polaroids of androids

The Shins @ Enmore Theatre - 9/08/07

With three albums under their belt, The Shins have crept up on the live music scene. The band were once considered a one trick pony, relying on a few good but better confined to headphones songs. Their gig on Thursday at the Enmore however proved that they have matured and developed as a band, and that their repertoire has expanded with them.

The mix of rockier tracks with the slower more emotive ones made for a great show, balancing each other perfectly, so that the performance never got stale or predictable even though the subject matter was well known to most of the audience.

The sheer talent of the band also was also far from a hinderance. Swapping of instruments between members was common place throughout the show, and the musicianship, particularly the voice talents of lead man James Mercer were second to none on the night. It is a testament to their recorded material that his voice holds up so well on stage, it becomes more evident that almost no alteration would need to be made in the studio for the records to be so powerful.

A particularly good encore with their finest material from their older albums and a cover song rounded out a great show. Odds are they did the same during their show the next night as well.