Muse and Shins

By a twist of luck, my project schedule allowed me to attend two straight concerts in San Francisco on a Monday night. Which was great because I finally got to see Muse after missing them the last couple times they came through SF.

Muse 4/9 - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
What an amazing show. It has been a long time since I have seen one like this. There was so much energy. The building was a medium size arena, with a standing room ground and first come first serve surrounding balcony. Being that it was a Monday night and the fact that I am old now, we ended up finding a seat upstairs. Too bad I wasn't younger because it woudl have been great to have been down in the mosh pit for this one.

Shins 4/16 - Warfield
I wanted to like the show. Really, I did. But maybe it was that I was too tired, or that it was too hot, or maybe because they didn't really talk to the crowd, or else because the songs they played all sounded alike (either fast or slow). Whatever it was, I was overall disappointed. The Warfield is a much smaller concert hall than the Bill Graham Civic, it looks like it actually was once an opera house. Of course, now its kinda in a rundown area on Market, with the apparently famous Crazy Horse next door. At any rate, there wasn't anything really wrong with the Shins show, its just that it didn't have the same sort of energy that Muse did. That is probably an unfair comparison given the huge differences in the genre they are both in, but unfortunatly having just seen them the week earlier, it was the most direct comparison I had.