When Aaron and Bryce Dessner chose to celebrate their fiftieth birthdays across the French and Spanish border, they turned the weekend into an extended reunion of close peers. The opening night of their AB100 festival, staged on October 17 at the Atabal venue in Biarritz, France, reached its clearest high point when Michael Stipe walked out to join members of The National. Together, they dusted off the 1996 R.E.M. single "E-Bow The Letter," offering an uncommon run through one of Stipe's most storied recordings.
The Biarritz event, titled Mixtape, featured a shifting cast of friends and collaborators that included Kevin Morby, Ben Howard, and electronic producer Jon Hopkins. Before any music started on the centerpiece performance, the musicians took time to trade gifts onstage. Stipe handed the Dessner twins handmade sculptures to mark their milestone, while singer Matt Berninger walked out with a packet of chewing gum, distributing pieces among the group with an easy grin.
Reviving "E-Bow The Letter" carried a geographic logic that Stipe was quick to point out. Addressing the audience, he explained that R.E.M. originally wrote the song during a stay in San Sebastián in 1995, just down the coast from where they were standing. Aaron Dessner also recalled an earlier chapter of their connection, telling the crowd that when The National served as an opening act for R.E.M. back in 2008, the band spent their nights unsuccessfully petitioning the headliners to add that specific number to the setlist.
Issued in 1996 as the lead single from the R.E.M. album New Adventures In Hi-Fi, the original track was distinguished by a vocal contribution from Patti Smith. Stepping into Smith's shoes on stage has always been an exclusive assignment. Thom Yorke famously took on the part alongside R.E.M. during the 1998 Tibetan Freedom Concert, later stepping in again for a surprise appearance at a London church in 2004. At the Atabal, Berninger handled the vocal counterpoint, weaving his baritone alongside Stipe while Aaron and Bryce steered the instrumentation.
The collaborative ties between Stipe and the Dessners have developed steadily since that 2008 North American tour, which also featured Modest Mouse. In 2020, Stipe teamed up with Aaron Dessner for the single "No Time For Love Like Now," released under the Big Red Machine moniker with Bryce providing orchestral arrangements. The track brought them to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Aaron spoke warmly of Stipe, describing him as a longtime hero turned close friend and admitting his amazement that the friendship had grown into a songwriting partnership.
The Biarritz set served as a prelude to a larger gathering scheduled across the border on October 18 at the Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastián. Billed as The National And Friends, that concert marks the group's only full band performance of 2026, as well as their first collective stage appearance since 2024, following the release of their companion albums First Two Pages Of Frankenstein and Laugh Track in 2023.
Stipe has also kept busy with his own creative timeline. In April, he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform an unreleased song titled "The Rest Of Ever," and followed it in July with the spoken word release "Hum Desiderata." While he has conceded that finishing his debut solo record has taken considerably longer than he first envisioned, he remains hopeful of getting the finished collection out before 2026 comes to a close.
