This is not a review (June30th and July 1st)

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW
but coming back from Dublin we couldn't help writing down just some thoughts...
our "guys" from Athens are always a pleasant surprise, and every time we are back home from their concerts, we agree that it was really worth it (despite the flight connections, queues, hours not slept and so on...).
Listening to new unknown live songs is always challenging, but we gladly accepted this task: well, as we wrote in the first line, this would not be an analysis of what was "not a show", we leave it to professional crithics (though we doubt that they really are up to the task, at least most of them ;) ) so we just want to say thanks to Peter, Mike and Michael for the chance they have given to their fans to take part of their work still in progress, it was really a great idea.
The new songs are at least interesting (we liked so much listening again to "rocking R.E.M.") and promising, some of them are already working very well and we look forward to listen to all of them in their final versions. We were particularly impressed by Michael's performance: he was very inspired, and his voice was as perfect as ever, even more than some other "shows" (we mean, real shows;) ) seems like the guy is improving with the years, we regret that we cannot comment on the lyrics because is a little difficult for us to understand all the word at a first listening. Mike and Peter also seemed enjoying the whole thing, and we liked the informal and relaxed atmosphere on the stage, especially in the second evening.
If we add to this the pleasantness of a city like Dublin and the chance to meet again with some old friends (with whom we have lived many R.E.M. experiences) well... this is really a sort of "perfect circle"!
Massimo and Rosalba, from Italy