Went to see The Shins in Lawrence last night and had my best concert experience of the year. Which is kind of surprising given the fact that when I walked into Liberty Hall I really felt like I had shown up at the wrong show. See, I know of The Shins through Garden State, a film made for a) music geeks, b) people who identify with characters in their twenties who have no idea what to do with their lives and c) Natalie Portman fans. I qualify on all three counts. So I went to the show expecting to run into my usual aging music hipster crowd.
And instead I ran into what seemed like every junior high kid in the state of Kansas. Seriously, I may have been one of the ten oldest people there who technically was not a parent of one of the younger people there. It took a while to realize that The Shins had been on The O.C. recently and as a result have picked up a much younger fanbase. Part of me was happy for this since my faith in the future of mankind was strengthened but on the other hand I also wanted to go “Don’t you kids have school tomorrow?”
I was even more nervous when the opening act (The Brunettes) came on stage looking around as if this was the first time that they had ever seen their instruments. You know, the look where the guitarist looks at the ground and goes “What are all these pedals for?” That fear went away in the first song as this unknown band from New Zealand put on the best opening set that I’ve seen in months. Six people on stage, all singing, playing every instrument known to man. It was like The Polyphonic Spree except with less people and they didn’t have the freaky Technicolor choir gowns. I’m not making this up: one guy played trumpet, banjo, and slide guitar during the same song. Had two women who played saxophone, clarinet, keyboards, xylophone and more various percussion instruments than you could imagine. And to top it all off, the last song was a tribute to Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, which concluded with the band putting on Mary Kate and Ashley masks (circa end of Full House) and playing the song while The Shins (also wearing Mary Kate and Ashley masks) came out on stage and danced. This was the best stage show since Rufus Wainwright’s entire band came out dressed like the wicked witch of the west.
The Shins just came out and rocked and really tried their best to match what they put on their albums. That is a real challenge since there are so many layers to their music and it is really tough to accomplish with just four people (it’s like Wilco, who has songs that they can’t even perform live because it’s impossible to duplicate what they did in the studio). You’ve got to like the style of the band. Their music is introspective and emoish but looking at the band you’d think the exact opposite. It’s just four guys who look completely unlike musicians on stage having the time of their lives. I’m not sure there is such a thing as high energy emo but that’s what they try to do.
It was a pretty quick set, an hour and a half, but that is probably the length of their two albums put together. Plus, you could tell the lead singer was straining by the end of the set and rightfully so. He’s got a unique voice and all of their songs are really passionate and aggressive. He’s got to sing hard while being melodic and it’s not the type of band that has a five minute guitar solo where the guy can catch his breath. They don’t even have those Bono “I’m just going to talk to the audience for the next five minutes during the song while The Edge plays the same chord over and over again” moments. All in all, just a killer show. Crowd was completely into both acts (I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a crowd so into an opening act that they had never heard of before).
Here’s the really interesting part to me. When I woke up this morning I felt, well, better. Like I was a different person. You ever get that feeling when you wake up and it seems like all of the things that had been bothering you are now meaningless, you feel healthier than ever before, and for the life of you you don’t know how this happened? That was me this morning. Somehow I have a feeling that the music had something to do with it. And I’m not sure if there is any bigger compliment that I could give a band than that.
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