R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Jon Hopkins, Ben Howard, Anaïs Mitchell, the Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and Ragnar Kjartansson were among the special guests joining members of the National yesterday (Oct. 17) at Atabal in Biarritz, France, as part of a belated 50th birthday celebration for brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner dubbed AB100 (their actual birthday was April 23). The event continues tonight in nearby San Sebastian with a full National concert.
After performing his 2020 Aaron Dessner collaboration “No Time for Love Like Now,” Stipe stuck around for a cover of R.E.M.’s “E-Bow the Letter” with help from National frontman Matt Berninger. “I brought gifts from New York City and they’re heavy in my pocket,” he said before distributing small handmade sculptures to the Dessners. “It’s a sculpture that I made the year that we toured together. You can use it as a guitar slide, but you might get electrocuted, which is not good.”
“We got to open for R.E.M. in 2007-8 and we used to beg them to play certain songs, and sometimes they would oblige,” Aaron Dessner added as a tease to “E-Bow,” which appeared on R.E.M.’s 1996 album New Adventures in Hi-Fi with a guest vocal from Patti Smith. “We did it today again, and Michael gracefully said yes.”
“I’m very honored to be here,” Stipe elaborated. “The song that we’re going to perform started in 1975 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Exactly 20 years later, it coalesced and started to become this song in San Sebastian, which I haven’t been back to since 1995.”
Amid Aaron Dessner’s busy production schedule, the National broke a two-year stage hiatus on Oct. 11 in Berlin as part of the PEOPLE festival, during which it was joined by acts such as Howard, Gordi, SOAK, Bartees Strange, Angie McMahon and David Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey for collaborative versions of “Fake Empire,” “Terrible Love,” “Bloodbuzz Ohio” and others.
Stipe, meanwhile, continues work on his long-awaited solo debut, which he recently told the Los Angeles Times will be out next May.