Shins

Last Wednesday Bowie went to see The Shins for the second time in his little life. The first time he was about 3 months old I think. We strapped him into his bjorn (Chris wasn't yet using a sling) and took him down to Stubb's, an outdoor venue. He slept through the opening band was awake as we danced at the very back. This week we went to the Backyard, which is now very different since that huge Lowes etc. monstrosity came in. I will say that I am extremely impressed that all the development around didn't really affect our exprience though. We had to park down below it and walk through it, but we couldn't see it and the stage still was backed with oaks. Anyway, we caught the last 3 songs of Viva Voce. The female singer played a two-necked guitar (Bowie's choice of instrument when playing GUitar Hero II), so major points there. And the other band memeber was a drummer that also sang and played guitar, so HUGE points there. Bowie wore his headgear and rode in the Kelty backpack (he's really too tall for it, and there's no way I could have carried his 33 lbs around all night) so that he could see everything. Between sets he wandered through the crowd with Chris, selecting various spots as his stage, playing air guitar saying, "I'm the guitar player for the Shins," playing air drums saying, "I'm the drummer for the Shins." We went back really quite close to the stage and watched most of the set. The last few songs we watched from the rear of the venue as Bowie tiredly rested his head on ours.

The next morning when he woke up the first thing he said was, "I liked BOTH of the drummers and their drums." And only wanted to listen to Shins songs.

The music was incredible. Chris and I have seen the Shins 4 times now and they are always a great show. And we are beyond excited about taking Bowie out more and more. Live music was a huge loss for us as we transistioned into family life. But it is clear that we have a shared love and look forward to sharing many more tunes beneath the autumn stars.