R.E.M. at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre — October 26, 1986

On October 26, 1986, R.E.M. brought the Pageantry tour to Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, touring behind Lifes Rich Pageant with Throwing Muses opening. Across a 31-song night that opened with “These Days,” the band previewed “The One I Love” — still unreleased, and a year away from becoming their first Top 10 hit — and stacked the encores with covers of Wire, Television and Iggy Pop. Jamestown native Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs joined them onstage for “The Counting Song,” a Western New York cameo in the middle of a college-rock band’s last run before mainstream stardom. Forty years later, it remains one of the great snapshots of R.E.M. in their jangling, word-scrambling prime, played beneath the gilded ceiling of Buffalo’s 1926 movie palace.