Chris Shinn Brings His Band ShinN And A Few Surprises To The Carolinas

On February 6, 2026, Chris Shinn released a couple of new singles for the first time since 2023 with his band, ShinN. You may know Chris Shinn best as being the frontman for Live around 2012-2016. For me, I became a fan upon hearing him fronting Unified Theory back in the late 90’s. I remember making a trip back then from my hometown in Bluefield, WV to Charlotte, NC just to catch them in concert at the old Tremont Music Hall. I of course excitedly brought in my little point & shoot camera and was snapping pictures from my spot in the crowd. I still have those tucked away in an album.

Now that I actually live in North Carolina and bands occasionally allow me to come and photograph them, it’s pretty exciting for me to be able to check out my very favorites. I’ve gotten to see Chris Shinn live a few times while he was playing a small show for his hometown crowd in Charlotte over the past several years. But this year, ShinN released some new tunes and more importantly, a little bit of a headline tour. Even better, he decided to bring along some familiar faces to round out his band for this tour.

ShinN set out to play their first show on February 10^th in New Orleans, LA and concluded the tour on February 16^th in Charleston, SC. I did say it was just a little bit of a tour, but damn it was an amazing one. For this tour, Chris Shinn brought along Christopher Thorn (Blind Melon, Unified Theory, The Afghan Wigs), Patrick Dahlheimer (Live), and Jason Gerken (Shiner).

I was so excited for the chance to catch 2 different dates on this run. On February 12^th, ShinN hit up Snug Harbor, which is a small venue located in downtown Charlotte, NC. I’m sorry to say, I didn’t bring a camera that night and I probably should have. There were a few surprises, but not to worry, I did have my trusty cellphone like every other fan in the crowd and took a couple of videos to share below. I also caught the tour a few nights later when they rolled into the Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC on February 15^th. On this one I brought back some nice pictures from the night to share.

There’s so many times I catch multiple dates on a tour and the bands play the same set every night. While there’s nothing wrong with that, ShinN did not do that. The band really changed it up and brought some surprises. We got to hear the 2 recently released tracks, “12 String Lush” and “Foot In Mouth” live for the first time. But there were also a lot of tunes from years past. I was excited to hear a few Unified Theory tracks for the first time in years, including “The Sun Will Come”, “California”, and “Fin.” Then as a huge surprise for fans in Charlotte, the band was joined on stage by Chad Taylor (Live) for a couple of tunes. That night they finished out the show playing “Lakini’s Juice” and “I Alone” by Live.

Both concerts I attended were so exciting. The nights were just filled with great music; you really never knew what was coming up next. All of these guys have so many years of music between them, you just really didn’t know what they may pull out next to play. Most of all, everyone was having fun. I’ve seen all of these guys playing on stages much bigger than they were these nights, but they have a way of bringing a huge show to even the smallest of stages. The excitement echoed from these walls, and everyone was just happy to be a part of it. Check out some photos from the show at the Local 506 and a couple of videos from Snug Harbor below.

I’m Music Magazine Associate Editor/Photographer Daphne McKinney