R.E.M.'s "Accelerate" Rehearsal Gigs Turn Into "Olympia" Live LP

In July 2007, R.E.M. booked five nights of shows at Dublin's Olympia Theatre and dubbed the performances as a "working rehearsal" as they tested out new tunes in front of small crowds of die-hard fans (read Rolling Stone's report from one of the gigs here). Many of the songs from the concerts ended up on R.E.M.'s 2008 album Accelerate, and now the highlights from the five shows will be featured on the upcoming double-disc set Live at the Olympia, due out October 27th.

In addition to the 39 tracks from the show, a deluxe version of Olympia will feature concert and backstage footage from French director Vincent Moon. A sampling of Moon's work can be seen in his video for "Living Well Is The Best Revenge," the opening track on both Accelerate and Live at the Olympia, above.

The set includes embryonic versions of Accelerate tracks — the single "Supernatural Superserious" is still called by its original name "Disguised" on this collection — but Olympia also features hits like "So. Central Rain" and "Drive," plus deeper cuts from the band's discography like "Disturbance At the Heron House" and four-fifths of their debut Chronic Town EP. There's also two still-unreleased Accelerate-era tracks, "On the Fly" and "Staring Down the Barrel of the Middle Distance."

Live at the Olympia
Disc 1:
"Living Well Is The Best Revenge"
"Second Guessing"
"Letter Never Sent"
"Staring Down The Barrel of the Middle Distance"
"Disturbance At The Heron House"
"Mr. Richards"
"New Test Leper"
"Cuyahoga"
"Electrolite"
"Man-Sized Wreath"
"So. Central Rain"
"On The Fly"
"Maps And Legends"
"Sitting Still"
"Driver 8"
"Horse To Water"
"I'm Gonna DJ"
"Circus Envy"
"These Days"

Disc 2:
"Drive"
"Feeling Gravity's Pull"
"Until The Day Is Done"
"Accelerate"
"Auctioneer"
"Little America"
"1,000,000"
"Disguised"
"Worst Joke Ever"
"Welcome To the Occupation"
"Carnival of Sorts
"Harbor Coat"
"Wolves, Lower"
"I've Been High"
"Kohoutek"
"West of the Fields"
"Pretty Persuasion"
"Romance"
"Gardening At Night"

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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