The Shins
First Avenue
Minneapolis, MN
Thursday, February 9

Setlist notes from PP friend Erik Jensen:

– The Shins played nearly if not all of Wincing the Night Away and more than half of Chutes Too Narrow. Despite the poppier sound to Wincing, it translated well to the live setting. They kept it relatively simple as far as staying away from the layering of some sound you hear in the new CD.

– Closing and encore both from Chutes, but I can’t remember which order

– One thing I had read in a review slammed Mercer for either layering his vocals on Wincing, almost like he couldn’t hit the notes anymore. I thought his vocals were really strong.

– Crowd was clearly into Chutes, almost like they were waiting for those songs in between the new stuff. “Turn on Me” from Wincing and “Gone for Good” from Chutes had some good crowd interaction.

– Mercer kept relatively quiet throughout the performance except for a few thanks. The real voice of the band as far as talking to the crowd was the bassist Dave Hernandez.

– Proving their love of Minneapolis and its engaged Shins fanbase, before the last song, Mercer stated something along the lines of, “We’d love to stay, but, honestly, we’re just running out of songs.”

Photos by Alison Baker.