🎶 ALBUM VAULT #234 🎶
Back to the concert list…
R.E.M. – Monster
I saw R.E.M. at the Rosemont Horizon with a girl I met thanks to Q101.
I was going through a pretty bad breakup at the time, and she was basically a concert fling. I actually saw this show AND the next concert on my list with her.
And for the life of me…
DAMN, WHAT WAS HER NAME? 😂
Anyway… Monster.
I LOVED this album.
R.E.M. had already become enormous with Out of Time and Automatic for the People, but Monster was different. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry cranked up the guitars, distortion and fuzz and made an album that sounded built to be played LOUD onstage. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200.
And the hits were all over alternative radio:
“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” — #21 Hot 100 / #1 Alternative
“Bang and Blame” — #19 Hot 100 / #1 Alternative
“Strange Currencies” — #47 Hot 100
“Star 69” — #8 Alternative
Then you’ve got “Crush with Eyeliner,” “Tongue,” “I Took Your Name” and “Let Me In.”
This was right in the middle of that amazing period when alternative music had basically taken over. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Soundgarden… and here was R.E.M., a band that had helped build that road years before, suddenly sounding just as loud and dangerous as everybody else.
And Q101 was right there in the middle of it all for me.
Great album. Great concert.
And somewhere out there is a woman whose name I apparently deleted from my hard drive. 😂
#REM #Monster #WhatsTheFrequencyKenneth #BangAndBlame #StrangeCurrencies #Q101 #AlternativeRock #90sMusic #RosemontHorizon #ConcertMemories #AlbumVault