"There's No Connection"

So, the Shins are big enough now to appear on Saturday Night Live. I caught their performance last week and came away with mixed feelings. I saw the Shins a few years back and they put on an excellent show. James Mercer has a rather reserved stage presence when he isn't sing, leaving most of the audience interaction to keyboard/bass player/funnyman Marty Crandall (who looks like he could be former SNL cast member Chris Parnell's brother). The group (filled out by Dave Hernandez on bass and guitar plus Jesse Sandoval on drums) played about an hour and covered most of the two albums that had been released at the time, Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow. Fun was had by all and Mercer got extra points for looking a little like me, but shorter.

When I heard that the Shins were going to be on SNL, I immediately got excited. They can put on a good show and the new single "Phantom Limb" is great. The first thing I noticed when the band hit the screen for their rendition of said song was the two extra bodies on stage. There was new guy on guitar (Dave Hernandez has been regulated to bass full time, apparently) and a woman with a tambourine to sing backup. Now, Mercer uses a lot of vocal overdubs on the records, but at the show I saw a few years back, he sang solo with some occasional backup by Crandall, and it sounded perfectly fine. The new lady on backup, though she had a very good voice, didn't add anything to performance for me. In fact, I found her voice rather distracting. Sure, Mercer has a lovely, lissome voice, but I don't find it feminine enough to need a female backup singer. The new guy sang, as well, but he was turned down low or his voice mixed well enough with Mercer's that I didn't notice.

The new folks were still on board when the band returned to perform the old favorite "New Slang". I wish they would have played another song off the new record, but this seems to be standard practice for indie bands making their SNL debut. Franz Ferdinand had to follow up "Do You Want To" (new album) with "Take Me Out" (first album) last year. If Bloc Party ever gets the gig, I'm sure they'll have to do "Banquet" as their second song. Anyway, the performance was good, but I had the same misgivings.

I guess, this seems like a silly thing to complain about, but Allison seemed to have the same reaction. When you have a singer with such a great and distinct voice, it would seem smart not to distract from it. Don't get me wrong, I will definitely see the Shins again, given the opportunity, and I will enjoy it no matter who else they have on stage with them.