Today I listened to what could very well be one of the finest live performances ever committed to DAT; a little known band who, on that particular night, decided to roll under a different moniker – preferring to call themselves Bingo Hand Job. The release is (happily) a double album known as ‘From the Borderline’ (1991).
Now, before we I go any further, I can some of you crying out “but who in the H-E-double hockey sticks is ‘Bingo Hand Job’?”, right?
Well, they also happened to be (on this night anyway) the live acoustic reincarnation of old school R.E.M.
Yup.
That’s right, this amazing collection of live material was recorded live at the Borderline, on Friday March 19th, 1991, except for portions of the second disc which were recorded at Shocking Club, Milano, on March 22nd.
On hand and joining Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe on stage for a lively and largely improvisational acoustic romp of covers, classics, sing-a-longs and other drunken ramblings, were special guests Billy Bragg, Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Holsapple; mixed with alcohol and let sit for an hour and a half.
From the sounds of the scant applause in the audience, this is one of those legendary secret shows whose story gets passed down for generations of fans. Today, it was the perfect shiny happy soundtrack for today’s shiny happy (yet cool) 5k easy fartlek run with drills.
Music in Motion 