Rock and Roll Hall of Famers R.E.M. [ tickets ] really don't have anything to prove--they'd probably assured themselves a place in that institution a decade ago, and most 25-plus-year-old bands aren't even trying to shoot for new relevance. Nonetheless, R.E.M.'s forthcoming 14th album, "Accelerate," clearly is an effort to regain some fire after a series of albums that found the group's music entering the realm of predictability.

SXSW [ tickets ] is a place for baby bands to gain exposure and for established acts to unveil new material. R.E.M. definitely did the latter--and then some--by performing 11 of the 12 tracks that appear on "Accelerate," along with about a dozen other songs. Clocking in at 120 minutes, the Wednesday night (3/12) performance was more than twice as long as the typical SXSW showcase.

The show opened with the same two hard-driving tracks that open "Accelerate," which is due in stores on April Fool's Day. Frontman Michael Stipe, clad in a dark suit and without a trace of encroaching middle-age paunch, quickly took ownership of the stage ("Children of South by Southwest, come to me!" he said, arms aloft like a crazed preacher), with longtime bandmates Mike Mills (bass) and Peter Buck (guitar) generally happy to slip into the background as master facilitators. Rounding out the live group were drummer Bill Rieflin and second guitarist Scott McCaughey. McCaughey took at least as many leads as the subdued Buck on this night.

Stipe's singular reedy, baritone croak was in fine form from the start, and bassist Mike Mills' familiar back-up vocals were always on target. In fact, it was Mills' vocals that tended to bring songs back to an even keel when they threatened to break apart, such as during a rendition of "The Great Beyond." (Stipe did give warning before the song began, admitting that the band hadn't rehearsed it in two years.)


R.E.M. didn't trot out much material from early in its career, but the three 20-plus-year-old songs they did dust off--"Second Guessing" from 1984's "Reckoning," "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" from 1985's "Fables of the Reconstruction" and "Fall on Me" from 1986's "Life's Rich Pageant"--still sounded fresh beside the new material. "Pageant" is probably the album that has most in common with "Accelerate"--in a welcome turn, the new tracks bring Buck's jangly Rickenbacher style back to the fore, and takes it easy on the ballads.

By padding out its setlist with many of the loping ballads that have been hits for the band in recent years, the set did lose momentum in spots; fans would've left with a completely different taste in their mouths if the show had ended with the somewhat plodding "Walk Unafraid" instead of the four-song encore that included new single "Supernatural Superserious" and concluded with "Man on the Moon."

In the end, though, this was R.E.M. serving notice that they've still got something to say--and that they're still among America's best rock bands.