The Shins

Show: The Shins at The Warfield
Headliner: The Shins
Openers: Viva Voce
Location: The Warfield in San Francisco, CA
Date: Monday, April 16, 2007
2007 Show #: 6

The first of 3 consecutive SF shows. And the last 3 shows of a long tour that apparently started in January. The show started and ended early, and I guess I can see why.

Viva Voce came on at around 8:10 and played just over a 30 minute set. They a male/female duo from Portland, and they play a variety of instruments. In the first few songs, the guy was playing both an acoustic guitar and drums, at the same time. It made for an interesting show, but it's value was questionable. It seemed like they'd have been better off with a third band member or a drum machine. The girl played a double-guitar at one point. But during the songs she used it, she only used 1/2 of it at a time. Why not just have two guitars?

The set was decent. It started off with a lot of new stuff that I didn't know at all. They finished with some stuff I recognized more. The set got better as it went for its recognizability and for ditching the boring aimless jams the earlier set started with.

The Shins came on at 9:15, and played a set that met my expectations in every way, but didn't really exceed them in any. Before they came on, I told my friend they'd have just over 1 hour main set (63 minutes in fact) and then play a 10-15 minute encore (13 minutes in fact). They mixed stuff from all their albums, though saving most of their newer stuff for the beginning and end. The middle was mostly songs from their first 2 albums. Everything was enjoyable, putting just enough variation on the songs to make it obvious I wasn't just listening to the album, but not so much so that they became different songs. My only real complaint, and probably the reason my expectations were as high as they were was the price of the show. Damn you "Garden State!"

The only particularly exciting things were the covers they did. They closed the main set with a cover of Pink Floyd's Eclipse (I think it was at least. I can't remember which song for certain but I'm 99% certain that it was off Dark Side of the Moon). The cover was thoroughly enjoyable. The 2nd (of 3) song of the encore was a cover of a Modern Lover's song. I didn't recognize the song, and found the performance only okay.

I'd see the Shins again. It would have to be under the right circumstances. Their popularity makes their price tag out of proportion with the live show experience....