Bootleg: James Mercer (The Shins) – 10.10.04 Moonshine Festival


James Mercer, with Broken Bells in 2010. Photo by David Greenwald

In 2004, Garden State had just changed the Shins’ lives and the band had yet to take three years off to release an — I’ll say it — disappointing follow-up to Chutes Too Narrow. It must’ve been a heady time for frontman James Mercer, who’s uncharacteristically charismatic and frontman-y at this October 2004 solo show. (And does a killer early version of “Girl Sailor.”) For solo acoustic takes on the essential Shins catalog, the buck stops here.

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1. Intro
2. Caring Is Creepy
3. When I Goose-Step
4. Young Pilgrims
5. Girl Inform Me
6. Girl Sailor
7. Harvest (Neil Young cover)
8. Pink Bullets
9. Gone For Good
10. Sphangnum Esplanade
11. The Past and Pending
12. New Slang
13. Saint Simon

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