Thursday, Mar 16, 1989

R.E.M.

Also on the bill: Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians

Date
Thursday, Mar 16, 1989
Show time
7:30 PM
Venue
San Diego Sports Arena
City
San Diego, CA
Seating
Arena
Face value
$18.50
Promoter
Bill Silva Presents
Sold by
Ticketmaster

Green tour. Also on the bill, recovered from setlist.fm's record of who played this room that night. setlist.fm stores no running order, so the slot each act played is unknown.

What they played

  1. Pop Song 89
  2. Exhuming McCarthy
  3. Welcome to the Occupation
  4. Turn You Inside-Out
  5. The One I Love
  6. Orange Crush with 'Be All That You Can Be' intro
  7. Sitting Still
  8. Feeling Gravitys Pull
  9. Cuyahoga
  10. Begin the Begin
  11. World Leader Pretend with 'We Live as We Dream, Alone' intro
  12. I Believe with 'Tired of Singing Trouble' intro
  13. Pretty Persuasion
  14. These Days
  15. Get Up
  16. Auctioneer (Another Engine)
  17. It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Encore

  1. Stand
  2. Driver 8
  3. Fall on Me
  4. You Are the Everything
  5. Finest Worksong
  6. King of Birds with 'Letter Never Sent' tease; with Morris Windsor on conga drums
  7. Dark Globe Syd Barrett cover partial
  8. Swan Swan H
  9. See No Evil Television cover
  10. Harpers Hugo Largo cover
  11. Crazy Pylon cover
  12. Perfect Circle
  13. After Hours The Velvet Underground cover

30 songs, from setlist.fm. Contributed by whoever was standing there taking notes.

What Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians played

  1. More Than This Roxy Music cover
  2. Charlotte Anne Julian Cope cover
  3. All Tomorrow's Parties The Velvet Underground cover

4 songs, from setlist.fm.

The moment

Green was the great crossing: R.E.M.'s first major-label album after a decade as America's definitive college-rock band, and the Green World Tour was their first arena run — the experiment in whether the mumbling Athens art band could fill hockey barns. It could. 'Stand' and 'Orange Crush' were on actual pop radio, Michael Stipe was becoming a generation's frontman, and Out of Time and global enormity were two years off. Robyn Hitchcock, their fellow-traveler, shared the bill. Eighteen fifty to watch the underground graduate.

From the time

The stub