The Wife and I thankfully skipped the Browns’ debacle against Baltimore in favor of seeing REM Sunday night at the AJ Palumbo Center on Duquesne’s campus. Here’s what we heard:

Finest Worksong / Begin The Begin / The Wake-Up Bomb / Animal / Boy In The Well / Imitation Of Life / High Speed Train / So. Central Rain / The Outsiders / Electrolite / I’ve Been High / The One I Love / I Wanted To Be Wrong / (Don’t go Back To) Rockville / Final Straw / Losing My Religion / Walk Unafraid / Life And How To Live It

Encore: What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? / Drive / Sweetness Follows / Leaving New York / Permanent Vacation / I’m Gonna DJ / Man On The Moon

Great show on a number of levels. Most importantly, the band — Stipe, Mills and Buck — has a great group of supporting musicians, totally solid on stage. The new guys really fill out the rockers, and add beautiful touches where some subtlety is needed.

I was especially pleased with the song selection. From looking at previous set lists, I knew the show would be heavy on Around the Sun tunes, but I really got to hear more older stuff than I had expected. I like the new CD, but since this was my first time seeing REM, I was grateful that I didn’t have to wade through a bunch of stuff I didn’t recognize.

The lighting was unlike anything I had ever seen. Behind the stage were panels of what looked to be polished aluminum, very reflective. Hanging from the lighting rig were 25 or 30 tubes — they looked like the standard flourescent tube bulbs, only they varied in length and were dangling vertically over the stage. So on a couple of the rockers, strobes started flashing at (among?) the mirror-like panels, waving back and forth which left streaks of light flickering across the panels. The tubes also lit up, with as many as three colors glowing from each suspended glass column.

I love Palumbo for a show. It’s a small gym, seating not quite 6,000 with seats on the floor, It felt tiny, especially compared with the full-size arenas I’m used to. Couple that with the great seats we had — just above the floor in the bleachers, about halfway back — and it nearly felt like we were in a club, or at least something along the lines of the Newport in Columbus or the old Rosebud in the Strip.

We got back to the car just in time to hear the Browns give up the interception that was run back for a 237-yard touchdown, or whatever the hell it was. Great. Time to turn off the radio.

So that was a great night. I can’t believe I waited as long as I did to see them. The Wife had seen a couple of the big tours, for Document and Green, up in the Civic Arena years ago, and she said she had as much fun last night as she did at either of those.

And, I came home from work tonight with only one asshole. I had kind of been expecting to be given a new one while at work today. So that’s a good thing. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes — Fred and Ethel arrive Saturday morning.