R.E.M. gave a rare live performance on Thursday night, playing their 1984 song “Pretty Persuasion” at the 40 Watt Club in their hometown of Athens, Georgia.
The evening’s main act was actor Michael Shannon and indie rock musician Jason Narducy, who are currently on a tour that pays tribute to R.E.M.’s 1985 album Fables of the Reconstruction. Shannon and Narducy have been performing that album in full, plus other selections from across R.E.M’s catalog. On Thursday, however, they were joined by guitarist Peter Buck, drummer Bill Berry on tambourine and bassist Mike Mills on backing vocals, with lead singer Michael Stipe trading vocals with Shannon.
You can watch the performance via fan-filmed footage below.
R.E.M.’s Most Recent Public Performance
The last time R.E.M. performed together was in June of 2024 — their first public performance since 2007 — as they marked their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. But fans should probably not expect any sort of elaborate or long-term reunion plans.
READ MORE: R.E.M.’s ‘Automatic for the People’: The Story Behind Every Song
“We decided when we split up that that would be really tacky and probably money grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together,” Stipe said to WNYC in 2021, one decade after R.E.M. broke up. “We don’t really need that. And I’m really happy that we have the legacy of 32 years of work that we have from 1980 to 2011.”