them. Aaaah, that explains it all...

Finally, R.E.M walked in. Obviously they weren't that excited to be playing, and considering the surrounding I can't blame them. Their set was very short, about 1h20. They played most of their new album, Accelerate, and only a handful of old songs (Drive, Final Straw, Losing my religion, The Great Beyond, Electrolite, Imitation of Life and Man on the Moon). Anyway I wasn't enjoying that much either because I was too far, so it didn't really matter. I just hope that the Twickenham gig will be more consistent.

Here's my recording of Final Straw: Good audio even if the video is rubbish.