The Shins - Club Quattro, Shibuya

WOOOooooooMyGod!! Last Monday, November 12, Akemi and I went and saw The Shins perform the first of a two night set at Club Quattro in Shibuya. It was fantastic!! I mentioned in a previous post that this is my new favorite band, and this show confirmed it. I loved it - they put on a great show! In true Japanese concert fashion, the show went on like clockwork at the prescribed time of 7pm (no opening band). Club Quattro is an interesting place in that it is located on the 4th and 5th floors of a building above a sporting goods store. The size and ambience of the place were very reminiscent of Einstein A-Go-Go, a club I used to go to in high school and college, with the exception that this place served booze. The audience was about 75% gaijin and 25% Japanese - not surprising since The Shins are from Portland, Oregon, and are still a relatively minor band in the U.S. and Japan. They played for a solid 90 minutes. I recognized all songs in their set save for one. They also did a Pink Floyd cover, though I couldn't tell you exactly which song it was as that I'm not that familiar with the Pink Floyd catalogue. Between-song banter was kept to a minimum, though the band was extremely appreciative of the audience turnout and seemed genuinely stoked to be touring in Japan. Who wouldn't be - foreign bands are treated like kings here! Next stop for The Shins was Osaka. Hope to catch them again in the future. This concludes my concert-going experience in Japan. During this tour I've been able to catch Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Belle & Sebastian, Beck, and The Shins - all great shows. The camera nazis were not in force during the show, so I managed to take quite a few pics. Here are few below. Early the next morning after this show I left on a 3 day trip to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, so I've got several more posts coming up...