Josh S's Blog

For years I have waited to see The Shins live in Boston, and on Thursday night I finally got my chance. Most people only know the band because of the numerous Zach Braff references in Scrubs and in his film Garden State (It's snowing this weekend if you haven't seen Garden State I suggest you play a little Monopoly and pop the movie in). 

Anyways let's start with the opening act....if you happened to be at the Orpheum Friday night you'd know Viva Voce from Portland Oregon opened for The Shins. Man, I haven't heard music this bad since I heard Corky Thatcher sing in an episode of Life Goes On (I'm not sure he ever sang but we can all imagine it would have sounded like Viva Voce from Portland Oregon). The band consists of a guy who looks like a hippied out version of Teen Wolf playing the drums and acoustic guitar and a girl playing lead guitar and vocals. You could tell at times they wanted to bring you the sounds of Built to Spill (the fathers of Indie Rock), but it sounded like a garage band gone wrong. You were barely able to hear her vocals and when you could you wanted to vomit in your mouth and swallow it back. In fact I just threw up on my keyboard thinking about having to listen to them again. The highlight of their set occurred when two guys sitting front and center decided to stand up and dance as if they were having a seizure. At one point they reached over a few seats in order to give each other a high five and in the words of Borat "They made a sexy time."

But I digress because the real reason I shelled out $41 (thanks Ticketmaster) was to see The Shins. I've been lukewarm on their latest album Wincing the Night Away. The boys from Portland opened up with a trippy version of "Sleeping Lessons" and continued to play stuff off their latest album. The night finally picked up though when they decided to play some tracks off Oh, Inverted World. " "Girl on the Wing," "Girl Inform Me," and then Natalie Portman appeared in front of me (I'm pretty sure she took out a restraining order against me since I stalked her in my dreams when I was at BU and she was studying at Harvard), and told me the next song would change my life. Naturally "New Slang" in concert was just so-so, but had the entire theater singing along. The Shins closed their set with, by far the best song of the night, "Caring is Creepy." The crowd continued to chant for an encore and we got 3 more songs but nothing worth writing about.

Overall I'd have to say it was a good show and made me appreciate Wincing the Night Away a bit more, however the old stuff is what really made the night fun. Well that and of course Viva Voce from Portland Oregon.