3/6/2007: The Shins w/ Viva Vocé - Houston, TX

"Hey, y'all. We do not fuck around!"

These are the lyrics chosen by Kevin and Anita Robinson of Viva Vocé to start their performance. In doing so, the band that nobody was there to see started the evening on a light-hearted, if not humorous note. Of course, it's one thing to say "We do not fuck around." It's an entirely different thing to back it up with your music. But Viva Vocé wasn't messing around. With just two members they filled the venue with so much noise that you'd think you were listening to The Polyphonic Spree. While Kevin plays the guitar, harmonica, and drums (sometimes simultaneously), he's also harmonizing with Anita's sweeter-than-sugar vocals. But the sweetness of Anita ends there. When she's not mesmerizing you with her voice, she's scaring the hell out of you with what she's doing with the rest of her body. Flailing away on a guitar so heavily that Jimi Hendrix would wet his pants...in the grave! So imagine, if you will, the hairiest man in the world pounding away at the drums while his beautiful wife totally out-mans him on the guitar for six entire minutes! Viva Vocé keeps their word. And just to remind you, they end the show the same way they started it. "Hey, y'all. We do not fuck around!" No. You sure don't.

Thirty minutes later and my hind quarters were sore from sitting on the floor. I needed a reason to stand up and the guy tuning guitars on stage just wasn't doing it for me. But wait, I recognize something. The lights go off suddenly as I realize that what I'm hearing is nothing but the fluttering synth arpeggio of "Sleeping Lessons." The Shins take the stage in all their nerdy, awkward glory and rock the hell out of the song, adding in an extra verse just for the hell of it. James Mercer stretches his vocal range to the snapping point even though the song doesn't call for it, but it's appreciated. They continue on with the bouncy "Australia" and then straight onto "Pam Berry/Phantom Limb." Surprisingly, the majority of the fans in the crowd were true Shins fans, knowing more than just the highlights of "Wincing the Night Away." The guy behind me is yelling "Young Pilgrims!" at the top of his lungs in 5 minute intervals. They never play it.
Fortunately, a large portion, if not majority, of their show consisted of older songs. "Saint Simon," "Turn A Square," and one of the greatest songs ever, "Pink Bullets" were all flawlessly recreated in the live setting. Mercer's father was in the audience apparently, it was his birthday. So being the good son that he is, he dedicates "A Comet Appears" to the man who gave him life. Beautiful. They pull a page out of the full blown rockstar book and leave the stage with a good 15 minutes still left on their set. Nobody's buying it. A few minutes later they return to the stage and play some classic goodness from their first album before ending the show with, arguably, their strongest song of the night in "So Says I." I dart for the exit on the last chord, knowing full well that parking would be hell. Fortunately for me, I just spent a good 3 hours in heaven, except for that damn girl next to me who just danced funny the whole night. They dance better than that in heaven.

Viva Vocé image by Alicia J. Rose.
The Shins image by Brian Tamborello.