Oh, Duotone on the Wall

Accompanied by the lovely Michelle, a fellow Louisianian also living in DC, I descended upon DAR Constitution Hall last night for the Shins concert. I was no Shins n00b, but this was my first foray into live Shintertainment. Special thanks go to Darkcafe, the eBayer who sent me first-row tix when the auction I won was for second-row tix.
First, I must give props to Viva Voce, the husband & wife duo that opened the show. Not exactly my cup of tea, but they provided no end of entertainment by opening the set with the anthemic “We Do Not Fuck Around”. I haven’t heard lyrics this full of piss, vinegar and bad intent since “History of Lovers” from the great Calexico/Iron & Wine collaboration In the Reins. After listening to Kevin Robinson (who looked disturbingly like Richie Tenenbaum) sing about placing the heads on his opponents on his desk, I’d be afraid to open his refrigerator. The term multi-instrumentalist is too casually thrown around to describe someone who can play multiple instruments; we should coin a new term to describe people who play multiple instruments within the same song, sometimes simultaneously, as Mr. Robinson did on several occasions….something like simultaneomulti-instrumentalist. The lovely Mrs. Robinson (coo-coo-ka-choo) was no slouch either, drowning the audience in feedback during extended guitar interludes.

Our boys from Albuquerque (by way of Portland) opened up the show on a bold note with the deliciously spacy “Sleeping Lessons”. This song is a pristine example of the band’s growing confidence in their sound, marrying the psychedelic tone that characterized much of Oh, Inverted World with the more straightforward and spare sound of Chutes Too Narrow. That song led into “Australia”, the second track on Wincing the Night Away, before an extended detour through their first two albums. I didn’t jot down a setlist, but they balanced the set with songs from all 3 of their albums, and threw a cover of what I believe was the Modern Lovers “Someone I Care About” into their encore.

Singer/songwriter James Mercer seems more in command of his vocal abilities, and the addition of multi-instrumentalist Eric Johnson adds depth to their lineup and sound. It was entertaining to watch keyboardist Marty Crandall and bassist Dave Hernandez switching instruments throughout the set. Crandall’s bass playing was more subdued than that of Hernandez, who looked like he could have been auditioning to replace Cliff Burton, headbanging and pogoing around like an epileptic chicken. Kudos to Crandall for his running gag throughout the set that we were the assembled delegates of some sort of constitutional convention. Personally, I’m glad that his motion that the crowd go topless didn’t carry with the assembly, as that much pasty white geekflesh would have permanently blinded the band.
Their songs from Chutes Too Narrow really came to life last night. Mercer admitted in an interview that he wasn’t as confident in recording their second album as he was on Oh, Inverted World, and I thought it showed when listening to the two albums side-by-side. Chutes was the first Shins album I owned, and admittedly is the one I listen to least frequently. “Kissing the Lipless” and “Mine’s Not a High Horse” exploded from the stage and crowd-surfed their way over the audience, inspiring the delegates from New Mexico to boogie in their own special New Mexican way. Even the relatively sedate “Gone for Good” benefited from the new lineup and positive momentum the band built in recording their latest album.

One of my show highlights was “Know Your Onion!”, with the Shins reclaiming mastery of the song from those Elephant6 punks Of Montreal. The other tracks that really stood out for me were Wincing’s “Turn on Me” and “A Comet Appears”. They showcase how Mercer continues to grow as a songwriter, and how the band’s lineup continues to mature and solidify.

In reverse chronological order by album, here’s a list of their songs that I remember:

• Sleeping Lessons
• Australia
• Pam Berry/Phantom Limb
• Turn on Me
• Girl Sailor
• A Comet Appears
• Kissing the Lipless
• Mine’s Not a High Horse
• So Says I
• Saint Simon
• Gone for Good
• Caring is Creepy
• One By One All Day
• Know Your Onion!
• Girl Inform Me
• New Slang
• Girl on the Wing

They may have also played “Fighting in a Sack”, but I can’t say so definitively. All in all, a fantastic show, despite the punk-ass security guard who saw fit to rifle through the jackets resting on our seats, and then demanded to see our tickets despite the fact that he had no right to do so (or so says the representative from DAR with whom I spoke this morning). Don’t worry, I’ve already called the DAR, show producer Live Nation and Falcon Security, your employer.

I give it an unequivocal 8.5 out of 10.

UnQ