David, did you live in D.C., or were you visiting someone?

I was there on spring break, staying with my good friend Lars Hanson. Lars is a NY actor incidentally, and if you've seen a lot of L&O, chances are you've seen him. Anyway, Lars was the twin brother of Ivor Hanson, the drummer in numerous DC hardcore bands including: SOA (with Henry Garfield, nee Rollins), Faith (his most famous band) and Embrace (post Minor Threat, pre-Fugazi Ian MacKaye band).

It was an AMAZING show. I'd never heard them before - we went because they were from Athens and had some dim notion they'd sound like Pylon. It's still probably the best live show I ever saw.

Lars is a NY actor incidentally, and if you've seen a lot of L&O, chances are you've seen him.

I've seen a lot of L&O commercials on TNT, does that count? (I think I'm the Last Person in America who's never seen an episode of Law & Order, or any spinoff thereof.) But thank you for satisfying my curiosity.

And my first/last/only R.E.M. was:

10 September 1999 - Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD support: Spacehog set: Lotus / What's The Frequency, Kenneth? / Wake-Up Bomb / Suspicion / Camera / Daysleeper / Low Desert / Everybody Hurts / The Apologist / Sweetness Follows / The Great Beyond / The One I Love / Find The River / At My Most Beautiful / Finest Worksong / Losing My Religion / Man On The Moon / Walk Unafraid encore: Hope / Why Not Smile / Pop Song 89 / Tongue / Cuyahoga / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

(It took me forever to find it on the site because I couldn't remember the date, year or venue. Which is extra-odd because the date was three days after my 21st birthday.)

23 March 1984 - The Rat, Boston, MA
support: Kilkenny Cats, Hüsker Dü
set included: The Lion Sleeps Tonight / Pale Blue Eyes / Crazy / So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star / 20th Century Boy / Paint It, Black

I remember lots of covers. REM were "unannounced" but everyone knew they were playing. Until a bunch of guys we didn't recognize took the stage and said they were the Kilkenny Cats, we assumed that REM were using the name as a pseudonym.

It was also my first time at the Rat, having turned the then-legal age of 20 a month earlier.

It's interesting to see the covers, because I remember so many of them recurring with other bands as well. Certain songs apparently had a cachet back then, but I remember tons of Boston bands covering "Shakin' All Over" and I remember True West covering "20th Century Boy."

I remember True West covering "20th Century Boy."

And the Replacements, of course.

Peter Yarrow's stolen guitar found on eBay! - [link]

This was mine

25 March 1989 - Hirsch Memorial Coliseum, Shreveport, LA support: Indigo Girls

I was in 8th grade.

At my first REM in '84 the sound guy told me I looked "just like Courteney Cox. The girl in the Bruce Springsteen video." Who was, he said, a friend of his. I never forget a compliment no matter how untrue or lame.

I think the dBs played Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long" at my show and REM came out to jam with them on it. But it's possible I'm wildly mis-remembering. I'll have to check with my friend who went to the show with me.

REM came out to jam with them on it.

Peter Buck would come out and jam with people constantly, whether they wanted him to or not.

Peter Buck would come out and jam with people constantly, whether they wanted him to or not

heh. I earwormed myself with Lionel Ritchie. Serves me right I guess.

I'm too ashamed to admit my first REM show was in 1995, Milwaukee. But then I saw them again in Chicago that year, and then in 1999 and then in 2003 and then in 2004 ... so yeah, I'm caught up now.