Recognized as pioneers who established the genre of alternative rock, R.E.M.’s output includes 15 albums and has earned members Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry a permanent spot in the cultural zeitgeist.

A star-studded tribute to the American rock band’s 1983 debut, “Murmur,” at Chicago’s Metro last summer, commemorated the album’s 40th anniversary. But the show was headlined by an unlikely duo: Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Shannon and veteran rock guitarist Jason Narducy.

While Narducy is a lifelong musician whose bragging rights include inspiring a young Dave Grohl to pursue music, Shannon is best known onscreen for his roles in films like 2017’s “The Shape of Water” and 2008’s “Revolutionary Road.” Introduced to each other a decade ago in Illinois through a mutual friend, singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks, they have collaborated once a year to cover a classic album in full for one-night-only affairs, with Shannon providing vocals for performances of records like “The Queen Is Dead” by the Smiths and “Zuma” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

As a nod to the place where their friendship formed, the pair have kept their annual concerts within Illinois state lines. Until now. 

Shannon and Narducy are taking their show on the road, with their first Bay Area show scheduled for San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 1-2, as part of this year’s SF Sketchfest.

“It’s really an act of devotion on my part,” Shannon told the Chronicle in a joint video interview with Narducy — calling from Brooklyn and Evanston, Ill., respectively — about his approach to channeling Stipe, R.E.M.’s frontman. “I’ve lost count, frankly, of how many times I’ve listened to the record. When we did the Chicago show, I’d go out and walk for 10 miles, just listening to the record over and over again.”

How does one prepare to tackle tracks like “Radio Free Europe” and “Talk About the Passion”? Shannon sees a combination of reverence and spontaneity as the ideal recipe to do “Murmur” justice.

“I take it very seriously,” he said. “I want to deliver the record to the best of my ability. I’m not trying to do my version of it or put my stamp on it. 

“Honestly, it’s what I say about acting too: The best you can be at acting is to be invisible. It’s the same thing with the music. I don’t want people to even be thinking about me, because it really doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

Narducy admires Shannon for his willingness to immerse himself in projects and praised his bandmate’s recent performance in the off-Broadway production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”

“It was a highly entertaining show that (Shannon) completely immersed himself in for almost two months,” Narducy said. “These projects where we learn a record are like a mini version of that. It’s a fantastic learning experience to get inside a record so deeply.”

Though Shannon and Narducy are set to tour their “Murmur” performance in a handful of other cities following their SF Sketchfest debut, San Francisco is the only place scheduled for two performances. For their second local date, they plan to pay homage to R.E.M.’s second album, 1984’s “Reckoning.”

“We’re stoked,” Shannon said. “We played some (of those ‘Reckoning’) songs at the gig in Chicago, so we got a bit of a jump-start on it. Now I’ve got to learn the rest of them.”

Since “Murmur” runs only around 40 minutes long, some “Reckoning” cuts as well as tracks from R.E.M.’s first EP, “Chronic Town,” were indeed utilized to fill out the set list in Chicago. But for their upcoming shows, Shannon and Narducy — along with guitarist Dag Juhlin, bassist Nick Macri, pianist Vijay Tellis-Nayak and drummer Jon Wurster rounding out the band — said they’ll be switching things up with a rotating selection of other songs from R.E.M.’s catalog each night. 

In recent months, Shannon has kept a busy schedule, following his “Godot” run with a January concert at Chicago’s Metro, where he performed the songs of Brian Eno. It hasn’t left the two much time to prepare for their next set of gigs, but that’s apparently how they like it.

“We make a point of rehearsing … not much,” Shannon said. “It’s like Japanese sand portraits or something — it just works.”

For Shannon, it’s not a concept limited only to his music endeavors. Years ago in Chicago, he recalls a production of Edward Albee’s one-act play “The Zoo Story,” during which he and his co-star would do no rehearsals beforehand.

“We learned our lines and showed up and did it,” he said. “This is a similar scenario.”

“I’m really looking forward to that process,” Narducy chimed in. “There’s the room, the energy, the harmonics and those kinds of factors all flying around, but there’s also the danger of what we’re going to throw in that we haven’t done yet on the tour.”

“That’s what’s exciting about it,” added Shannon. “The ephemeral nature of it. There are tribute bands that play year-round and crank out one gig after another. I don’t think I would enjoy that as much. This is really an adventure.”

Zack Ruskin is a freelance writer.