In theory – Camden’s Koko seems like a great live music venue. Recently refurbished, great location, and they seem to get many great bands appearing. In practice – it gets bloody hot, it’s easier to win the lottery than get served at the bar, and it seems to be very difficult to get a good spot to watch the band. That said – I love The Shins so I would have stood for 90 mins on hot coals to watch them play live again. Surprisingly not much has changed since I last saw them perform at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne – I guess 2 years ago.
From opener ‘Kissing The Lipless’ to a show closing ‘So Says I’ - the band still rely heavily on the same two albums. The incredible ‘New Slang’ and ‘Caring Is Creepy’ remain favourite crowd sing-alongs.
Some interesting changes – despite James Mercer being lead vocalist, wisecracking keyboardist/guitarist/bassist Marty Crandall now takes centre-stage, and handles all between song banter – which tonight included a recurring joke about Motorhead’s ‘Ace Of Spades’ – that lead to an impromptu rendition (or more acurately - attempted rendition) of the metal classic in the encore.
Favourites from “Chutes Too Narrow” and “Oh, Inverted World” are present and accounted for – ‘Young Pilgrims’ a highlight for me. Early single ‘When I Goosestep’ also got an airing – together with 4 or so new songs from their long forthcoming third album. They didn’t play ‘Won Too Many Fights’ which I’m familiar with from the solo James live recording – but ‘Circus Walk’ (which is the name the song has been given in MP3 form) sounded great – what a catchy refrain “cause the worse part is over / now get back on that horse and ride” destined to be another Shins classic!
PS - photo is from The Shins appearance on Texas Austin City Limits - not Koko!
In theory – 
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