Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy brought “Life’s Rich Pageant” to Royale – 3/6
Shannon and Narducy’s indie-star-studded R.E.M. tribute roadshow returned to Boston for a packed Friday night in the Theater District.
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On paper, the Shannon/Narducy R.E.M. thing still feels pretty improbable in a Mad Libs kind of way (I used this phrasing two tours ago, but the point stands). A beloved character actor and an omnipresent indie rocker teaming up with a crew of friends to bring a retired band’s oeuvre back to life 40 years later is not something you see every day. And yet, on round three, it’s starting to feel like an expected yearly tradition for the type of person who owns at least a handful of original I.R.S. pressings.
This winter – following 2024’s inaugural tour honoring 40 years of Murmur (plus the majority of its followup Reckoning) and last year’s take on Fables of the Reconstruction – it was 1986’s Life’s Rich Pageant to get the front-to-back treatment. This one’s always been a personal favorite of mine, and judging by how sought-after tickets for this run ended up becoming (at one point in the week you could’ve paid roughly comparable money for this gig or Jayson Tatum’s return vs. Cooper Flagg at the Garden), that feels like a widely-shared sentiment.
The record, naturally, sounded incredible. Shannon and Narducy are both details guys when it comes to this endeavor, and that extends to the full band, which included Mountain Goats and ex-Superchunk dummer Jon Wurster, Wilco bassist John Stirratt, guitarist Dag Juhlin and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak. R.E.M.’s jangly alt-rock often skews dense and sneaky-complex, and this ensemble has the twists and turns down to a science while retaining the feel and fun. That they’re all such studious devotees of the music and clearly have a blast playing it each show brings a collective joy into the room that’s infectious.
And of course, the night was still young once they wrapped “Superman” to close out the LP. Between a second set and a lengthy encore, the crew hit a whopping 19 more songs, touching on some of the early-catalog fan favorites they mastered on previous runs as well as some time-skips all the way to the late ’90s. As a New Adventures in Hi-Fi devotee, I was thrilled to hear both “How the West Was Won” and “E-Bow the Letter” make an appearance (it’s Shannon’s favorite R.EM. record too, evidently), and we were also treated to a gorgeous “Nightswimming,” a swaggering “Crush With Eyeliner” and an appearance from Morphine’s Dana Colley on sax for “Fireplace.” (You may not be shocked to hear that Shannon suggested that one, from ’87’s Document, might become a setlist staple next year when that record’s 40th anniversary comes around). We may not have gotten a surprise Michael Stipe appearance like NYC did the following night, but short of that, a pretty magical evening.
Looking forward, one toys with the notion of just how far Shannon and Narducy will take this. With Document evidently a lock, 1992 landmark Automatic for the People also feels like a prime candidate. Will they go grunge for Monster? A reevaluation for Around the Sun? Who’s to say. But for the time being, both fans from way back and those of us who never managed to catch an R.E.M. gig before their admirably-committed breakup in 2011 have something to look forward to in 2027.
Check out a gallery from the set below, plus a few looks at comedians Bobcat Goldthwait (who did a spot-on Bono with Narducy’s accompaniment) and Eugene Mirman (who has a really good Stipe story) opening the show.
