R.E.M. + Modest Mouse + The National

Michael Stipe is invariably bound to shoulder intense criticism whenever R.E.M. drops another album. But isn’t that his job? After all, he is a rock star, not to mention the granddaddy of alternative rock. The band’s latest, Accelerate, is no less disappointing than any of the other updates to R.E.M.’s catalogue in the past ten years. Thankfully, it’s only 34 minutes long, so you can be sure the band won’t waste too much of its set belaboring the new shit. You’re shelling out United Center ticket prices to hear anthems like “Radio Free Europe,” “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” and any of the countless brilliant, forward-thinking pop songs by the band that laid out the template for college rock in the ’80s.

The most notable aspect of this tour is the inclusion of indie heavyweights Modest Mouse and the National—a savvy move on R.E.M.’s part. These bands achieved substantial notoriety traveling the road that the boys from Athens paved and owe more than a little of their success to the original indie rockers. The National makes its debt plainly clear, with Matt Berninger’s brooding baritone a darker variation on Stipe’s postromantic croon. Modest Mouse, not as much—frontman Isaac Brock’s bark sounds more like Scooby Doo with every album.

So who cares if R.E.M. morphed into a studio-polished version of its former self? The band members aged a hell of a lot better than their Irish counterparts in U2. Plus, with members of Ministry (current R.E.M. drummer Bill Rieflin) and the Smiths (current Mouseketeer Johnny Marr) on hand, there’s the chance of an epic ’80s college-radio jam in the encore.