June 05, 2012 – Columbus, OH -- The Shins, The Antlers
Venue: Promowest Pavilion
The Shins, Death Cab For Cutie, and Modest Mouse received a huge amount of my listening time throughout the 2000s. They were the holy trinity of Alt-Rock and I loved almost everything that they put out.
By 2012, I had seen Death Cab and Modest Mouse, but The Shins had managed to escape me. They didn't play close enough or it just wasn't the right time and I kept missing them.
The Shins were touring on their fourth album, Port of Morrow, which was an album I liked but didn't fall in love with. There are some extremely good songs on the album, and they played most of them at the show, but one song surprised me...
The final song on their new album is just called 'Port of Morrow', and it came across incredibly sad and affecting at the concert. I recall being kind of bummed out by it, and not because of the lyrics, which I didn't know 100%, but just because of James Mercer's beautiful singing.
Their final song was 'One By One All Day', off their first album; a slight, unassuming and neatly arranged super-indie sounding track that seemed to leave an empty space at the end of the show. No big rock ending. No memorable single.
An odd band ending their concert in an odd way. Here's the lyrics to One By One All Day. A beautiful poem, if nothing else...
One By One All Day
"Howdy, lem," my grandfather said with his eyes closed
Wiping the eastbound dust from his sunburned brow
A life before doubt.
I smell the engine grease and mint the wind is blending
Under the moan of rotting elm in the silo floor.
Down a hill of pine tree quills we made our way
To the bottom and the ferns where thick moss grows
Beside a stream.
Under the rocks are snails and we can fills our pockets
And let them go one by one all day in a brand new place.
You were no ordinary drain on her defenses
And she was no ordinary girl
Oh, Inverted World
If every moment of our lives
Were cradled softly in the hands of some strange and gentle child
I'd not roll my eyes so.