Dinosaur Jr.
Live at the Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI
November 28, 2005
It was only fifteen years ago when a "special intimate show" by J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph - the original and greatest line-up of Dinosaur Jr. - could very well have culminated in onstage fisticuffs. But times have changed, and as demonstrated by J's fellow U-Mass alumnus Frank Black and the Pixies, the last few years have been kind to the alt-rock reunion set. A cynic might say the price was finally right for Mascis and Barlow to bury their hatchet...but if there were any cynics left in the Blind Pig when the notoriously volatile threesome hit the stage Monday night, they were eating their words within minutes. Simply put, this was an awe-inspiring show; one which lived up to the band's prehistoric moniker not with tarpit-bound irrelevance, but with a primal and monumental ferocity.
Opening with the now two-decade-old "Gargoyle," Dinosaur made good use of J's and Lou's Marshall stacks right from the start, letting loose tidal waves of pure volume while the club's P.A. struggled to stay afloat. Somehow, though, this lopsided amp-to-vocals ratio fit the band's approach; Mascis's trademark drawl sounded almost subliminal, while the occasional howls from Barlow's side of the stage seemed paradoxically more intense muffled under layers of guitar noise. Besides, Dinosaur Jr. never were much of a vocalist's band. They were, and remain, indie rock for closet guitar geeks - and in that respect they were undoubtedly in top form. Virtually motionless in his position stage right, his lanky curtain of hair now turned almost entirely gray, J spat out one fiery solo after another, stretching songs to twice their recorded length and hammering through "Sludgefeast" with a viciousness that made it sound even more like a Sabbath Bloody Sabbath outtake than usual. Lou and Murph weren't exactly slouching, either. By song number four ("Lose"), the drummer had stripped to the waist, while Barlow played with such intensity throughout, he ended up snapping a bass string mid-set. Together, the trio were unstoppable as they barrelled through a marathon of visceral classics from their first two albums, with a handful of B-sides and stand-out tracks from 1988's Bug thrown in for good measure. "Freak Scene" killed, of course. But of even more interest was "The Wagon" from post-Barlow record Green Mind, which received its live debut at the Blind Pig; its effortless, unexpected performance cementing at long last that Dinosaur Jr. are still a musical force to be reckoned with.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
Good review. I friggin loved Dinosaur Jr in college. I haven't been able to catch them this go round, but I have a copy of a show from a few months back and it killed.
I can't believe they played something off Green Mind!
2 - Barry Stoller
"Murph, the Ringo of college rock, probably still the only one in the band you'd actually want to know in person."
That's actually true. If J and Lou had a problem with each other in the early '90s, they had way bigger issues with their indifferent hometown when they hit it big. Man, they were sure mean to every struggling band around town; J even went so far as to show up at open mikes just to slay the losers. I recall Murph fondly, though; his decency always shone through.
3 - -E
Sounds like a good time.