expectations are for suckers...

Tonight I saw The Shins at The Fillmore. I have decided that I'm really not too fond of The Fillmore. First of all, parking is a fucking headache unless you arrive a while before the show, and I hate arriving before the show. Second, there are few good seats (or, rather, places to stand) in the auditorium, so having any sort of view (especially if you are 5'3" like me) is impossible unless you, again, arrive early. Ugh.

So, it was cold out tonight, I was dreading parking, I was dreading the Shins crowd, and by the time I got inside and ducked my way through the floor crowd to about 2/3 of the way to the stage, I was pretty crabby. Not only did parking suck, not only did I have no chance at actually seeing the stage, but I had thought the doors were at 8 and the show was at 9. Nope... doors at 7 and show at 8. Viva Voce opened and I really wanted to see them. As it was I caught their last song (We Do Not Fuck Around) which was fantastic. The good news is they are coming back to Denver next month. W00t! I'll have to catch that one for sure. Anita from Viva Voce also played with The Shins for their entire set.

Add all this to the facts that (a) I've heard The Shins don't put on the best live show (tonight was my first); and (b) I was decidedly underwhelmed by their SNL performance last month. Safe to say I was planning a negative review before the show even began. Therefore you can imagine my surprise when The Shins came out and played an energetic, animated, and extraordinarily fun 90+ minute set. I decided to take setlist notes between my fleeting and sporadic glances at the band on stage:

Sleeping Lessons
Australia
Phantom Limb
Kissing The Lipless
Mine's Not A High Horse
Girl Inform Me
Girl On The Wing
New Slang
Saint Simon (we la la'd the shit out of that motherfucker!)
%Girl Sailor
Turn A Square
Gone For Good
A Comet Appears
Turn On Me
Know Your Onion!
One By One All Day
Caring Is Creepy
---encore---
Someone I Care About (Modern Lovers cover)
Pressed In A Book
So Says I

% = This is the precise moment that a smile appeared on my face that, at last check, is still there. Girl Sailor, Turn A Square, & Gone For Good are most certainly 3 of my favorite Shins songs. Oddly enough, it was also the precise moment that a part appeared in the crowd and I at least had a fabulous view of James for (most of) the remainder of the show. Heavenly.

The only instance where the sound wasn't amazing was for Mine's Not A High Horse. The bass was really really heavy and I thought James was out of tune, but it was hard just to hear him, so it may have been the bassiness messing with my hearing... :) New Slang was also a tad bass heavy, and they played it at what seems to me a verrrrrry slow pace. It was the same way they played it on SNL, and I have to say I'm not a fan. Not that it's a rocking song to begin with, but I swear they're playing it more slowly these days. They extended One By One All Day with a lengthy jam that probably would have been more fun if I had a better view of the stage.

There is definitely something to be said about attending shows alone. First of all, you don't have to worry if someone you talked into seeing one of your "weird" bands is having a decent time. Second, you can feel free to stand wherever you want, and move whenever you want. Finally, you can eavesdrop on people's conversations. "People listening" at concerts can be great fun, and I got a gem tonight. Shortly before The Shins took the stage, the guy next to me says to his friend, "So, the singer looks like he's about 60". Huh?!? I mean, obviously James Mercer's no kid anymore, but damn, he doesn't look THAT old!! I googled James Mercer to find a picture.... here's James:

However, this guy also showed up in the google search, so maybe my concert-going friend had his James Mercer's confused:

But back to the review. The show was not nearly as Wincing-heavy as I thought it would be, though they played everything that I really wanted to hear from the new album. I've read a lot of less-than-favorable reviews about Wincing The Night Away, but I've spent an awful lot of time with it since it leaked back in, oh... October? And I have to say that it's at least as good as Oh, Inverted World or Chutes Too Narrow. Sure, there are a couple of clunkers on there (though Sea Legs, arguably the most disappointing song on the album, has really grown on me). And I'll say it now: Australia, Phantom Limb, Turn On Me & Girl Sailor will be among the most satisfying indie pop songs of 2007.

One last, pretty insignificant thing I have to say about The Shins and their new album is this: did you know that song #9 is actually called Spilt Needles, and not Split Needles? It took me quite some time to realize this. It was always "Split" on my iPod... both my, um, downloaded copy of the album, and the version on the Phantom Limb single (which I bought from Sub Pop!!!!!) I saw the song title on the web and blogs everywhere, always registering as "Split". I don't know if my brain was playing tricks on me, or if everytime I saw the song title it truly was spelled "Split", but the first time I was consciously aware of the "Spilt" spelling was when I read the record review on Pitchfork. I honestly thought that Pitchfork was guilty of a typo, which amused me greatly. However, soon afterward I received my copy of Wincing on vinyl from Sub Pop. As I unwrapped it and cradled it in my arms I noticed song #9... It really is Spilt Needles. Huh.

Now playing:

Now eating (rocket pops are the bomb):

Now drinking:

+