Stipe, a virulent sodomite, used to rant about Ronald Reagan’s AIDs policies in between songs.
Which is why their audience steadily became flaccid over the years.
I don't understand why these drama queens feel compelled to waste their paying audiences' time with political screeds. These people are the biggest narcissists. Imagine if the grocery checkout guy or the dry cleaner went off on some political monologue every time you had to deal with him. Besides, it's one thing to talk politics one-on-one in a social setting, and quite another to force-feed your views on someone who's paying good money to see you perform.
Elton John does the same thing at his concerts.
I was a huge REM fan in high school (late ‘90s), but I never got to see them live until late in college, long after Bill Berry had left the band. My girlfriend (now my wife) got me tickets to a rare tour. Unfortunately, this was right around when Rush Limbaugh’s drug problem broke in the media, so Stipe couldn’t help but make some gleeful comment about Rush’s problems, but thankfully he kept that crap to a minimum and just played some of their classic stuff. At one point, Bill Berry actually came on stage and played drums, so we got to see the full, original REM play. It was a good time, overall.