Click here to read Mojo's 5-Star review of R.E.M.'s Working Rehearsal.

It was an absolutely amazing week in Dublin, and we wanted to take the time to thank ALL of you for making this site a worthwhile undertaking by REMHQ and everyone else involved in its formulation (Ethan Kaplan at Warner in particular). Thanks to all of you who took the time to add comments, photos, info, and blog posts. The "shows" in Dublin rocked with fantastic crowds every single night and remdublin.com had great crowds too which played a big part in the success of the week at a different level.

The grand experiment conducted by messrs. Buck, Mills, Stipe, McCaughey and Rieflin at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland ended on an extremely high note tonight as the band turned in a tremendous performance full of highlights. There were so many memorable lines from Michael that it would be difficult to recount them all here (be sure to look to youtube.com for them), Peter's patented flying kicks were on full display while Mike's harmonies soared and have rarely sounded richer. Coupled with a heavy dose of audience particpation, Guinness a plenty, not to mention the continued debut of the 11 new songs which, by week's end sounded like classic R.E.M., this show, as Bertis said in his postcard from Dublin earlier today, was a "cracker" which will surely rank up there with one of the best in the band's illustrious history.

Night five saw the band absolutely rip through such numbers as "Living Well is the Best Revenge," "Staring Down the Barrel of the Middle Distance," "Accelerate," "Mr. Richards," "Disguised" "Horse to Water," and "I'm Gonna DJ." (My personal favorite, "Until the Day is Done," is a beautiful ballad which rivals the gravitas of "Try Not to Breathe" and "Sweetness Follows" but channels the social urgency of such songs as "World Leader Pretend" and "Ignoreland." Really amazing. These are great songs and the audience knew them all by heart which was a really cool thing to see. It will be great to watch them (the songs, not the fans) evolve over the next few months and will be as interesting to see which ones make the new record.

Well, what a week it has been: last Thursday the band was assembling for the rehearsals for the Rehearsals (which are NOT a show in case you hadn’t heard); this Thursday, they are playing their final of five nights that have been beyond anyone’s expectations.

The Blogosphere is lighting up with some reaction and reviews of the Dublin gigs:

The Rock and Roll Report, Stereogum, The Rock Radio, David Belbin's blog and more from Technorati

R.E.M maintained the momentum and pace of Tuesday night's juggernaut performance with another strong showing at the Olympia in Dublin Wednesday. Alongside new numbers like "Mr. Richards," "Accelerate," and "Until The Day Is Done" --(all working titles)--the band continued to introduce songs from the deepest niche of the back catalog--from Chronic Town, Murmur, and Reckoning.

Day three of the Dublin working rehearsals witnessed a powerful performance from the band who once again "tried out" eleven new songs as well as several songs from Fables of the Reconstruction and Reckoning. The new songs which include such WORKING titles as "Horse To Water," "Staring Down the Barrel of the Middle Distance," "Until the Day is Done," and "Houston" sound fantastic and confident as if the guys had been playing them for a long time now.

With two shows down and three to go, we're all enjoying a day off in Dublin, taking tours (the Viking Splash tour is a blast), visiting friends, catching up on rest, some nursing slightly "sore" heads, marvelling at the really good Irish weather (where's the rain been), but more than anything else riding high on the almost palpable euphoria surrounding Saturday's and last night's rehearsals.

So, in that spirit, here are some reviews we've found which will give you the picture if you couldn't make it here this week:

Please click here for exclusive photos from last night's show.