R.E.M.'s 2003 world tour was somewhat unusual in that the band had no new album to support; indeed, most of the tour took place before the Warner Bros. best-of In Time hit stores. With only a few new songs in their arsenal, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe mined their entire 23-year history and performed around 80 songs over the course of the tour. The band's performance in Wiesbaden, Germany is the basis of R.E.M.'s third concert film, Perfect Square.

Perfect Square was filmed with high-definition video cameras on a single evening, so there's a fairly documentary feel to this release. I think it was a good choice, for a number of reasons. Wiesbaden's Bowling Green is an absolutely beautiful outdoor setting, and the high-definition footage is quite flattering with some vibrant, brilliant colors. The flow and pacing of a single night's performance is captured here, and it's also possible to get a sense of how the band and the crowd fed off each other. Since R.E.M. is still quite popular in Europe and drew a sizable crowd to Bowling Green, that's a considerable advantage. Buck, Mills, and Stipe all seemed genuinely pleased with their warm reception, and it was good to see that side of the band.

That the Wiesbaden performance was a damn good concert doesn't hurt, either. It kicks off in high gear with the energetic Begin the Begin from Lifes Rich Pageant, but a few songs later the band shifts to a quieter gear with Automatic from the People's Drive. Mills trades his bass for piano on a number of songs, including one of the more popular songs from the band's post-Bill-Berry period, Up's At My Most Beautiful. (Buck picks up the bass for that track.) Mills' backup vocals also help make the live version of Animal much stronger than the studio version from In Time. Buck's guitar solos give Out of Time's Country Feedback a beautiful haunting quality. While crowd pleasers like Man on the Moon or show closer It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) probably got a stronger response, the strongest performance of the 23-song set is Orange Crush from Green. Buck and Mills just pound through the song while Stipe hammers the lyrics home with a megaphone. (Before starting, Stipe asks the audience, "You OK?" My wife has commented that he was probably thinking, "'Cause we're about to kick your ass with this one." It wouldn't surprise me if she were right.)

Mills, Buck and Stipe are supported on the tour by Scott McCaughey, Ken Stringfellow, and Bill Rieflin. The three have a fairly close working relationship with the band, and the six-piece live unit works very well together. The DVD also includes A Stirling Performance, a 30-minute documentary about the band's 1999 performances at Stirling Castle in a small Scotland town. While it includes a smattering of performance footage and interview clips with all three band members, the focus of the short film is on the town itself and its preparation for the arrival of a world-famous rock band. It's a very nice bonus feature that complements a strong performance.

Reviewed by Dave Thomer
theLogBook.com Assistant Editor