One of the great debates of all time has been started anew this week (why this week, I'm not entirely sure, but whatev): U2 vs. R.E.M.

Witness: Stylus has a feature on which of the two is the superior band, Slate narrows the scope to focus on which was the better band in the 80's...and Stereogum reviews the matter and leaves it up to its readers in a comments section free-for-all.

You already know where I stand on the issue (and if, somehow, you don't, I'll just point out that I took the name for this LJ from an old R.E.M. song). Which means I happen to side with the Slate article, and particularly with this gem near the article's conclusion:

Either you loved U2, or you liked them fine. Either you loved R.E.M., or you hated them. The delicacy at the heart of R.E.M.'s 1980s albums fostered introspection and brotherhood among those of us who loved them in those years: introspection, because the songs pushed the listener inward, finding significance in every line; brotherhood, because we had to band together to defend our heroes against the unfeeling jerks who found R.E.M. precious and maddeningly opaque. I assumed, of course, that those jerks were U2 fans.

I suppose part of my very motivation for posting all of this is to defend my heroes by showing that I'm not the only one that holds them in such high esteem.

Y'know, as if that whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination business wasn't enough.

Tomorrow night I'm finally going to see U2 play Madison Square Garden. It's hard to believe it's almost been a year since I last saw them, at the "secret" show in Brooklyn last November, and, well, the anticipation's obviously getting the best of me. Here's why:

Two nights ago, I had a long, convoluted dream about going to the show (side note: I've been having a lot of vivid, memorable dreams as of late, which is rare for me). I dreamed that after zig-zagging through the concourse of MSG for what seemed like hours, Jonathan (who's not really coming with me on Tuesday) and I finally found our seats. Now, in actuality, I have terrible seats for the show, tucked away in a corner in one of the upper-most rows of the arena, and possibly behind the stage to boot (all the more frustrating because I stood on line for like 2 hours on a cold morning in March, hoping I'd get some decent seats). So in the dream, upon arriving at our seats, I get really excited to find that they are actually on the floor, just a few feet to the left of the stage. Our seats are in a small pen with barriers on every side, so once we're in, we can't leave. This pen seats maybe 20 people, so it makes us feel quite special to be in this exclusive seating area.

But then, just moments before U2 takes the stage, someone turns on a hydraulic lift, and our pen is raised 200 feet into the air. I look over the edge, and I can't even see the stage from this vantage point. Crap.

I think that's when I woke up in a cold sweat.

At any rate, this show's been on my mind a lot, and I can't wait to go. Reading brunerhyme's LJ entries about the U2 shows has certainly added to my restlessness (and made me extremely jealous, as she got to meet Michael Stipe and Anton Corbijn yesterday!).

Speaking of Michael and R.E.M., I read last night that Michael, Peter, and Mike re-united with Bill Berry--the band's drummer who left in 1997--to play for a friend's wedding in Athens. They played seven songs, mostly from their early days.

Seeing the pics and watching some lousy footage of the event made me really happy and wistful. It was as though I were watching a divorced couple as they happily shared a dance during their son/daughter's wedding reception; watching, imagining how things might've been had they never separated, and wondering--though both parties seem happy and content to be where they're at now--wondering why it just couldn't have turned out differently.

I never got to see R.E.M. live in their original form--as Bill, Peter, Mike, and Michael. And though I've really enjoyed the music that the "new" R.E.M. has done since 1997, it's never been quite the same without Bill. I doubt that it'll ever happen, but it really would be a dream come true if Bill re-joined the band.