Forget the Swan

Dinosaur Jr.
Metro Theatre
March 11, 2010

I went to the Metro Theatre last night to see one of my favorite bands of all time, the influential Dinosaur Jr. I was very excited because I was about to see the original line up of J Mascis on guitar/vocals, Lou Barlow on bass/vocals and Murph on drums.

Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-'80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. – allmusic.com

Dinosaur Jr formed in 1983 in Amherst Massachusetts but were known simply as Dinosaur until after the release of their debut album in 1985 when another band with the same name sued them. The original band then released another 2 albums after which Barlow was fired by Mascis in 1989. Murph then left dinosaur jr in 1993 and Mascis finally ended the band in the late 90’s after another couple of albums. The three of them continued on in respective solo careers or other bands until Mascis decided to reform the original lineup in 2006. Since then the band has performed a successful tour and released 2 critically acclaimed albums Beyond (2007) and Farm (2009).

When I arrived at the Metro one of the first things in noticed was that much of the crowd including myself were not actually old enough to remember or even have been alive when the original line up for dinosaur jr were playing together. The celebrities were also out with the singer of Australian punk band Radio Birdman, Rob Younger in attendance.

Right on 10.30 Dinosaur Jr walked out on stage as planned. J Mascis came out and stood in front of 3 huge Marshall stacks and from the first song they played Thumb they showed that its true when they are described as one of the loudest bands on the planet.

They performed songs from their entire back catalogue, they didn’t just promote their latest record. Their songs all sounded awesome live, to be expected from a band like dinosaur jr. Their current single Over It was one of the best received songs by the audience as well as being one of the best performed.

Other highlights included the track The Lung from their album You’re Living All Over Me (1987). Also Feel The Pain was played with so much power and intensity (surprising as it is from the Mascis only era).

The high point of the night I feel was when they played the song everyone was waiting for, the iconic Freak Scene. The crowd went crazy during the line “Cause when I need a friend its still you.” They followed that up with the second of two Lou Barlow sung songs of the night Lose. This turned into a monumental jam session that seemed like they didn’t want to stop playing after which the set had ended.

They returned for an encore after the crowd was clearly after more and played Kracked and then finally ended with an incredible performance of Sludgefeast.

Throughout the night Mascis shredded and wailed on his guitar. Murph pounded as hard as anyone I’ve seen on his simple drum kit. While Lou Barlow thrashed at his bass like no one I’ve seen as if it was a guitar. All this became evident throughout the show because it was the most guitar tuning and drum kit tightening I have witnessed. The instruments were so loud that they drowned out Mascis’ high pitched Neil Young-esque vocals and angsty lyrics.

The band didn’t talk much to the crowd as is their style. They seem to prefer to just come out on stage and play their music which is fine by me. There was one mumbled “Thank you for coming” from J Mascis about half way through the set. Lou Barlow paid more attention to the crowd and had a bit more to say in response to his sizeable fan base.

The concert was one of the best I’ve been to, as it appeared to be to a lot of the die hard fans buying merchandise, singing along and dancing to the tunes. J Mascis is a modern day guitar hero. The sounds he gets out of his cool looking fender jazzmaster are incredible. His extended solos were amazingly melodic yet at the same time pure distorted noise. I hope they return to Sydney in the not to distant future because I will definitely see them play live again.