Pyslent Meets R.E.M.
December 10th, 2010, 5:17pm by MikeI just saw today that R.E.M has sent their Christmas package to their fan club, which is one of the coolest traditions of a band that I can think of. If you want to hear the songs, they’re here, but oddly, Michael Stipe isn’t on the main song (a cover of Darlene Love’s Christmas Baby (Please Come Home), also famously covered by U2 — the U2 version is one of my favorite modern Christmas songs).
Anyway, this seemed like a good opportunity to recount the story of Pyslent’s encounter with R.E.M., back in 1999.
This was the era of my entering and inevitably winning radio contests on 91X in San Diego. One game that I was particularly good at was played every morning, right at the time I got up, and my alarm was set on 91X, so I’d at least hear it every day. The DJ would read, in slow, measured English, some lyrics from a song, and you had to call in and identify the title and artist. The combination of the time of day (between 6 and 7am, when nobody else was awake), my overlap with the DJ’s taste in music, and my brain simply being wired to do this, made it so that I could basically win at will, and would do it whenever the prize sounded good.
One day, they had a special game, since R.E.M. was coming to Irvine — they were giving away two tickets and backstage passes. The lyric was an R.E.M. lyric, and was “High on the roof, thin the blood.” I was shocked that I didn’t know it immediately, but R.E.M. lyrics are often indecipherable anyway. After a second, I realized that it was a background vocal on “Orange Crush,” and called in, got through and won the tickets!
So Joanie and I went up there, and as it turned out, Kelvin and Serena went to the show as well. I was told that we could meet the band after the show, and we got our passes. As the show went on (honestly, it was an OK show — it was the “Up” tour, so we were psyched when they played their older stuff), we were getting psyched. Joanie isn’t a huge music fan, and knew that Kelvin was, so she forced her backstage pass on a reluctant Kelvin.
After the show, the four of us walked to where we were supposed to go, and Kelvin and I went in. Once inside, we convinced a security guard to give us two more passes, since our girlfriends were waiting outside and it would be a lot more fun if we were all inside. So, the four of us went in and waited around for what seemed like forever.
I don’t remember a whole lot about actually meeting them — by that time, Bill Berry had left the group, and so it was only Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, and Peter Buck. Peter Buck was, for some reason, in his trailer and didn’t want to come meet us, so it was the two Mikes. Of the two, Mike Mills was by far the more social, and he was all interested in how we won our way back there on the radio. He remembered that 91X had given them their break in San Diego, and apparently, “Heard it on the X” was their catchphrase way back then — so when they signed my CD booklet, that’s what he wrote. Michael Stipe, true to the sort of non-exciting guy he was (that night, anyway), just wrote his name.
I can’t believe that we didn’t bring a camera (I thought it would get confiscated on the way into the show), and this was the era before cell phones, so no photos of the night exist. Also, I can’t believe that I lost my backstage pass itself — it must be around somewhere. Anyway, here’s the ticket and the signed CD booklet.
December 10th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
What a great night, seriously. My recollection was that the show itself was awesome, just like every other time I’d seen the band. And we all had great seats, no doubt due to the unpolularity of UP.
I think Peter Buck was playing with some dog, as far as I can remember. The conversation with Mike and Michael seemed to center around traffic on the 805. Surreal. Mike commented that you had a nice name. I also remember that we asked Mike Mills how come they never let him sing “Love is all around me,” in concert, and he said, “Yeah, the man is keeping me down.” Stipe seemed more shy than disinterested. We said that going on the road for so long has got to be tough, and he said, “We’re rock stars. That’s what we do.” Not mean, in a “And you’re not, you don’t get it” kind of way, but kind of saying “accept who you are.”
BTW, this was not the first time that I’ve benefited from Joanie’s different taste in music 🙂
December 10th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
BTW, just listened to the Mike Mills’ led “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” The Man was right to keep that guy down, IMO.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
No kidding about the Christmas song! I always liked Mike Mills’ backing vocals, but that performance kinda sucked.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Joanie just reminded me that you and Serena had great seats, but ours weren’t that good (you were in the reserved seats, we were in the field). But since it wasn’t crowded, you called us and somehow we were able to get down to where you were.
December 10th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Oh, that’s right. The old trick where one person goes out with 2 tickets and 2 people come back. Niiice!
Mike Mills is like Martin Gore — blends perfectly in harmony, but too “choir boy” for lead vocals. Don’t quit your day job, Mike.