Sunday 25/02/07 The Shins @ The Astoria, London

The Shins are flying. No longer for them the cult following of old. With their new album ‘Wincing The Night Away’ they have garnered the more widespread success their blend of infectious, heartfelt indie-college-rock had always deserved. Tonight is the perfect example of this, the Astoria is packed to the rafters and as they take to the stage they’re greeted with the kind of reaction normally reserved for some of the world’s biggest bands.

However, this may just be relief after a host of supports that could put even the worst of insomniacs to sleep. In fact, Alberta Cross get things off to a promising start with their brand of anthemic lo-fi blues meets country punk but things go downhill from there. Voxtrot are just engulfed by the size of the venue and simply drift into insignificance while Polytechnic are hampered by a drum and bass heavy sound that hides their usually shimmering guitar lines. The only way, surely, is up!

The eerie atmospherics of ‘Sleeping Lessons’ fill the air, James Mercer keeping the pace with his almost pleading vocals, before two minutes in Hernandez, Crandall, Sandovel and new member Eric Johnson join in bringing their crescendo with them. Thus begins a four gun salute from ‘Wincing…’ with the jaunty ’Australia’, short, sharp melancholic ‘Pam Berry’ and last single ‘Phantom Limb’ completing the quartet. The problem is, there’s something missing.

Here is a band with all the songs, more than most could even dream of writing, but tonight they lack the charisma and performance. Everything is flat apart from the audiences rapturous applause at the end of each song. There may be passion in the delivery but it doesn’t show apart from on Mercer's pained face and as the sixteen song set drags on at points, despite the band ploughing on remorsefully, it becomes something of an arduous trawl for Gigwise.

‘New Slang’ is a definite high point amongst it all, the only real moment when the audience participate with the band during a song while the surprise cover of The Modern Lovers’ ‘Someone I Care About’ in the encore is a brilliant side step.

However, we’re still left disappointed. How can a band we so much love on record leave so much to be desired live? A question maybe for another day, another show - tonight it doesn’t work but we hope it will in the future.