REM Tickets

Ticket Retriever sells tickets for REM concert events. We specialize in providing you with premium and other REM Tickets that are in high demand. We can help you gain access to tickets for all major events.

How to Find REM Tickets:

1. Browse our ticket inventory by clicking on the "REM" button.

2. Sort REM Tickets by price, section, or row.

3. Use the seating chart to help you find the REM tickets that meet your preferences.

4. Place your ticket order for REM Tickets on our secure system.

About REM

REM mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981 it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the US during the early '80s, REM brought guitar-pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, REM had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle-pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative-pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom. It did take REM several years to break into the top of the charts, but they had a cult following from the release of their debut EP, Chronic Town, in 1982. Chronic Town established the haunting folk and garage rock that became the band's signature sound, and over the next five years, they continued to expand their music with a series of critically-acclaimed albums. By the late '80s, the group's fan base had grown large enough to guarantee strong sales, but the Top 10 success in 1987 of Document and "The One I Love" was unexpected, especially since REM had only altered its sound slightly. Following Document, REM slowly became one of the world's most popular bands. After an exhaustive international tour supporting 1988's Green, the band retired from touring for six years and retreated into the studio to produce their most popular records, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992). By the time they returned to performing with the Monster tour in 1995, the band had been acknowledged by critics and musicians as one of the forefathers of the thriving alternative rock movement, and they were rewarded with the most lucrative tour of their career. Toward the late '90s, REM was an institution, as its influence was felt in new generations of bands.

Though REM formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980, Mike Mills (b. December 17, 1958) and Bill Berry (b. July 31, 1958) were the only Southerners in the group. Both had attended high school together in Macon, playing in a number of bands during their teens. Michael Stipe (b. January 4, 1960) was a military brat, moving throughout the country during his childhood. By his teens, he had discovered punk rock through Patti Smith, Television, and Wire, and began playing in cover bands in St. Louis. By 1978, he had begun studying art at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he began frequenting the Wuxtry record store. Peter Buck (b. December 6, 1956), a native of California, was a clerk at Wuxtry. Buck had been a fanatical record collector, consuming everything from classic rock to punk and free jazz, and was just beginning to learn how to play guitar. Discovering they had similar tastes, Buck and Stipe began working together, eventually meeting Berry and Mills through a mutual friend. In April of 1980, the band formed to play a party for their friend, rehearsing a number of garage, psychedelic bubblegum and punk covers in an converted Episcopalian church. At the time, the group was played under the name the Twisted Kites. By the summer, the band had settled on the name REM after flipping randomly through the dictionary, and had met Jefferson Holt, who became their manager after witnessing the group's first out-of-state concert in North Carolina.

Over the next year and a half, REM toured throughout the South, playing a variety of garage rock covers and folk-rock originals. At the time, the band was still learning how to play, as Buck began to develop his distinctive, repaginated jangle and Stipe ironed out his cryptic lyrics. During the summer of 1981, REM recorded its first single, "Radio Free Europe," at Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios. Released on the local independent label Hib-Tone, "Radio Free Europe" was pressed in a run of only 1,000 copies, but most of the singles fell into the right hands. Due to strong word-of-mouth, the single became a hit on college radio and topped the Village Voice's year-end poll of Best Independent Singles. The single also earned the attention of larger independent labels, and by the beginning of 1982, the band had signed to I.R.S. Records, releasing the EP Chronic Town in the spring. Like the single, Chronic Town was well-received, paving the way for the group's full-length debut album, 1983's Murmur.

With its subdued, haunting atmosphere and understated production, Murmur was noticeably different than Chronic Town and it was welcomed with enthusiastic reviews upon its spring release; Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1983, beating out Michael Jackson's Thriller and the Police's Synchronicity. Murmur also expanded the group's cult significantly, breaking into the American Top 40. REM returned to a rougher-edged sound on 1984's Reckoning, which featured the college hit "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)." By the time the band hit the road to support Reckoning, they had become well-known in the American underground for their constant touring, aversion to videos, support of college radio, Stipe's mumbled vocals and detached stage presence, Buck's ringing guitar, and their purposely enigmatic artwork. Bands that imitated these very things ran rampant throughout the American underground, and REM threw their support towards these bands, having them open at shows and mentioning them in interviews. By 1985, the American underground was awash with REM sound-alikes and bands like Game Theory and the Rain Parade, which shared similar aesthetics and sounds.

REM Tickets

Ticket Retriever sells tickets for REM concert events. We specialize in providing you with premium and other REM Tickets that are in high demand. We can help you gain access to tickets for all major events.

How to Find REM Tickets:

1. Browse our ticket inventory by clicking on the "REM" button.

2. Sort ticket events by price, section, or row.

3. Use the seating chart to help you find the REM tickets that meet your preferences.

4. Place your ticket order for REM Tickets on our secure system.