Oddly, my life remains the same

Ok, there you go for the cliche post title of the week.  I saw The Shins last night at Webster Hall.  I have always been a reasonable supporter of the place for shows, since it seems to get such a bad rap which I don't think it is totally warranted.  Last night tho, it was really bad.  The place was more packed than I had ever seen it.  Much more so than even when the Arcade Fire played there.  There was not an inch of space to move on the main floor.  Even towards the rear of the club, people were pinned against the back wall.  It was absurd.  To my horror, as we left for good midway through the set, they were still letting people in and selling tickets at the door!  Not fair.

What we stuck around for sounded good, but I just can never get up for a concert on a Sunday night.  I also don't prefer to see a pleasant pop band like this in a crowded dance hall.  Doesn't do it for me.

Comments

[Neuman]

Wow, I didn't notice it being extremely packed. I was at the front, about 2 people deep from the stage, and there was actaully plenty of room. If you had come from the side enterance, anyone could've slid right in next to me, at any time throughout the show, and had a damn good view. Anyway, I took some pictures... www.livejournal.com/~neuman

[Rachael]

Yeah, I agree -- wasn't a huge fan of the show, especially at Webster. I was upstairs on Saturday, surrounded by the most obnoixous people and then pinned up against way too many people last night. The Shins put on a great show, but I don't know, something wasn't right. I think I prefer a band like them on my headphones in my own personal space...or have them play a set in my living room. Either one would work for me.

I've got some pics up too. Loved the Brunettes though. They were fab.

did they play fighting in a sack?

[Jocelyn]

I think that WH pretty much deserves it's bad rap. Any sold out show is guaranteed to be over-sold and ridiculously crowded; the inefficacious security checks keep the line to get in at least half a block long through/past start time; getting one of their weak and over-priced drinks can take you a good 20 minutes; sightlines are poor in general and don't exist upstairs unless you're actually pressed up against the balcony; and since the entire audience has to eventually funnel out through one (teeny-tiny, less than 3-foot wide) door downstairs- it's a royal pain in the ass to leave. Um, the lights are usually pretty and the sound isn't terrible, but honestly there's no good reason to see a sold out show there... just sayin'.

[Jeff]

The last time I was there it seemed like they were going in the right direction to try and fix things. The exit door was bigger and they opened up this previously closed off room over to the right. Sunday night, however, they used a totally different entrance off to the side that was tiny and inaccessible and it seemed like they just sold more tickets to fill up what was previously a nice, comfortable side space. No good.