Just Another Gig In Another City On Another Saturday Night....

...and just another bearded old guy in a beanie wandering onto the stage, just as you're coming to the end of your set.

Except, when you're Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and band, performing the songs of R.E.M., and the bearded old guy in a beanie is Michael Stipe, it's going to be a rather special night.

If you were an audience member at Brooklyn Steel in New York on Saturday (7th), this is exactly what happened.

Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy are currently touring Life's Rich Pageant on its 40th anniversary, and Michael performed a reprise of These Days (track 2, side 1) followed by The Great Beyond, one of R.E.M.'s last great singles of the 20th Century.

The band, sans Stipe, subsequently returned to the stage to play six (count 'em) songs for the encore, but honestly, how do you follow that?!

To quote from another R.E.M. song, "take comfort in your friends". 

And we all have a friend in Michael Stipe.