The Shins @ Terminal 5 - NYC

Don't get excited, guys. This was the most boring live experience I've attended in some time, especially for a final tour stop? Yikes. There's been a shift in lineup, ushering in not just a new keyboardist but a drummer who took the place of Jesse Sandoval who seems to have now found his calling serving up indie tacos in Portland. After last night's unmoving set, I'm quick to say Upgrade.

Whatever is left of The Shins played to a packed house and there were some genuine cheers from a crowd that demonstrated the confusingly wide range of their fan base. There were the older-looking hip VH1 kind of people, the very young and barely legal, and then these two inebriated Lady Gaga look-alike chicks next to us who insisted on posing in pictures with each other, complete with tousled hair and exaggerated pouts perhaps intended for potential future Facebook profile photos. Much of my malaise may have been due to my looming bad mood but also the fact that I hate Terminal 5, a venue that a Brooklyn Vegan reader recently opined "needs to accidentally burn down." It's too big for any kind of intimacy, the sound quality isn't that great, and it's not designed for shorter indie rock fans. I can never see anything so I end up watching the show from the monitors while trying hard to avoid the inevitable elbowing to the boob, or boobs if the show gods are really hating me that evening.

There was no on-stage banter, no tomfoolery, vulgarity, anecdotes, nothing. They did share a "new song" that was upbeat and promising, but they didn't even play any of my favorite songs off Chutes Too Narrow ("Kissing The Lipless" or "Pink Bullets"). Perhaps one point of interest was when they played "Saint Simon" and I recognized the violinist who appeared as being Rebecca Zeller from Ra Ra Riot, only to think "That's cool, whatever." They're a solid band and their music sounds great live, it was just... boring. All of this mystifies me considering I saw them my one and only other time in 2004 at Webster Hall and left feeling invigorated and excited as well as satisfied and relaxed. Que paso? They closed their two-song encore with "New Slang" and instead of getting excited, we left mid-song to avoid the rush. This humors me considering I saw Wolf Parade here last summer and refused to move several minutes after their last song because I was still reeling. At one point I actually whispered into my friend's ear, "I think I could have stayed home lounging on my bed blasting their records and had a better time." The feeling was mutual.