Total Quality Experience (TQE) - Overall: 9.0 out of 10

Music: 9.5 out of 10 - Read on!

People: 8.5 out of 10 - I felt a little old, but got carded for beer ☺.

Venue: 8 out of 10 - The Fillmore: I like the purple chandeliers and crowd size, but felt like I could be roller skating in a rink as well. Sound was solid, however.

Dinner beforehand: 8 out of 10 - good burgers at the City Grill and an easy walk to the venue.

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Let the record show that Albuquerque has not been good to me. I almost died there on the way to Tucson when my car - going 80 mph - hit a cinder block in the center of Interstate 25. The way back included vandals, who broke into my wounded vehicle outside the hotel. I have seen some nice golf courses in the area, but all in all, I never was much of a fan. Not of the golf. Not of the roads. Not of anything “made in Albuquerque”. That is, until I saw The Shins.

Call them Indie, Pop, Rock, Emo, whatever you will, it doesn’t matter, they are Albuquerque’s best, and a lot of people in Denver know it.

February 15th at The Fillmore, and The Shins indeed rocked, popped, emo’d, je-ne-sais-quoi-ed out. Opening with the gradual building tempo of “Sleeping Lessons”, the song metaphorically presented a mirror image of The Shins young but growing “stance” in the music world. The song started slow and smooth, and climaxed with the sold-out crowd jumping and smoke pluming as the curtain dropped on the bands 30 foot wide banner reading “The Shins.” What the banner declared is this: “The Shins have arrived.”

James Mercer, the singer / songwriter and clear front man of the band (but not in an obnoxious I'm a control freak a--hole kind of way) exclaimed after the first song: “I just found out we sold this mother out. That’s really cool. I can’t believe that. Thank you for coming”, and I believed him - that he did REALLY think it was cool.

The music continued, a solid couple hour set of songs old and new. “New Slang” -- made famous by the words of Natalie Portman in Zach Braff’s Garden State: “It will change your life, I swear” -- was a highlight of the evening. It attacked the crowd’s senses and commanded attention from one and all. A notable omission from the set was “Sea Legs”, on the recently released Wincing The Night Away album. I overheard a handful of people commenting “They didn’t freaking play, uh, freaking Sea Legs…what’s up with that?”

The truth about The Shins is that none of the guys are over the top exceptional instrumentalists. They are not prodigies. They are however a band in the truest sense of the word. They all contribute beautifully to help turn James Mercer’s ideas into unique, tightly knit, songs. They look and act like old buddies from high school.

The overall sound was far better than the last few times I have seen them. They had a bass heavy sound but no high notes were buried. Acoustic songs were crisp and clean and the snare drum had a nice “tack” to it. Mercer hit his high-pitched notes during the evening, save a few squeaks. The keyboard was audible and clean, not overbearing and piercing.

The only thing overbearing and piercing was the crowd’s reaction to what was in front of them. This was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at the Fillmore since The Strokes show a few years back. Which got me to thinking. Made in Alburquerque: The Shins. Maybe I should give Albuquerque another chance.

-- Hey Joe.