By DCist contributor Nicholas Karlin

As a long time listener of James Mercer—from my days of driving through my small hometown on summer nights, windows down, singing along to the Shins’ Oh, Inverted World to falling in love with Natalie Portman in Garden State—it wasn’t a surprise to see a line outside of 9:30 Club hours before the doors even opened for the show.

As everyone slowly found their spots in front of the elaborate stage setup, it was easy to tell that the crowd was excited for what they were about to see: Hands were pointing to the alien-like metal dishes protruding from the background, a giant screen projector, and three keyboards lined up and waiting.

Brooklyn’s Au Revoir Simone opened the show with songs from last year’s Move In Spectrums. While the audience appeared to be waiting restlessly for Broken Bells, the crowd loosened up around the middle of the set when the group played their most recent single, “Crazy.”

Once the trio wrapped up their set, James Mercer and Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, made their way onto the stage and the crowd lit up as the group kicked off the night with songs from their January release, After The Disco. His voice is more polished since his early days, singing on Shins albums like Oh, Inverted World and the more finely tuned Chutes Too Narrow.

Their single “Holding on for Life,” which the crowd assuredly knew every lyric of, were highlights of the show, along with “Vaporize” and “Control.” Au Revoir Simone joined Mercer and Burton on stage for a few songs including “The Changing Lights,” “Leave it Alone” and a personal favorite “The High Road” before wrapping up the night with an encore of recent single “Citizen” and deep cuts from their self-titled album “October” and “Trap Doors.”