Braving a mean cold on a Sunday night, standing in the infamous New England cold, I waited for R.E.M. I got to the Tweeter Center as Pete Yorn was performing. He was all right,but certainly not worth jumping up and down for. But before I get to the music, I'll describe the backdrop for you.Close your eyes (but not really), and imagine that sequin-like banners are hanging from the ceiling, undulating with the wind and twinkling like rain puddles. There are flowers and the word HI and the faces of R.E.M in a nice green. In the middle are orange neon lights arranged in shapes that may or may not represent anything. There are three letters in red neon on stands just behind the band: L, U, V.

The R.E.M setups are among the friendliest and most colorful I've ever seen.

R.E.M. - comprised of singer Michael Stipe, bassist Mike Mills and guitarist Peter Buck - are touring in support of their first greatest hits package, "In Time: The Best of R.E.M.: 1988-2003." There are two new songs featured both on the collection and now in concert, "Animal" and "Bad Day." Are they good songs? Yes and no. I couldn't get a feel for the former but I really enjoyed the latter, which is a single complete with expectedly fun video. They were thrown into the set list, introduced by Stipe with the enthusiasm that comes with fresh material. More importantly, it was fun to see the band enjoying the new songs. The rest of the set was retrospective with the exception of "Final Straw," a political song written "between the elections and the blackout," according to Stipe.

They began with an impressive, energetic and ironic "Begin The Begin," followed by a smooth "So Fast So Numb," which is one of my favorites. They returned to the older material for songs like "Fall On Me," "These Days" and "The One I Love," all very well executed. That is a good way to describe the show overall: well-executed. However, there were problems. First, they killed all the momentum and energy by placing "Drive," a very slow and soft song, four songs into the show. From that point on, the band had to climb uphill, pushing for a level of intensity that they couldn't seem to recapture.

Diehard fans got a treat when they played "Rockville" with Mills on vocals and dedicated to the woman he wrote it for. It was a nice moment and the song was done with extra significance. They also threw in the old outtake "Permanent Vacation" spontaneously. I had accidentally seen the set list before the show, and was disappointed when "Strange Currencies," one of their most beautiful songs and one particularly well suited for live performance, was not played.

Looking at the song list and comparing it to a show four years before, I can't help but see the missing pieces in Sunday's show. At that time, they were promoting a new album, so it was well represented in the set. The songs that they chose to resurrect from the past, however, were stronger choices for a live show.

The thing about R.E.M. is that an amazing song in the studio doesn't always carry over onto the stage, especially when it is a large venue like Tweeter. I was close, but sometimes the songs just came out flat. There was an anticlimatic moment when hearing "Losing My Religion" after years of treasuring it in its whole form on record. It went from being a powerful story of a hopeless romantic suffering a crush to being just another hit single. The magic was lost on stage, despite Stipe's attempt at making it fresh by telling the crowd that they were proud to perform for us. It sounded like he was trying to convince us that they weren't sick of playing it yet. "Man On The Moon" almost had the same problem, but was saved by Stipe's exuberance.

But the highlight of the night came from the most unusual place. The climax of the show was "She Just Wants to Be," a very strong track made stronger by Buck's wild, nearest reckless soloing. In those six minutes, everything came together and the band reached the level that they kept missing in songs like "Orange Crush" and "Imitation of Life." It was the magic I wanted and expected. I love R.E.M. and won't let this show dissuade me from their next project. I'll be there next time, hoping for better, and hoping for an indoor venue at this time of year.