The Shins at the Hammersmith Apollo - 7th November 2007

The Shins must really love London, either that or they love the rain, because this feels like their fifteenth headline show here this year. The gig was another chance to showcase their wonderfully sweet but intelligent, pop-rock, third record ‘Wincing The Night Away’, or so we thought. We were actually generously treated to a night of everything Shins, perhaps it was because they’ve already grown tired of playing the new songs or possibly it was because the Shins do love London and they wanted to show us that.

The only real crowd participation came during the latest single ‘Phantom Limb’, but the earlier Shins songs, such as their 2001 single ‘Know Your Onion!’ and the exhilarant, synth, snare and guitar fused ‘Caring Is Creepy’ sounded just as fresh, uplifting and powerful. Other Shins classics like the bouncy, child like euphony ‘Saint Simon’, the melancholic, sixties sounding ‘So Says I’ and the entirely acoustically played lullaby ‘Pink bullets’ were also magnificent.



Some moments bordered on psychedelic, especially during new track ‘Turn On Me’ helped with the epileptic fit inducing lighting and whirring, hypnotic electric guitar sound. A special mention must too be given to ‘New Slang’, which still stands the hair on the back of my neck on end no matter how many times I hear it. It’s an absolutely beautiful song about dealing with growing old in a small town, and indie music has never come closer to translating a story.

For some terribly strange reason the crowd never really got into it though, and the energy was low at best. Perhaps the majority of the audience only owned the latest record and only wanted to hear those songs? Actually no, that’s ridiculous, the Shins were perfect.

The only possible explanation is that everyone in attendance had either been dumped by their spouse, lost a winning lottery ticket or had just finished a session in electro shock therapy that afternoon. Only then i could just, and let me reiterate, just, about understand the lack of applause and general acknowledgment to the brilliance they were witnessing on stage before them. Hopefully it won’t discourage the Shins from returning an sixteenth time this year.