The Shins Announce Oh, Inverted World 21st Anniversary Tour
Photo by Marisa Kula Mercer
The Shins’ indie-rock landscape-changing debut album Oh, Inverted World turns 21 this summer, and the band is celebrating with a two-month, North American 21st Birthday Tour. James Mercer and co. will perform the 2001 album “from start to finish—plus a nightly rotation of additional fan favorites and deep cuts,” per a press release.
Oh, Inverted World turns 21 on June 19, and the band’s anniversary tour kicks off in San Francisco on July 12, with stops at such icnoic venues as Red Rocks, Radio City Music Hall and the Ryman Auditorium before concluding at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square on Sept. 16. Portland sister trio Joseph will support The Shins on the tour. Tickets go on sale next Friday, May 20, at 10 a.m. local time.
“Everything was so tongue-in-cheek in the indie world of the ’90s,” Mercer recalls of the band’s turn-of-the-century Oh, Inverted World era. “I remember feeling a longing for some sort of romance in music again, something earnest, like a real attempt at some emotional language.”
“This record symbolized a very special moment in my life, a watershed moment for sure,” he adds.
The Shins reissued Oh, Inverted World for its 20th anniversary last year, with a remaster by Bob Ludwig. The album features such standouts as “New Slang,” “Caring Is Creepy” and “Girl Inform Me.”
Listen to those tracks below, and see The Shins’ Oh, Inverted World 21st Birthday Tour tour dates further down.