The Shins at the Fillmore
For a band usually described with the usual set of lazy pop adjectives (”60’s”, “dreamy”, “California”, “sunny”) The Shins inhabit their own world. When the band is on - which the remarkably consistent quartet almost always is - they take the standard indie pop formula of guitar/bass/drums and solo lead vocals and turn them into something magical. Last Tuesday’s sold-out show at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium was no exception.
The four fairly average musicians are defined by two crucial ingredients: James Mercer’s soaring voice and his distinctive songs. Mercer’s ability to continually hit the sky notes that frequent his top-heavy melodies is remarkable. Shins’ songs are short and there are few instrumental breaks, so Mercer is singing most of the set. His vocals are not effortless (and they slipped late in the set), but that gives them an honesty too often missing in pop bands.
But it’s the songs that have the lasting effect. Mercer challenges himself with surprising chord changes and elongated melodies that are both endlessly attractive and difficult to sing in isolation. These are songs that are difficult to sing along to - the melodies are too high and the words are too hard to understand - but impossible to listen to without joining in. The Shins canon is solid without exception, though several of the set’s near-misses occurred during new songs (and a Magnetic Fields cover).
As a live band, the Shins bring an urgency to many of their songs which the recordings lack. Opener “Caring Is Creepy” and closer “So Says I” turn into melodious punk freakouts. The instrumental outro of “One By One All Day” turns into an extended Velvet Underground sonic jam, as the high frequency drones of the repeating two-chord roll in nearly-visible waves across the auditorium.
For a modern pop band the Shins make little use of sophisticated arrangements. With the exception of Marty Crandall’s occasional synthesizer flourish, the live band sticks to a two-guitar, bass, drums, lead vocalist formula. But it never sounds anything other than perfect. The intro to their early hit “Know Your Onion!” awoke the audience to the unrealized potential of Beach Boys vocal counterpoint. But after hearing the song’s overstuffed melody, we were reminded why simplicity correctly wins out.
The Shins were helped early on in their career by Modest Mouse, so it was nice to see them doing the same for openers The Brunettes. After hearing the band perform in their native New Zealand, the Shins were so impressed they invited them to join them on this U.S. tour. Performing as a seven-piece - with plenty of horns, glockenspiels, and clapping - the Brunettes performed an inviting mix of retro pop mixing Springsteen and Costello with plenty of boy-girl vocals.