the shins are a pretty good band, but they've sort of outgrown their usefulness as a live act. they aren't bad by any means, they just aren't that interesting. they're not gonna front and be full of fake energy, and that's cool, they just get up there and play solid versions of their solid songs. for $10 at the black cat that's fine, but it just doesn't seem worth $30 and dealing with DAR and the people that go to DAR. marty really reminds of some annoying chris parnell character (is there really any other kind?) and the guitarist looks like joe rogan doing a peter buck impression. for a while i thought the shins could be on their way to being the next REM, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. i, too, was glad to hear lots of older stuff -- that new record is really kinda sucky, no? good band, glad people like them, still a bit surprised why they resonate so deeply with so many people. it can't all be beacuse of "garden state," can it?
for what it's worth, i got a kick out of viva voce, but i really like their last album. it was pretty funny to see some sorta-hippieish husband/wife duo from portland playing a song called "we do not fuck around" complete with double neck guitar (aka "those guitars, that are like, double guitars, you know?") to a completely disinterested, half-filled audience at daughters of the american revolution hall.
