It’s the time of year that we should be preparing to leave to Todos Santos for Peter Buck’s previously-annual Todos Santos Music Festival. Buck and his wife (TSMF founders), however, have elected to put the Festival on hiatus this year, which has left us reeling after having attended last year’s phenomenal festivities. Oh well.

Despite that downer, our spirits have been newly-lifted. Last night The (Augmented) Minus 5 performed at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. The Minus 5 were one of the highlights of last year’s TSMF, with core members Scott McCaughey and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, augmented by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon and others, performing awe-inspiring sets and sitting in perfectly on many of the other bands’ sets (Mike Mills was the MVP of the Festival). Last night at the 40 Watt The Minus 5, joined by Mills and retired R.E.M. drummer Bill Barry, and the gifted ensemble performed a raucously righteous cover of The Clique’s 1969 song Superman (which was included on R.E.M’s seminal Life’s Rich Pageant album).

Check it out below. And if you ever get a chance to see these superb musicians performing together (whether as The Minus 5, The Baseball Project, or in other configurations), don’t ya miss it. They are seriously gifted connoisseurs and curators of rock ‘n roll.

And here’s to the Todos Santos Music Festival’s return in 2018!