The Shins @ In The Venue 5/27/04
| Saw these guys just two weeks after falling for their album "Chutes Too Narrow," my first introduction to the band. I had no idea how big or small the turnout would be, but was pleasantly surprised that the crowd not only was quite large but very diverse. More and more I feel old at live shows, but I was pleased to see this was not the case at this particular show. I think this goes to the heart of one of the reasons this band deserves attention; that being their interest is in the music and not merely image or "youth appeal." In The Venue is a strange, but rather satisfactory place to see a show. It's a concert venue attached to a regular club "Bricks" or "Club Sound" depending (on what? I'm not sure). Personally I haven't been to the club since the late '80s when it was a gay cowboy bar and I was working on a movie crew shooting on location. The venue is divided up between the main "all ages" area and the "21 and over" section where drinks are served. Within the "adult" section is a particularly appealing outdoor patio area which contains a bar and several large sofa-type areas that allow for a laidback environment to have a drink and a chat before the headliner takes the stage. The BIG downside is that the bar and staff are FAR too small an operation for the number of patrons. Take my word for it, you should have a few before arriving and expect to MAYBE purchase and consume one drink during the show. The warm up bands were worth noting. The first was a band lead by a girl on keyboards who, I think, was attempting a Tori Amos meets Ben Folds thing but sounded like a dog caught in a beartrap. This girl was SERIOUSLY awful. Wish I could remember the name only so that I could warn you all to stay away! Fortunately the other warm-up, Firery Furnace, was far better. Again fronted by a female singer, this band had one of the most unique sounds I've heard in ages. Something like the bastard child of The Stranglers and Hazel O'Conner (something that could actually happen if one knows the real relationship between the two). Ok, onto The Shins. They sounded great, played a solid 90 minutes, and played both known and unknown (unreleased) tunes. James Mercer had an extra light on him (deservedly) but only the other band members spoke between songs. The show, like the band itself, was low on flash and high on sound quality. Moving freely from high energy rockers to gentle, acustic "ballads," the crowd responded enthusiastically to it all. The band also appeared to be having a truly good time. Because I'm not familiar with one of The Shins two albums I can't speak to each tune, but they did play everything (but one?) off of "Chutes..." They played one encore of three songs ending with the high energy, crowd friendly "So Says I." I brought along a great musician friend of mine (Chris Thorum) in order to introduce him to this band, and to my satisfaction he turned to me at the end of the show and said "I've gotta go to the merchandise table and buy their cd." I felt exactly the same way and proceeded to buy the cd I don't have "Oh, Inverted World." Can't wait for it to grow on me the way "Chutes..." has! |
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