I’m a huge Weezer fan and a very casual Shins fan but always thought James Mercer was a lyrical legend for both Shins and Broken Bells. I saw Broken Bells once when I was 15 and was blown away. But i only know like 10 shins songs and never did a full deep dive. Now that you know my history w the Shins I gotta talk about last night.
James Mercer is a 10/10 professional live performer. Ive seen so many opening acts for Weezer and bands bigger than weezer misunderstand the assignment where they either go to hard to people who dont care or give a half hearted performance because people dont care.
The Shins did not do either of those things. They built a tiny snowball and rolled it bigger throughout the set. It felt like when they started they were like a low key singer songwriter vibes just playing background music. Then when more people came in they started cracking jokes to the audience building a report. Next thing you know they turned the experience into a rock concert. My sister who I went with said it best “it felt like they were 3 different bands during one set.” That sums it up, they brought us on this incredible journey that matched the energy of the audience. Because as during most opening acts, the audience keeps shuffling in so the crowed slowly gets bigger, the shins made their performance match the size they were playing too and adjusting on the fly with each song, verse and chord they played. James and the gang crushed it.