So its been over a week now since I went to London to see The Shins. And I've been meaning to post about it since then.
But words have failed me.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with The Shins. I love the music. But I think I may have had a distorted view of what the band were like in my head. Just nice. And no one needs that. And in my head James Mercer was annoyingly young and blonde looking. With the rest of the band being completely devoid of anything other than the ability to play. The thought of going to see them and actually having to trek all the way down to London to see them, having just already been to London and then to Edinburgh too. I was not a happy bunny.
Swearing in the pub next to The Forum in Kentish Town at all The Shins fans. Bleurgh! Lots of nicey-nice type people.
"I bet none of them have any personalities."
"Why not?"
"They like The Shins!"
And then we got there and some woman took my water off me because obviously the Cockney bitch wanted me to dehydrate or something. Or maybe she thought I was going to throw it off the balcony at James Mercer (to be fair I had threatened it enough). And then I couldn't find the merchandise table.
Then we had to endure Viva Voce and sorry for anyone who in anyway likes them but I cringed from the inside out watching them. A poor, rubbish, over-excitable version of The White Stripes. "One, two, let's rock this shit!" I almost cried.
Then I got denied to access to the merchandise stand.
I was generally very unhappy and wanted to get out of London and go home.
Then The Shins came on. Sleeping Lessons. My current no. 1 in the personal Shins chart of my mind. And from there on in it was spectacular. James Mercer is not at all the horrible annoying little man I had in my head. Well, he was looking rather attractive. And he was pitch-perfect. Thats always a bonus.
And then, all was suddenly going a lot better when the icing on the cake walked past... Nick Hodgson! I have an odd thing for him. Kaiser Chief's drummer. Sings and drums AND is funny. So I love him a lot. He walked straight past me. More than once. Not only can he sing, drum, be funny, walk past me but he likes The Shins. Fucking excellent!
Oh, and I got a t-shirt in the end too. But now I am on a mission to find a skirt to go with.
The picture above is from the actual gig, taken by Paul's actual camera, with his actual hands, actually.