Dino Jr. on Daytrotter
If you missed Saturday's Dinosaur Jr. throwdown at Higher Ground . . . what the hell? Seriously. It's not like you didn't know it was coming. Bryan Dondero wrote about the show on this very blog when it was announced. I interviewed Lou freakin' Barlow last week. I even mentioned the show again in a blog post last Thursday. You have no excuse.
Except maybe that it looked to be sold out. Still, I imagine you could have hung out at Quizno's that night and gotten the gist. It was pretty loud. (Although, honestly, I was expecting a little bit more. I even discarded my plugs about midway through, with only a modicum of tinnunitis afterwards.)
Anyway, if you missed the show, Daytrotter has just announced they'll be featuring Dino Jr. live in the studio within the next couple of weeks. So be sure to keep an eye (ear?) out for that. Based on the unbridled awesomeness that was Saturday's show, it should be a good one.
Since Marc Scarano did a pretty decent job summing up the show in his last post, and there's nothing especially pressing on the docket today, I will forgo a straight up review in favor of some random thoughts that crossed my mind that night, Twitter-feed style. Buckle up.
J. Mascis is one badass guitar player. He's also a really strange lookin' fella.
For the first time I can remember in a while, HG really smells like a Rock club (capital "R"). Lots of big, sweaty dudes about. Kind of a swordfight, actually.
My girlfriend points out that if Legolas, the archer elf from Lord of the Rings, had an out-of-shape, guitar-playing, half-human brother, he might look alot like Mascis.
Man, I'd forgotten how much I love "Out There." Where You Been was my first Dinosaur Jr. album. I bought a cutout cassette at a Providence record store when I was about 14 and completely wore it out. Same with the CD that replaced it. It's probably still my favorite.
There is a noticeable lack of hipsterly presence, which is alternately refreshing and disappointing. Don't they know?
Was that a crowd surfer? My God, I do believe it was! And a faux pit to boot. Ah, memories!
I'm starting to develop an affinity for drinking Guinness out of a keg cup. At least the HG bartenders roughly know how to pour it, unlike most bars in town — including many of the supposedly Irish joints. There really is an art to the perfect pint.
There's also an art to the perfect rock show. And this was as close as I've seen in a while.
Yeah,
the Dino Jr. show in Troy, NY last fall was "earplug" loud, but it didn't seem as loud as I had expected it to be. My only gripe about the show, and I'm going to guess this happens fairly often at DJr shows is that since J's amps are cranked so loud on stage, his vocal monitor has to be equally cranked, therefore making it difficult for the front of house to bring the vocals to an adequate/balanced level.
But really though, it's DINOSAUR, who needs vocals?
Glad y'all got a rad show up there...
Nice to hear about it!
xxx,
-Matthew
Posted by: Matthew | Thursday, April 09, 2009 at 09:12 AM
Gripping about a Dino Jr. show is like complaining about sex or pizza, even when it's not great, it's still pretty fuckin good.
Posted by: Bryan Dondero | Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 02:38 PM
PS - The worst slice of pizza I ever had was in Italy...like...W...T...F?!?! (lol, ttyl)
Posted by: Bryan Dondero | Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 02:41 PM
Of course the hipsters don't know. That's what makes them hipsters -- their total ignorance of what's *genuinely* good and cool.
Posted by: Lemmy | Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 05:37 PM