The Shins were awesome. I expected no less. They played a couple of great sets and for nearly two hours. I was reminded today by my brother that I was actually supposed to see them at some point in the recent past*, but I was unable to go because of a death in my wife's family. Thanks to this unread by anyone else blog, I have a record of this. It was in March 2007.

*Actually, what he asked me was if the Shins were better than the last time we saw them and a very confusing conversation ensued, as I've never seen them before.

[Photo appears courtesy of Picasa/Leslie (whoever she is, she really like some awesome music)]
First, I'm really disappointed that I forgot my camera again. There were a couple of really solid Kodak moments, including the heavyset bitch who turned around and actually asked me and my friends to keep it down, like we were at the opera or in the viewing room for a neurosurgical procedure. Needless to say, we began to get into it a little bit and I told her she needed to cool it. And then after we were finished arguing, I had a "jerk store" moment where I realized I should have told her to tell her cats about the mean man at the concert that made her sad. But the moment was gone, and I spent quite a while loudly making fun of her while standing right behind her, so all wasn't lost.*

*Am I crazy? Is it ridiculous that someone would do this? Especially back at the bar, which is where people go at a concert when they want to talk and listen to the band play?

Second, Terminal 5: not a really amazing venue. They probably could have put a little money into the place when they decided they'd be converting it to a concert venue. I guess it looks a lot like the Hammerstein Ballroom or Irving Plaza.

Also, we spent the concert standing by the bar in the back. During the encore, there's a little commotion behind us from the bartenders. Turns out, they were taking bets on two couples that were really going at it at the back of the room. It was a total "I think he's going to pork her, Dad" moment. One of the guys looked like he was actually going to unhinge his jaw and put his date's whole head into his mouth. These are the kinds of things that need to be recorded for posterity.

Anyway, good times were had by all.

Labels: live music, The Shins

This has become my favorite song by the Shins. You all should listen and revel in it.



End of post.

Labels: The Shins

Some quick thoughts:

- If you're not watching The Winner yet, I hope you have a damn good reason (like being arrested for mail fraud).

- My cousin told me over the weekend that Howard Stern is imploring his listeners to ruin American Idol by voting for the worst singer on the program over and over. Now I suppose legions of retarded 22-year olds are calling to vote for Sanjaya, who gets eviscerated by the judges weekly. Has Stern completely lost his edge or what? He hasn't been listenable in like 7 years (and that's being generous), and he's nowhere near the genius that he was when I was listening to him on the local drive time on 660/WNBC all those years ago. Radio's been somewhat homogenized by a lot of things, but proliferation of syndicated radio programming has taken away all the local flavor, to the point now where Jack FM doesn't even have DJs. I'm going to start a bring back WDRE/WLIR website.

- New York Rangers. Playoffs. That is all.

- I had to miss the Shins concert this week, due to a death in my wife's family, which was a bummer on both counts. My brother and sister were there and said that the show was OK, but also a largely uninspired performance by the band. This information was disappointing. I'm going to have to find a boot of this concert online, so I can listen and review.

- The golf season begins this week. I'm flying down to Tampa to play a few rounds with some buddies. Mons Venus, here I come!

Labels: American Idol, golf, Mons Venus, New York Rangers, The Shins, The Winner

Anyone else think that the Shins are among the best bands making music today? I'm in the process of ingesting their most recent album, Wincing the Night Away. It's good, but thus far, I'd still place it third behind Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World in that order. It's a great album and I assume that I'll just need a little more time listening to it to figure out where it belongs in the hierarchy of their albums.

They descend upon New York City in 3 weeks and yours truly will be in the audience. The seats that I got aren't great, because I was at the vet with my dog for a 10am appointment (tickets went on sale at 11am) and she didn't actually get around to my appointment until 10:45am. By the time I got home, it was almost 11:30am and the best seats that I could get were in the rafters. Whatever. They're in the theater and that's all that matters.

Labels: live music, The Shins