R.E.M. bangs and blames

“We’re R.E.M. and we approve of this concert,” was the playful line that R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe used on the recent anti-President Bush Vote for Change concert swing, and again Wednesday as the veteran rock trio kicked off its formal U.S. tour at the Greek Theatre.

Which proves you can take the rock band out of a political tour, but you can’t take the politics out of a rock band.

Lead singer Stipe referred to the coming presidential election a couple of times during the group’s two-hour concert and wore a Sen. John F. Kerry T-shirt during the encore.

R.E.M.’s choice of songs, too, leaned to material about socio-political change, sometimes indirectly, sometimes head on.

“Let’s begin again,” a highly animated Stipe sang with the zeal of a true crusader in “Begin the Begin,” the night’s opening number. It’s a 1986 song that speaks about rallying against social and moral bankruptcy.

Whether reaching back again to the ‘80s for “World Leader Pretend” or taking a song from its new “Around the Sun” album, R.E.M. kept the focus on current affairs much of the night.

That new song, “Final Straw,” was released by the band last year in protest of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. At the time, it seemed like a knee-jerk battle cry, but Stripe sang it Wednesday with a thoughtful, solemn resolve that made the tune feel more substantial.

Not everyone at the Greek was happy.

There were even a few loud boos when Stipe put on the T-shirt and when he spoke between songs about the November election.

Whatever one’s political views, it’s a good thing the band had something on its mind. For much of the night, the concert felt adrift, as if Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills hadn’t had enough time between the end of the Vote for Change shows this week and the start of their tour to figure out what they wanted to say on what is a crucial tour for them.

R.E.M. is one of the great American rock bands ever, a group whose integrity and craft served as a blueprint for much of the indie-rock movement.

But the group has been relatively inactive in recent years, and there was concern whether R.E.M. -- reduced to a trio in 1997 when drummer Bill Berry left -- would continue. After a period of tense uncertainty in 1998, they vowed to forge on.

Yet R.E.M., which sold more than 40 million albums in the ‘80s and ‘90s, has not regained its earlier hold on the rock audience. Its new album failed to crack the top 10 the first week out.

That album, however, provides them with strong songs and a point of view -- a vulnerable and revealing work that should be compelling live.

It was interesting that Stipe wore a painted mask around his eyes for much of the concert, because his lyrics for “Around the Sun” are by far his most open and revealing.

For years, Stipes’ lyrics were so oblique they seemed like riddles, all the more difficult to piece together because he sang in a near mumble. R.E.M. added to the elusiveness by not including lyric sheets in the albums.

Still, the lines carried a ring of discovery and truth, as Stipe spoke about the matters of human values and faith. What made things even better was a jangly folk-rock sound as true to the country’s roots as the music of the Band.

In recent albums, Stipe has been opening up as a writer and enunciating better as a singer. There are even lyric sheets in the albums now.

The new album is a moving look at disillusionment and struggle, drawn from the band’s near demise, the events of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. In line with the introspective themes, the music also is understated.

R.E.M. included five songs from the album in Wednesday’s shows, but they were scattered throughout in a way that never drew attention fully to them. The arrangements -- the band is joined on the tour by three other musicians -- also felt beefed up in a way that worked against the intimacy of the numbers on record.

It was nice to revisit some classic R.E.M. tunes and touches -- from the mandolin lilt on “Losing My Religion” to Stipe’s Elvis hip-shake during “Man on the Moon” -- but they didn’t really break new ground or tell us where R.E.M. is headed, except to the voting booth on Nov. 2.

After we get past the election and the tour continues around the country, R.E.M. needs to share its own 2004 platform on stage.

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R.E.M.

Where: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Price: $20 to $75

Contact: (949) 855-8096