REM: Arena Civica, Milano, 7/26/08

Ahhh... what a beautiful night of music!

Last night we were fortunate enough to be at REM's concert at Milan's Arena Civica, which is an old open-air stadium in the middle of the city. Our seats were not that close, but I had no complaints at all. The view and the sound was still very good.


The opening band was the Editors, an English band I think. They sounded pretty good, very U2-like. I've never heard of them, but apparently they get played on Italian radio quite a bit.


REM came on a little past 9pm. I found out that the time printed on the tickets (in this case 21.00) is the time the actual act comes on, not when the opening acts going on, like in the U.S. They played a great show, with many of their well-loved classics. The band seemed to love us too as we were treated with a 6-song encore!



Living well
Animal
Kenneth
Wake up bomb
Leaving New York
Ignoreland
So fast so numb
Man sized wreath
Electrolite
Walk unafraid
The great beyond
I've been high
Let me in
Fall on me
Accelerate
The one I love
Horse to water
Bad day
I'm gonna dj
Imitation of life
Orange crush
Supernatural superserious
Losing my religion
Country feedback
Hollow man
Driver 8
Man on the moon

The Italian fans were loving it! When they played Losing My Religion, I was impressed how everyone around us suddenly seemed to acquire excellent English speaking skills. Everyone knew the words and was singing along. ;-)



Here's a video clip of the encore closer, Man on the Moon. You can see a little bit of the venue here.

It was an awesome concert. The weather was great with a slight breeze in the warm summer night. We had liberally sprayed ourselves with mosquito repellant beforehand so were spared from any mosquito bites.

Another funny thing I noticed was that while they were selling official band merchandise (t-shirts, etc) inside the venue, when we walked out after the concert ended, we were greeted with dozens of stalls selling 'unofficial' merchandise. There were all varieties of REM and REM European Tour t-shirts. Unbelievable.


Then we were hungry so we walked over to a cute creperie/bar/cafe in Brera for a midnight snack. We had one with proscuitto and tomatoes, and another with grand marnier orange liquor. Yummy! A perfect way to end the night.

#remberlin