Saw The Shins on Friday night. And, just as they were back in March, they were excellent. The main difference between this show and the last was the venue; instead of a low, wide, converted warehouse, this was in a modern concert hall with nice seats, great acoustics and little old ladies with flashlights to show you to your seat. As before, they were very tight and energetic, fun to watch - and I actually got to see them, this time. They played basically the same set of songs as they did last time we saw them, maybe in a different order. So there were few surprises. Well, few surprises, but not zero. They did play one song I'd never heard before, which I assume was a new one, though it was hard to tell because they didn't introduce it, or any other song: they had very little between-song chatter - just a "thanks" here and there. Basically, they just bang out song after song. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, since they have so many great songs to get through. But, the highlight of the show, for me anyway, was their first encore: a surprising, slightly-compressed, but highly-satisfying version of Pink Floyd's "Breathe". I've been on a Pink Floyd kick recently, so this was a nice bit of synchronicity. Good show. Catch them if you can.

Vetiver opened. We only caught their last few songs, but from what I heard, I'd say they're squarely in the mellow, stoner-indie-folk rock groove of bands like My Morning Jacket and Iron and Wine. Nice.

No pictures. Forgot the camera.