Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and Friends, Life’s Rich Pageant, March 6th, 2026 at Royale in Boston

Friday night, the tour of Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and Friends Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of R.E.M.’s “Life’s Rich Pageant” came through Boston with a killer show at Royale on Tremont.

As they did with “Fables of the Reconstruction” at the same venue, they played the album in sequence. Yes, this included Shannon (who played General Zod in Man of Steel) singing “I Am Superman”:

After the playing the full album, which sounded great but short, they launched into an extended set of songs from throughout the catalog – forward to Up and New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and back to Chronic Town.

After a pretty lengthy set, they also came back for an encore.

This time the “Friends” included Dag Juhlin (Poi Dog Pondering, Sunshine Boys, Exo ’76) , John Stirratt (Wilco, The Autumn Defense), Vijay Tellis-Nayak (composer, arranger, in Kick The Cat), and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats, Bob Mould). What a great band! I think they are spot-on with all the music from Chronic Town through Document (coming next year), though there were some stumbles in a few of the more recent songs deeper in the set – maybe the first time they’ve played them.

Look forward to seeing the Document tour.

The Mountain Goats, Getting Into Knives, 2020 on Merge

Nineteenth studio LP from John Darnielle and crew, recorded at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, and produced by Matt Ross-Spang. Similar crew to Dark in Here which was recorded shortly after this LP.

Love the liner notes credits for Ross-Spang: “the man himself, the dude with the heater in the basement, the fellow you know from the back room, the man who will not personally sell you any knives but can direct you to a guy who has at least three, two of them quite exotic.”

My copy—via Electric Fetus in Minneapolis MN—is the “gold metallic” 2xLP limited edition pressing.

The Mountain Goats, Dark in Here, 2021 on Merge

Twentieth studio LP from The Mountain Goats, recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and produced by Matt Ross-Spang. THe Mountain Goats this time include John Darnielle with Peter Hughes, Jon Wurster, and Matt Douglas, supported by Spooner Oldham, Will McFarlane, Susan Marshall, and Reba Russell.

Darnielle is such an amazing and interesting songwriter. The subtitle of the album is “12 songs for singing in caves, bunkers, foxholes, and secret spaces beneath the floorboards.” Who else (Flaming Lips?) would have a song titled “Aruging with the Ghost of Pater Laughner about his Coney Island Baby Review”?

My copy—via Electric Fetus in Minneapolis MN—is the blue vinyl limited edition with an etching on side 4.

Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and Friends play R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction at the Royale Boston, March 7th, 2025

I missed the last Shannon-Narducy recreate R.E.M. tour, when they came through doing Murmur at the Sinclair. This time I was not going to miss out.

The band includes Jon Wurster (who’s played with Bob Mould, Superchunk, and The Mountain Goats) on drums, John Stirratt (of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco) on bass, Dag Juhlin (Poi Dog Pondering) on guitar, and Vijay Tellis-Nayak in addition to Shannon’s vocals and Narducy’s guitar work. (Narducy has also played in Bob Mould’s band and with Superchunk, as well as Verbow).

Comedian Dave Hill opened, with some musical numbers of his own as well as pickup lines tailored to a Boston Audience.

Honestly they undersell the whole tour – while they are careful to note it isn’t a tribute band, they do recreate what I imagine it was like to see R.E.M. in a smaller venue earlier in their career. (Maybe it should be called Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy play the R.E.M. catalogue). By the time I saw R.E.M. on the Work tour in 1987, they were big enough to play the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul – a 5000 seat arena.

We got there early enough to get seats in the balcony – the view’s a bit obstructed when you’re sitting, but standing it’s a great view.

A few clips:

After playing Fables through, they went into what was actually the longer set of other songs from across the R.E.M. catalogue, including covers they played around the time, like this one (one of several they played from Dead Letter Office):

They also went back and forward in the R.E.M. catalog, to “Daysleeper” from Up and back to Chronic Town (Wolves, Gardening at Night). Some of my favorite Reckoning tracks made it too.

They called this one a deep cut for the true followers:

If you get a chance to catch the show – on this tour or hopefully on tours to follow for other R.E.M. album anniversaries – don’t miss it

#BostonMA #DagJuhlin #DaveHill #FablesOfTheReconstruction #JasonNarducy #JohnStirratt #JonWurster #LiveMusic #MichaelShannon #REM_ #TheRoyale #VijayTellisNayak

Chris Mars (The Replacements) and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Mountain Goats, Bob Mould Band) return to the Turned Out A Punk podcast

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/a52m6-2f17e/Turned-Out-A-Punk-Podcast

#music #punk #punkrock #podcast #podcasts #ChrisMars #TheReplacements #JonWurster #Superchunk #MountainGoats #BobMould

#JonWurster reports in from the seemingly final leg of the Rough & Rowdy Ways tour.

"This is what makes #BobDylan so enjoyable for so many of us: He knows exactly what people want, and it appears to mean absolutely nothing to him."

https://www.flaggingdown.com/p/notes-from-the-road-in-north-carolina

FUCK the new Mountain Goats album is hitting me hard.
It's been 11 years since All Hail West Texas and Jenny from Thebes really feels like the culmination of a decade of hardship, anxiety, and love.
From a technical standpoint I don't think it will be my favorite MG album (that's gonna be Bleed Out), but emotionally it's one of the most important albums to me, up there with Good Luck Everybody and The Wall.

https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/album/jenny-from-thebes

[Hashtag soup ahead:]
#MountainGoats #JennyFromThebes #AllHailWestTexas #BleedOut #FolkPunk #FolkRock #AltRock #RockOpera #JohnDarnielle #TinaShoemaker #AliciaBognanno #PeterHughes #MattDouglas #JonWurster #MattNathanson #KathrynValentine

Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy covering R.E.M.’s ‘Murmur’ live on 2024 tour

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/michael-shannon-jason-narducy-covering-r-e-m-s-murmur-live-on-2024-tour/

#music #collegerock #AltRock #alternativerock #postpunk #REM #JasonNarducy #MichaelShannon #JonWurster