R.E.M. marks its 30th anniversary

Thirty years ago today, Mike Mills, Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Michael Stipe were prepping for their first public performance, a show at the St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Athens for the birthday of Berry’s girlfriend.

It sounds as if Athens has been abuzz the past week in anticipation of the anniversary, with tribute concerts, exhibitions and a five-hour marathon of the band’s hits and obscurities on the University of Georgia student radio station, WUOG.

It’s fairly amazing to think that the band has chugged along on a nice bell curve of success since that show. Save for Berry’s departure, the core has remained the same, and for all of the stylistic diversions along the way, continues to mine the same guitar-bass-drums-vocals territory it did at that first show.

For the fan, there is a lot of material out there to peruse. Slicing Up Eyeballs has a probable set list from that first show and a short video about the church where the concert was held, while YouTube is home to several videos culled from an April 3 tribute concert in Athens. R.E.M. HQ has a lot of material, including a list of 30 places meaningful to the band assembled by Bertis Downs, and some archival photos from shooters like Sandra-Lee Phipps and Laura Levine (that’s Phipps collage of shots from that first show above).

Downs also submitted to an interview with Flagpole, the Athens free weekly, and there are several other things to be found by scouring the web as well. Spin some R.E.M. and celebrate.