Franz Greul

Michael Stipe has repeatedly singled out “Country Feedback” as one of his favourite R.E.M. songs, and on this night it gained another extraordinary voice. Neil Young joined the band at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in 1998, adding an extended guitar solo that pushes the song far beyond the restraint of its studio recording. Originally released on Out of Time, the track was built around heartbreak, regret and emotional collapse rather than a conventional chorus. As Young stretches the final section into a roaring wall of sound, the performance becomes less like a guest appearance and more like two generations meeting inside the same song.

A garage-rock classic brought R.E.M. together with one of the musicians who had helped shape their sound. During their 1984 appearance at the Capitol Theatre, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds joined the band for “Gloria”, playing guitar and adding backing vocals alongside Michael Stipe. Written by Van Morrison and first recorded by Them in 1964, the song had become a rock standard built around an unmistakably simple three-chord progression. With McGuinn standing beside them, the performance connected R.E.M.’s emerging alternative sound directly to an earlier generation of American guitar music.