The Shins

Blackness and excitement was the platform for The Shins mysterious entrance, the synthesized, twelve bar blues oriented melody of ‘sleeping lessons’ being the first sign of life in the void.

Everyone knew what was coming. Everyone knew the catalyst that would signal the true commencement of the show was the well loved, high pitched vocals of singer and songwriter James Mercer. The only question was when... And then there was light... And then there was also James Mercer, singing quite flawlessly the quiet beginnings of a song that didn’t disappoint in its hard hitting and richly layered conclusion.



When the initial awe created by the entrance wore off and I realised I had my mouth open the audience began to liven up. Vibrations of stamping feet could be felt all over and bobbing heads with wide grins were a common sight. Many chose to just stand, and though I cannot guess as to the reason, judging by the expression on their faces it wasn’t boredom.

It shouldn’t have been anyway because The Shins surpassed my expectations in terms of interest. The music had much more depth than the last time I saw them because they managed to put across the individual studio-finish sound that makes the albums so enjoyable by putting more emphasis on the synth/keyboard work.

This was particularly noticeable in 'caring is creepy' from their debut album 'Oh, Inverted world' where the ululating sounds immured the listener in a euphoric and sleepy state leaving them vulnerable for the beautiful melodies of guitar and voice to carry them away.


Interest was held not only in the impressive sound but also in the visual aspect. The backdrop was the array of crazy shapes found on the front of their latest album 'Wincing the night away', which have an almost sinister biological look to them. The lighting rig was, on the most part, a joy to look at as it created walls of varying colour behind the band with which to see the backdrop through, while spot lights kept the band in view and drew the audience’s eyes to whichever group member was doing the most animate thing at the time.

The set list seemed to please fans, whether they were the young blood and only wanted the newest and hottest tracks like 'Phantom Limb', or veterans who longed for the breakthrough tracks like 'New Slang'. Whatever the case most of the songs were greeted with cheers of appreciation. I say most because there were moments when the band would play songs one after the other without pause, as if anticipating their not so hot reception, to which a polite applause was given.


The encore wasn’t particularly well chosen. The first of it consisted of an old cover 'Someone I Care About' by 'Modern Lovers', the identity of which I had to look up after and apparently, judging by the bemused faces, eluded most of the younger onlookers too. One of the shins less impressive songs made for an underwhelming penultimate and the very last song 'So Says I' though it was greeted more enthusiastically, didn’t make up for what should have been one of the better parts of the show. It’s always a shame when the encore just isn’t worth the wait.

A good show, then, but not without its faults. One which I have not yet mentioned is that of communication with the crowd. The last time I caught them at Nottingham, though I wasn’t all that impressed, I saw the entertaining interludes and banter as indispensable and this time they did all but dispense with that side of their show. With the impressive quality of performance this time round, however, that aspect wasn’t missed too much and its absence didn’t distract from what I would class as a genuinely, and surprisingly, good show.

FUTURE GIGS

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