Not since 1995 had R.E.M. undertaken such a massive tour. Reflecting album sales, there were two European legs and only one in North America. Setlists were fairly static but there were a few songs that were rotated in or out from night to night. some old favorites among them but the band is still set on not becoming a jukebox. First tour with regular vocal contributions from PB,. MS and SM frequently interact which is always fun because they are both so witty. Tempo of the songs still lags from pre-1995 days but is far better than 1995. It seems to have settled into a compromise. The frequent instrument changes do bog down the shows a bit as well.
-Early in the tour MS spoofs political ads: "We're rem and we approve of this concert".
-MS notes his age 19 or 20 when they wrote permanent vacation
-MS frequently makes the statement "we're going to play longer than we were supposed to".
-MS tells of being surprised to find himself as in I Wanted To Be Wrong. He also notes he unconsciously sang parts of the song with his Texas accent, and occasionally reviews his father's military service in NA shows. The intro evolves into more of a criticism of US government in European shows, as he no longer does the autobiographical angle he had been doing in NA.
-MS frequently juxtaposes one of their oldest songs (Permanent Vacation) with one of their newest (I'm Gonna DJ)
-This being an election year, MS urges people to vote every night through the election. After the election returns unfavorable results, he notes how disappointed they are for several shows after.
-"We're with you Dan Rather" after WTFK? several shows
-IOL is introduced as "Our first #1 single in Japan". throughout the tour.
-High Speed Train is introduced with some combination of MSs dreams and the future.
-Starting in Japan MS introduces electron blue as "about a new drug made out of light".
-Also starting in Japan & continuing to Australia there is usually a discussion as to what beer SM is drinking after intros. It stops for most of the summer Euro dates but picks up again at the very end of the tour.
-MS notes he is tired of saying 'thank you very much' and uses a variety of phrases instead 'thanks everybody' probably the most prevalent.
-MS begins introducing The Outsiders "This song is for the outsiders". late in the tour.
-I love the versions of Bad Day with Scotty M singing lines from the song (please don't take our picture) instead of just harmonizing. After listening through some shows the first time I detected it was 2005-04-06 but it might have started shortly before that. In the 04-06 show SM's backup vocals are still turned down pretty low but by the Werchter show (2005-07-03) they are quite prominent. LNY also has a healthu dose off Scott's vocals and it was pointed out to me that Animal does as well.
-I've evolved into noting rare songs (played less than 20 times on a given tour) by listing the song and the number of times it was played on that tour in parenthesis. Since this tour spanned two years the neumber of times played pertains to each year. Maybe someday I'll come back and add them up but not this day.