Remember When: R.E.M. Played Their Final Full Concert in Mexico, 2008

Before R.E.M. disbanded in 2011, the band played one final show together in Mexico City on November 18, 2008, during their Accelerate Tour. At the time, the band’s final performance with founding drummer Bill Berry was a year earlier when the band played their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction.

During the final gig at Auditorio Nacional, the 26-song set scanned R.E.M.’s 15 albums, including the 2008 release Accelerate with the opening “Living Well Is the Best Revenge,” “Man-Sized Wreath,” and closing “Supernatural Superserious” and further back with Monster tracks “I Took Your Name” and “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” to “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” “Everybody Hurts,” and more from the ’90s and earlier with “Orange Crush,” “The One I Love,” “Stand,” and more.

The band returned for a five-song encore including “Losing My Religion,” “I Believe,” “Country Feedback,” and “Life and How to Live It.”

Before the close of the show, Michael Stipe told the crowd it would be “our last show for a long time,” before R.E.M. went into their 1992 hit “Man On The Moon.” On March 11, 2009, the band reunited, with Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills, and was joined by Patti Smith for a performance of “E-Bow the Letter” during a tribute to R.E.M. at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

[RELATED: Michael Stipe’s Missive to River Phoenix, and the Story Behind the R.E.M. and Patti Smith Duet “E-Bow The Letter”]

Songwriters Hall of Fame Reunion

On June 13, 2024, R.E.M. performed together again with Berry for the first time in 17 years during the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in New York City. “Here’s what we did,” said Michael Stipe before the band walked on stage and performed a stripped-back version of their 1991 hit “Losing My Religion.

Before the band’s surprise performance, Stipe gave the band’s acceptance speech and thanked a long list of people who have supported the band since its inception in 1980. “Writing songs and having a catalog of work that we’re all proud of that is out there for the rest of the world for all time is hands-down the most important aspect of what we did,” said Stipe. “Second to that is that we managed to do so all those decades and remain friends. And not just friends, dear friends.”

Stipe added, “We are four people that very early on decided that we would own our own masters and we would split our royalties and songwriting credits equally. All for one and one for all. And so we set out to do our work accordingly. It turned out good, sometimes great. And what ride it has been.”

[RELATED: R.E.M. Performs for First Time in 17 Years at the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame]

Setlist: R.E.M. at Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, November 18, 2008

1. Living Well Is the Best Revenge
2. I Took Your Name
3. What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
4. Fall on Me
5. Drive
6. Man-Sized Wreath
7. Ignoreland
8. Disturbance at the Heron House
9. Hollow Man
10. Imitation of Life
11. Electrolite
12. The Great Beyo
13. Everybody Hurts
14. The One I Love
15. Find the River
16. Let Me In
17. Bad Day
18. Horse to Water
19. Orange Crush
20. It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
21. Supernatural Superserious

Encore

1. Losing My Religion
2. I Believe
3. Country Feedback
4. Life and How to Live It
5. Man on the Moon

Watch R.E.M.’s entire final encore below.

Photo: R.E.M. Photo by Anton Corbijn/Courtesy of the Songwriters Hall of Fame