The Shins at London Astoria

The Shins/Polytechnic
Astoria, London on Sunday 25 February 2005

The gig started with Polytechnic as the support. It was the second time that I’d had seen them and thought they had come along in leaps and bounds with a beefed up sound similar to that of The Kaiser Chiefs. In fact their set opener ‘Man Overboard’ could have easily featured on a Kaiser’s record. The whole set was generally excellent in a poppy Springsteen kind of way. They are definitely a band to look out for.

So onto The Shins. They had absolutely everything going for them as the gig was about to kick off. The venue was packed to the rafters, the atmosphere was electric and the anticipation level was sky high for a band who once relied on their cult following but are now slowly, but surely, hitting the mainstream. Tonight was their first chance to premiere songs from their well received (and magnificently named) new album, ‘Wincing the Night Away’.

The moment that The Shins gained their biggest breakthrough was when during 2004’s movie ‘Garden State’ (which featured two of their songs ‘Caring is Creepy’ and ‘New Slang’, both of which featured in the set-list) Natalie Portman gave The Shins a very much publicised mention, claiming that The Shins “will change your life”. This one line from a genuine A-List Hollywood star helped propel the band from modest underground favourites to treasured trendy celebrities. However, based on their Astoria performance there is nothing particularly life changing about The Shins live.

The New Mexico band’s recent indie rock/pop/folk record was a huge hit in the US Billboard Chart where debuted at Number Two making the Shins something of a household name. They fared slightly less well here in the UK where the album hit the charts at Number 16 but that didn’t matter to the massively eager and expectant crowd that packed the Astoria. Opening with ‘Sleeping Lessons’ the band initially lived up to expectations. The song opened with a deliberate swirling and slowly building synth that was eventually broken by crisp electric guitars and James Mercer’s towering falsetto.

However as the gig went on things began to get slightly mundane and samey. One song drifted into the next and the crowd that was initially so boisterous became slightly subdued. They played a total of seven songs from their new album but it was the host of older tunes from their back catalogue that gained the best reception. The highlight of the night came in the form of ‘Gone For Good’ but even this seemed to lack some of the depth and bounce of the recorded version.

All in all, a very disappointing night. With three excellent albums under their belts I was massively frustrated when they didn’t live up to the expectations that I had for them as a live act. The albums are great but on this evidence you’re much better off listening to the records rather than spending your hard earned cash to see them live. As a live band The Shins were somewhat lacklustre and certainly far from life altering.

The set was:
'Sleeping Lessons'
'Australia'
'Pam Berry/Phantom Limb'
'Kissing The Lipless'
'Mine's Not A High Horse'
'Girl Inform Me'
'New Slang'
'Saint Simon'
'Girl Sailor'
'Gone For Good'
'A Comet Appears'
'Turn On Me'
'Know Your Onion!'
'Caring Is Creepy'
'Someone I Care About'
'So Says I'