The Shins and Viva Voce
Last night, I caught yet another concert while in Montreal (this city is filled to the brim with awesome live shows – I wish I lived here all the time!). This time, I saw The Shins, a great band that’s recently gotten a lot of mainstream exposure from the Garden State soundtrack, as well as cameos on shows such as The Gilmore Girls.
Their opening band, Viva Voce, was…decent. They weren’t painful to listen to, but their songs were quite formulaic and a tad recycled from post-grunge rock. When you’re opening for a band as innovative as The Shins, you’ve got to have some of your own unique flair – unfortunately, these guys didn’t really have any, and were thus quite forgettable. I wish them well, though. They’ve got loads of potential.
And on to the main act. The Shins put on quite the decent show. It felt a bit stretched, since they don’t have too much material to perform, but overall, they did a pretty nice job. They played a number of my favourites, including “Phantom Limb”, “Saint Simon”, “A Comet Appears”, and everyone’s favourites, “New Slang” and “Caring is Creepy”. Their stage presence was a bit awkward for the first couple of songs, but once they got more comfortable, it was all smooth sailing from there.
Overall, I really enjoyed the show. It wasn’t nearly as theatrical and fun as Of Montreal, which I saw earlier this week, but it was good fun, in a sort of “by the book” way.
