Last night at Webster Hall: Brunettes bored, Dungen piped in between sets, and the Shins had us hanging on every note.
It was the end of a three night Shins stint in New York City and despite minor gripes about the sound and the venue, I left satisfied (and was home by midnight). The band was clearly having a great time as were the 2,000 well-behaved Garden State fans in attendance.
No big setlist surprises. James promised a new album before the end of the year and debuted a song or two from it. The band also did a cool Stephin Merritt cover. Help me fill in the gaps where I forgot to jot down (can you jot on a Sidekick II?) the song title.
- Kissing The Lipless
- When I Goosestep
Dave plucks “Sunshine Of Your Love” and James addresses the packed house: “It smells like my birthday in here. I was born on 4/20 y’all…” He’s been saying something to this effect at every show.
- Mine’s Not A High Horse
- Girl Inform Me
- ?
- Pink Bullets
- Turn A Square
- ?
James introduces the “old school shit”…
- Know Your Onion!
- ?
- Saint Simon
- Pressed In A Book
- New Slang
- Young Pilgrims
- Girl On The Wing
- Gone For Good
- Caring Is Creepy
- – -
- Strange Powers (Mag Fields cover)
- One By One All Day
- So Says I
I want to buy a digital camera (preferably under $500) for taking decent photos at concerts. Any recommendations? Doesn’t have to be pocket-sized.
Anyway, I don’t have an MP3s from last night for you, but here are TWO cuts from last week’s Shins show at Canada’s Kool Haus. Enjoy.
Stereogum’s favorite Shins memory: Backstage at the 2002 Siren Fest, James approaches me to compliment my Huey Lewis t-shirt. He wants to continue talking about Huey Lewis but I get shy and walk away. It’s hip to be square.
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i have a Canon G6 that’s great for low-light situations. it’s gonna have the fastest (best for low light) lens for sub $500.
Damn, is it me, or is everyone and their mother (Shins, Arcade Fire, !!!) covering Magnetic Fields songs lately?
Thanks Brandon. I’ll check it out.
i have a sony dsc-p150 that i paid 499 for a while back. sony now has a dsc-p200 that is the updated model (not sure what was updated), but it is around 400-450. huge plus: 7.2mp.
before i bought my camera, i researched it rather well from dpreview dot com
good luck and let us know what you buy!
I was at saturday night’s show and loved it! They closed with So Say I, which might have been the best song all night. I guess they moved it into the encore for subsequent nights.
I’d have to agree with the mostly Garden State partisan crowd. I had a girl ask me what the first two songs were and when I knew them, she told me she had asked like 40 people before me…
Brunettes bored?!!! I’ll never set foot in Stereogum again! No-taste-having-so-and-so!
Hmmmm… The Shins covered my favorite Mag Fields song? Anyone get that on tape??? (Also, by “tape” I mean mp3.)
What’s that one song from the Shins called that’s in that Garden State movie? I’d like to download it. Thanks.
my dad got the SONY DSC-P200 which i rrrreally like. i have a dimage (whatever brand it is) which is tiny but also not as easy to use as the sony one. the one i like best though is the Konica Minolta Dimage A200. rated the best camera in the *midrange section* or something.
they weren’t boring as all hell? i’ve seen the shins twice now and thought i was better off listening to the cd in my car……
the first question mark is “we built a raft and we floated,” which is off the “know your onion!” single.
oops i mean the “nature bears a vacuum” ep
Speaking of Mag Fields covers, I just heard Mike Doughty do “Strange Powers” live on XM Radio last month.
Wish I’d been able to hear the Shins do that one, though.
Hey Eliz.
Check out the Canon Elph Powershot S500. It came out at around $500 but it might have dropped in price since. It’s the perfect size for concerts and takes really great pictures.
The Shins suck. So does Stereogum.
i agree with trent. i use a canon powershot elph s500 and it works fairly well:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryn/tags/livemusic/
the s500 has a list price of $499 but is $299.88 on amazon right now.
i’d also look seriously at the brand new canon sd500 which is going on amazon for $479.94.
Aw, Huey Lewis story, way to make my day with cuteness. Also, I really enjoyed the “Strange Powers” cover… and I hope an MP3 pops up.
The Brunettes were great on the opening night of the tour. Super cute and endearing. The crowd on the other hand was astoundingly lame – complete with unironic lighter waving during “that Garden State song”, a lone frat boy crowd surfing, and trucker hats galore.
All digital cameras are terrible low light performers unless you’re talking about digital slr’s.
i say take a look at panasonic lumix line (specifically the DMC-FZ20)
they have a 12x optical zoom and terrific image stabilization. both are pretty important at concerts due to shake and sometimes distance. it also has a very nice leica lens.
I’m so jealous Stereogum! When are the Shins coming to California?
i’d also second looking into the canon g6 along with the panasonic dmc-fz20. these aren’t small like the other suggestions (sd500, elp, p200) but much better performers.
canon digital elph is a good choice. the top of the line ones are $500, but you can get the 3 megapixel one for 200-something, i think. the camera seriously fits in my wallet, too, which makes it useful for smuggling into those “NO CAMERAS” shows.
My friend Gabe suggested I pick up a Shins album… I want my money back.
I’ll take this as an opportunity to say (relevant or not): go get the Fiery Furnaces. Right now. They’re not boring. They don’t sound like everything else. They’re not all Boring Becomes Eclectic.
I use a Canon G3 for my concert pics and generally get pretty good results, even in low light. If I have to go up to ISO400, it gets a little noisy, but the Canon G-series are the only non-DSLRs, to my knowledge, that go down to f2.0. Most others only go to f2.8 or so. Those extra three f-stops and the additional light they allow make all the difference in the world. A fast lens is so much more important than megapixels.
Everything on my photos page from Aug 27/04 was taken with the G3 and the difference in image quality with my old Fuji is amazing. It’s not as good as a DSLR, but for something almost pocket-sized (not quite, and it’s not the lightest camera), you can’t beat it.
http://www.chromewaves.net/concertPhotos.php
Janine
You obviously have no taste.
Frank, what’s the optical zoom on that?
And how much $?
Whatever camera the person(s) at Brooklyn Vegan uses seems to work great. Of all the live concert photos going around, I think they have some of the better ones.
it’s got a 4x optical zoom, but as you zoom in you lose f-stops. I try to leave things at wide-angle whenever I can and just zoom/crop in photoshop. I had wanted to get an ultrazoom but now that I understand the relationship between f-stops, light and zoom, I can’t imagine how dark any telephoto lens shots I tried to take would have been. The G-series also supports external lenses, so you could probably get the zoom and maintain your wide aperture with those.
I got my G3 used for around $400 CDN, it’s an old model. The G5 and G6 are still in production, and probably go for around $500-$600 US? I dunno.
i like frank’s (chromwaves) pictures a lot…really captures the different colors well. i have a Canon SD100 elph which is good for a tiny camera but you generally have to use the flash at shows because otherwise the shutterspeed is too slow i guess…and flash always ruins the nice lighting effects, though it prevents blurring. plus with 2x optical zoom you have to be right by the stage. i think i might get an sd500 since i like the compactness but would like better quality…not sure if it will solve my light problems though.
oh, and maybe I should mention that I haven’t used a flash at a show since I got the G3 – it makes it so I’m able to use the ambient light for maybe 90% of conditions.
It’s all about the f-stops, baby.
yes you can jot on a sidekick ii!
I was soooo disappointed with last nights show. I left during the last song, I have never done that before. My past experiences with them were great, last night wasn’t. Plus, Webster Hall always sucks. A lot.
Jason,
I won’t go in for name-calling. From where I’m standing, if you like the Shins, there’s nothing I can say…zzz… If you live in the NYC area and would like a FREE vinyl copy of the Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow, post so. I will arrange a drop off. I work in the Flatiron District. I’m serious. Who wants it? Mint condition. Snazzy Gatefold.
I agree with the Canon G series recommendations. I have been using a G2 for three years now and it rocks. And the benefit of it for show pictures is you can buy an external flash. This is very handy if the light totally sucks at a show since the on camera flash is usually pretty weak. I have two links of pictures from two shows I took with my Canon G2 and 420ex external flash. The G series will give you a lot of flexibility in terms of adjusting things to get the best shots. The possibility for an external flash is a plus in my book.
http://tinani.c7f.net/brandon/converge-show
http://tinani.c7f.net/brandon/RxBandits
And if you want to see what it can do when I get lucky taking pictures ..
http://tinani.c7f.net/brandon/denmarkfavorites
you guys can all thank halteh from the traders’ den for those toronto show recordings that stereogum mp3′d.
Im sorry but I have to chuckle about Janine’s first comment
I hate the shins but damn check out the fiery furnaces…
LOLZ that right there, is priceless.
The fiery furnaces are over-artsy crap pop. Sometimes having too much vision/originality is just a cover for having none at all.
and jason didn’t namecall, he made an observation, and observation that based on your previous statements is likely very true.
oh and dear god..no ‘boring becomes eclectic’ jokes…you pain me.
Bah. I love The Shins. But nothing ever comes to friggin’ Indiana. It’s all corn. This sucks! I swear, I’m gonna move… where there are at least halfway decent shows…
I’ll take the Shins vinyl. Where do you want to meet up, Janine?
The Brunettes are fucking amazing.
Period.
i saw the shins in feb in melbourne and they were awesome. they even did the magnetic fields cover, and everybody there seemed to know all the songs. there didn’t seem to be a large group who went because they had seen garden state or because they get mentioned on the OC
Shins Vinyl,
I work on 21st and 5th. I can bring it in tomorrow (Thursday). You can email me at jmccargo02@sprintpcs.com. (If you want, I can throw in Interpol and Sigur Ros on vinyl, too.) You wouldn’t want to turn this into a barter, would you?
actually, i was kinda disappointed by the Shins show. sure, i loved all the “bigger hit” songs, but the new stuff is absolute crap. not to mention the fact that you could never EVER possibly do “strange powers” better than magnetic fields. that’s my favorite song of all time, and they ruined it. I also wanted to punch out some of the drunk blonde, bopping bimbos. that would have made the night much more interesting.
the fiery furnaces are horrible. if you think they’re better than the shins go hang out on the NME messageboards or something, ugh.
also the best low-light digital point-and-shoot optics you’re going to get are from any of the sony cybershot series. they have carl zeiss lenses and destroy any other digital non-SLRs out there and i’ve used a lot of them.
(hi meredith.)
“The Shins will change your life.” I hate Natalie Portman. Garden State was overrated.
Try the Panasonic Lumix FZ15 for concert pics. I got mine for $360
Thanks for the camera suggestions everyone. The SLRs seem pricey and I’m no pro, but I’ll investigate more.
DSLRs are actually getting really cheap (relativey). The Canon Digital Rebel XT kit has a street price of around $900US and the Nikon D50, out in June, will cost about the same. The only problem with these for stuff like concerts is, here anyway, venue security at certain venues don’t let professional-looking cameras in. P&S are generall okay, DSLRs you probably need to make arrangements in advance, which can be a pain.
Since when do The Shins cover my favorite Magnetic Fields song. Actually, since when does any one cover any Magnetic Fields… fascinating. I would’ve liked to have seen The Shins live, but if I’d spotted more than three trucker hats or instances of tee-shirt irony I most definitely would have combusted or run away.
As for the camera, I have an ELPH and it’s amazing. But I agree with bluefull- invest in an SLR if you want really good pictures.
hey i know music appreciation is a
subjective thing, so i wont go into
a rant,but you may want to have a
listen to the brunettes( i recommend
both albums) and then could you
possibly post why they bored you?
otherwise just let us know anyway.
please.
i’m in strong agreement with the guy
who commented that they were
“fucking amazing. period”.
thanks
I saw the shins the night before. And i have to say the brunettes fucking blew me away. They got a whole crowd of people who had never heard them into their set. They are phenominally nice people hanging next to the merchandise table. The shins were amazing for the simple fact that they are the shins. I had been waiting to see them in concert for almost a year now. At the same time James seemed a bit uninterested in playing. Sound at Webster does pretty much suck. I came to see the shins, but left asking when the next brunettes show is. until i met james mercer outside, then i was asking when the next shins show is.
I was googling for magnetic fields concert photos, and found.. this post! Hm.
I saw these guys at brown 4/21, in a hockey rink. The acoustics for the opening acts were more or less terrible, but then it just.. clicked for the shins. blissful stuff.. I was really to hear the magnetic fields cover, I was listening to Holiday on the drive down!
Hah, it’s been almost a week since the last comment.. but its nice to reminisce. Was a good time, even without some party favors of my own to enjoy. (It reaked of the stuff, of course).
If someone has it could they send me the video of the Shins song “So Says I” my email adress is
dark0lord0salron@gmail.com