R.E.M. Members Perform With Former Drummer Bill Berry

Posted on Sep 30th 2009 12:30PM by Emily Tan
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Ex-R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry reunited with former bandmates Peter Buck and Mike Mills at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Ga., on Monday night. The gig, which was headlined by Buck's side projects the Baseball Project and the Minus Five, marked Berry's first performance since he played with R.E.M. at the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Berry joined members of both bands onstage for the show's encore and drummed on covers of the Beatles' 'The Ballad of John and Yoko,' the McCoys' 'Hang on Sloopy' and 'Teenage Head' by the Flamin' Groovies. Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers had earlier joined the Minus Five on a cover of Neil Young's 'Revolution Blues,' while R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, who was in the crowd, didn't perform.

"I hear that Bill doesn't go out to all that many shows," Baseball Project member and former Dream Syndicate frontman Steve Wynn wrote on his blog. "And I'm pretty sure that he has only played a handful of times with Peter and Mike in recent years so it was certainly a real treat to be up there while that was all going down."

Berry, who suffered a brain aneurysm during a 1995 R.E.M. performance, left the band in 1997 to become a farmer. Check out a clip of the performance below.