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The Shins The Shins performed in Denver to a surprisingly large crowd - a sold out show in a relatively large venue. Even the band members seemed impressed by the size of the crowd. This was both a good and bad thing, as a large crowd can add to the energy, while a packed venue also increases the riff-raff quotient of people who didn't listen to the album, but watched the movie Garden State. The highlight for me was the acoustic New Slang, one of my favorite songs ever, brilliantly performed, and only partially spoiled by the people shouting into cell phones next to me. On the whole, the show was quite good, though more or less what you would expect from the Shins. Drawing from the lessons of political science where presidents appear to only receive mandates when their electoral victory deviates from public expectations of who will win, my enjoyment of the show partly reflects my diminished expectations, as my sister warned that the New York show was only okay, with some mic issues and such. Against these lowered expectations, The Shins shone, and it was one of the better shows I've been to in a while. (You can discount this against the fact that one of my more recent shows was the Neil Diamond All-Stars.) Special shout-out goes to the opening act, The Brunettes. One of my Silly Criteria for bands is instruments besides guitar, so the xylophone, hand claps, saxophone, and harmonica were happy surprises. even more exciting was the clarinet, which was my instrument in band class. I don't think I have ever seen anyone rockin' the clarinet in an indie rock show. The only bad part was that the mikes were off, so it was hard to make out the singing over the instruments for parts of the set. But this group is definitely worth a listen if you are an indie pop fan. The other show highlight was a sighting of a shaggy-haired kid wearing a burgundy velour blazer over a band t-shirt and with jeans and Chuck Taylors. I wonder if he bought these as a set, as Poser Couture.
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