The Shins - New York Terminal 5

Tonight is a treat for New York City. The Shins are, by all reports, a new band. A new album is in the pipeline for later this year, and members have come and gone, giving James Mercer every reason to test drive new material and progressions on this sold-out audience at Terminal 5.

But tonight, maybe for the last time ever, The Shins are not this new band provoking such expectation. Tonight is a greatest hits show, an opportunity to bid adieu to a slew of old songs with gusto, go through the motions once more and welcome whatever comes next.

Here, it's both ‘Chutes Too Narrow’ and ‘Oh, Inverted World’ that take precedent. It all begins with 'Know Your Onion', and carries onward through much of both albums, performed as they sound on record, from 'Caring is Creepy' to 'Girl Inform Me', 'Gone For Good' and 'Turn a Square'. And as each song comes and goes, received ebulliently from a crowd interested in hearing only the familiar, it becomes increasingly apparent that it is not the performance that matters here, but the simple fact that the songs are being dished out, one-by-one, as if their catalogue is on a conveyor belt. Here, the crowd only cares if the song is played at all, not how the song is performed, as much of the canon is played out verbatim, with each solo, bridge and progression picked from the walls of the studio, exactly as it is ‘supposed’ to sound.

But this is no negative trait. Mercer's best skill is his songwriting, not his performance. There are no bells and whistles to speak of tonight, or at least nothing worth mentioning that go above and beyond the quality of these songs. Instead Mercer runs through one with his new band, thanks the audience, and begins another. The only unique aspects here are two new songs, both well worth hearing again, and two covers:
'Girl Don't Tell Me' by the Beach Boys and 'Helpless' by Neil Young. 'New Slang', the obvious crowd pleaser here, comes last, whisked off serenely with little accompaniment.

But tonight is a celebration of The Shins' canon and songwriting prowess. Their live exercises have never been celebrated as much as the albums anyway. Each song simply speaks for itself.