Michael Shannon sings the hits

And short fiction for paid subscribers.

Oh, hi! Paid subscribers will also see a 60-second short story at the end of this post. Springtime is ideal for trying new things, so consider upgrading your subscription. But first …

Hat, glasses, jumpsuit, Michael Shannon.

michael shannon & jason narducy and friends

Saturday was the third time I saw Michael Shannon & Friends perform a concert of R.E.M. songs and at least the thousandth time I’ve heard “Driver 8,” which is not just my all-time favorite R.E.M. song but my favorite song, period. It was maybe the tenth time I’ve been to Brooklyn Steel, a cavernous venue with a capacity of 1,800. It was the second time I attended one of these performances with my friend Kim, whose senior quote in her high-school yearbook was a line from the R.E.M. song “World Leader Pretend.”

It was the first time I wore a white leather skirt I found at a thrift store and the first time I heard Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic” performed live. It was the first time I had seen or spoken to a sports writer named Jimmy since 1997, when we worked at our college newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee — I have a feeling we both attended an R.E.M. concert there in 1995, too.

It was the first time in a long time that I felt okay about being at such a crowded event, especially at the end when Michael Stipe, the real singer of R.E.M., dropped in to sing “Pretty Persuasion” and 1,800 of us looked at each other like Can you believe this?? and GODDAMN!, which is also a line from “Pretty Persuasion” that we shouted in unison with our hands in the air.

Let me tell you, I had a time — which , in times like these, is no small thing.

(The tour continues this week in Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago.)