On Saturday, Michael Stipe came to celebrate Aaron and Bryce Dessner's birthday. The twins performed a "Mixtape" show as part of AB100, a two-day festival celebrating Dessners’ 50th birthday in the Basque Country. The special event was held months after their actual birthday, which is April 23. During their set, Stipe joined them onstage to sing R.E.M.’s "E-Bow The Letter" and his Big Red Machine collab "No Time For Love Like Now" with the National’s Matt Berninger.
Before playing, Stipe presented the Dessners with gifts, small sculptures he made the year that they toured together. "You can use it as a guitar slide, but you might get electrocuted, which is not good," he joked. Berninger then joined the stage, also joking that he had brought them gifts. He then placed something (gum? ZYNs?) on their music stands.
Bryce Dessner talked about how when the National opened for R.E.M. back in 2007/2008, they would beg the headliners to play certain songs. "Sometimes they would oblige, and so we did it today again, and Michael gracefully said yes," he said.
Then Berninger mentioned some notable advice Stipe passed on to them all those years ago. "He said, 'No matter what, remember you guys were friends first.' No, it's true. He said that to us 15 years ago, and that's why we're still a band — I mean we're no longer friends," he joked. "But we were first. But that was one of the best pieces of advice I'd ever gotten from anybody. So thank you, Michael."
Stipe then introduced "E-Bow The Letter" by saying that "this started in 1975 on the Lower East Side of New York City, and exactly 20 years later, coalesced and started to become this song in San Sebastián, which I haven't been back to since 1995. I'm very happy to be here, in the region, and here we are. This is called 'E-Bow The Letter.'"
Stipe hadn’t performed “E-Bow,” originally recorded with Patti Smith, in 17 years. The song was the lead single for R.E.M.'s 10th studio album New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which came out in August 1996. In Biarritz, he was also backed by Jon Hopkins on keys and Anastasia Kobekina on cello for the song.
Later on, the National, who staged their first show in two years at PEOPLE festival in Berlin on Oct. 11, played "90-Mile Water Wall" for the first time in 12 years. In Berlin they were joined by Gordi, SOAK, Bartees Strange, Mina Tindle, Ye Vagabonds, and more.
Last week Stipe said his long-awaited debut solo album will come in 2027, with the first single dropping minutes into the new year.
Watch clips below.