ATHENS — Juliana Hartley had a peak Athens experience on Thursday.
The University of Georgia senior saw Michael Stipe, frontman of the band R.E.M. that famously formed here in the 1980s. Stipe sightings are common because he lives here part time. But Hartley witnessed something few have seen the past two decades — Stipe performing live.
“It was really surreal,” Hartley said “I was looking around and asking myself, ‘How did I get here?’”
Stipe sang for roughly 15 minutes in front of a crowd of around 400 people at a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris. He performed four songs, including two from R.E.M.’s 1985 album Fables of the Reconstruction: “Driver 8″ and “Wendell Gee.”
Hearing “Wendell Gee,” a song R.E.M. rarely performed before it amicably disbanded in 2011, brought Kristen Morales to tears. She last saw the band play in 1996 and had all but given up on seeing Stipe sing live again.
“I was always hoping, but I had resigned myself to the fact that it probably wasn’t going to happen,” the longtime Athens resident said.
In June, R.E.M. performed together for the first time in 15 years at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York. The last time the band performed in its hometown was in 2006.
Since then, the band’s other three members — Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry — have played on stages in Athens, sometimes together. In February, all four members attended a show at the 40 Watt when actor Michael Shannon’s band covered R.E.M.’s debut album, “Murmur.” Berry, Mills and Buck each played at various points. Stipe joined everyone on stage after the show but didn’t sing.
“He’s a fixture around town; you might run into him and that’s cool,” Morales said. “But I’ve thought he’s not going to sing on stage ever.”
There was a hint this could happen last week. Stipe sang at a benefit concert for the Harris campaign in Pittsburgh with Jason Isbell, previously in the Athens-based band Drive-By Truckers. Morales’ husband, Ed, was in Pittsburgh for an unrelated reason and attended the show.
“Stipe doesn’t come out and perform,” Ed Morales said. “That’s a rare thing.”
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke to the crowd in Athens on Thursday, billed as the main attraction in social media posts by local and state Democrat organizations. Emhoff, who told the crowd in Pittsburgh he first saw R.E.M. in concert in 1984, conceded Stipe was the reason people in Athens were excited.
Stipe was joined on stage by local musicians David Barbe and Andy LeMaster, who played instruments.
Hartley, a political science and economics major and chief of staff for State Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens), said she didn’t expect music and politics to overlap like it did Thursday.
“I think that’s a testament to where Athens is at,” she said. “We’re still celebrating the music culture of the area while looking forward to electing Kamala Harris in November.”
Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz also spoke at the Athens event.
Also on Thursday, actor Julia Roberts, a Smyrna native, campaigned on Harris’ behalf in Georgia. In September, singer John Legend encouraged voters to cast a ballot during a September stop in Atlanta. Rapper Lil Jon performed at the Democratic nominating convention during Georgia’s roll call vote.
Before the Athens event, Stipe, Emhoff and political commentator Joe Scarborough visited Wuxtry Records downtown. That’s where Buck and Stipe met in 1980, and the band took off from there.
Nate Mitchell has worked at Wuxtry since 2011. He said he has seen Stipe in the store just once, last year for a promotional event for the last surviving Monkee, Micky Dolenz. But he often sees Buck, Mills and Berry.
“Stipe is the more elusive one,” Mitchell said. “He’s more recognizable and probably the one who has to worry about stalkers.”
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