It's not hard to figure out why music fans, especially the Shiner faithful, follow this band so rabidly. In the wake of line-up changes during and after its last release, Starless, the band has finally had time to settle in and become a cohesive unit. This has allowed Shiner to build on its "take no shit" brand of rock by exploring the finer points of songwriting and stage-roaming, creating one of the best live shows around.

Bolstered by the brutal power of Jason Gerken's drumming and the intelligent finger-work of guitarist Josh Newton, Shiner's mainstay Allen Epley has more free time to concentrate on using his warm vocals to squeeze every ounce of lyrical content from the songs. Paul Malinowski, bassist and resident studiophile, ties the package together with bass lines that thump cardiac patients better than a pacemaker.

But on this night, it's not just anticipation of the band's patented live show that has the Bottle's patrons buzzing as they push toward the front of the stage. There's a palpable sense of hope that Shiner will debut more songs from its October 23 release, The Egg. The fourth album from the KC quartet may be one of the best records of 2001, and will mark the band's return to DeSoto Records, the indie label that also features Burning Airlines and Juno. It's the first time the current line-up has written and recorded an album as a band, and it also has an all-star cast for a support team. With J Robbins producing, Jason Livermore engineering and Matt Talbott's Great Western Record Recorders studio as ground zero for the project, The Egg is a mature effort, surpassing Starless as it captures the essence of Shiner: one damn good rock show.

"I think their mission was to sort of react to the sound of their last record (Starless), which I really love. I think it's a pretty rich-sounding record," says J Robbins. "But I think, although they're proud of it, I think they wanted to make a record that...sounds more like them playing, more immediate."

With Robbins' hand on the wheel, the band harnesses all of the passion and energy of a performance without having to sacrifice any crispness or clarity in the recording.

"I was way more like an advisor, or -- quote unquote -- producer, because you have Paul (Malinowski), who is a great engineer, already, and Jason Livermore, who engineered the record with us too. Already, there's those two guys who I think are amazing. So I was in a position to learn a lot from them. But definitely there were times when I was like, 'Here I am with one of my favorite bands, with these two great engineers... Like, what is my job, exactly, besides enjoying their music and learning a lot?'" says Robbins.

Taking advantage of the amazing drum room in Talbott's studio, Jason Gerken's ability to coax mind bending rhythms and beats out of his drum set is pushed to the forefront.

"Jason is very much about playing with the song; that's what he really wanted to do on Starless, and he wanted to play the pocket and play the song. He listens to the vocal line. He wants to play along with it. We had to get him to play his ass off every time," says Epley, "When we'd have a great practice or whatever, he'd come in with a triple latte mocha or something, wired to the gills, you know, after a big hangover, he went to sleep at 7:00 o'clock that morning. Those are our best practices though, almost invariably. And I was like, 'Man, that's the one we have to have for when we're recording. You're going to be wired to the bone, and do whatever you need to do, but that's what we need.' And he got it. It was two and a half days. He was done."

The time the band took to record and mix the eleven-track album reinforces their commitment to capturing the immediacy of the moment. Everything was recorded in ten days.

"The first set of mixes lasted six days. I mixed the rest in four days," says Malinowski.

"I'll give anybody five bucks if he can point out five fuck ups," Gerken says.

With the skilled hands on board for this recording session, the average listener would never know that some major tape surgery had to be performed on a crucial part of "The Simple Truth".

"Man, I'll tell you what. One time the tape machine, we were rewinding it (laughs), and it literally... the reels flew off and the tape, and all the two inch, all the master starts flying off," says Epley.

"It was the last mix. We were about to go home. Everybody had the beers out," says Newton.

"What had happened was the tape lapped over because the heads were loose. It stretched the tape on, like, the best take of the song. It fucked it," adds Malinowski.

"We were like...I had the video tape because we were all sitting around on the last night having champagne. Doing all this nonsense. We were standing... We were smoking pot, we had this like rotating light on. We had the fun lights on in the room. All of a sudden, we were listening to it going, 'Yeah, we're awesome'. Then we like rewound it and the shit goes (Allen mouths sound effect), and all the tape starts flying. The top lights come on, and all the buzz kill lights. And on comes the tape again, and we're all like, 'Unnnhh', and Paul's holding two pieces of tape in his hand, completely separated," says Epley.

"It was fucking vaporized," says Malinowski.

"That's a nine minute song...you can't...he (Josh) was gone...he had to go back to work," Epley says.

"We had an alternate take that we took a small section from. The whole record was done. We did a bunch of manual tape editing. Even with the mixing, we didn't do any automation; it was all choppin' tape. Hats off to J. Robbins because he was chopping tape like a champ. I'm amazed that we actually repaired that," says Malinowski.

What sets The Egg apart from previous Shiner records is its exploration of sounds and structure; many of the songs having an ethereal quality that seems to tie them together. Although "The Truth About Cows" and "Surgery" bring the rock like always, the middle five tracks (beginning with "The Egg") are darker, more expansive and seem to be thematically linked, almost like a concept album.

"There's no, like, fucking gnomes or wizards or anything like that," Malinowski is quick to add. "Musically, it's concept-linked."

"We kind of labored over the sequence for a while," Epley continues, "But also in writing it, we had an idea of how we wanted it to lay out. Like 'This is here, this is a repeat of this song, so this has to be more here,' is kind of what we'd do. It had to be a little chess piece initially. You have to have your chess moves together in order to get it all. But if it wanders and takes a little while for everyone to, like, to get the whole thing...to understand it... It's a less immediate record than Starless, but it also, I think, has more of a payoff."

Much of this is due to the creativity of Josh Newton, who combines his guitar instincts with an array of effects and pedals to foster a truly unique and cerebral variety of notes. Newton and his bandmates are fans of Radiohead, and attended the Hutchinson Field show in Chicago. Did the recent Radiohead albums influence Shiner's new record?

"It's broadened my horizons of what's right or wrong, or, you know, just when a part changes in the middle of parts, you know, just randomly switches. I think that, before, everybody's like, 'You can't do that.' Why not?" says Newton.

Shiner definitely challenges the idea of the song as a structured element, going beyond standard verse-and-chorus rock to create a more subtle storytelling experience.

"Hopefully, it's kind of pushing the boundaries of what we are and what a record can be. All of the songs could have been like the first two or three songs on the record, you know, which are kind of very upbeat. And then it goes into this...next level of, like, very serious and slower stuff, and then gets longer. The songs get longer. So it's kind of like a progression," says Epley.

There's also an added degree of difficulty to this record. Is it difficult to translate some of the songs to a live setting?

"Fucking hard. Some of them. Some of them are quite difficult to perform live," says Malinowski.

"They definitely take more effort, I think," adds Newton, specifically referring to "The Egg". "There's been missed cues here and there, but there's been no train wreck with that song yet. Of course, now I say that and there will be tonight..."

But on this night, Shiner performs flawlessly. Even the new songs come off without a hitch, and the crowd is left in a hectic state. The band has embarked on a new and stimulating stage of its existence.

The Shiner faithful will undoubtedly continue to follow them wherever they lead.