Watching: R.E.M. : Perfect Square

Overview

Perfect Square is a video recording of a concert by rock band R.E.M., filmed on 19 July 2003 at the Bowling Green in Wiesbaden, Germany. It was released in DVD format on the Warner Brothers label on March 9, 2004. This concert is perhaps most notable for a performance of the song "Country Feedback", which Michael Stipe opens by declaring it his "favorite song". The rendition features appended lyrics from another song, Reveal's "Chorus and the Ring", and a guitar solo by Peter Buck, neither of which are in the original. Other concert highlights include the appearance of two then-new songs, "Bad Day" (Also originally known as PSA when first written in the early 1980's) and "Animal", and the re-emergence of the long-lost song "Permanent Vacation". "Permanent Vacation" dates back to 1980, years before their first album, while "Bad Day" dates back to 1985.