Dinosaur Jr at the Middle East

xrayspx's picture
xrayspx - Sun, 10/04/2009 - 3:24am

An evening with the Anti-Edge

I've seen The Edge from U2 saying that notes are sacred, and that they should not be wasted, and he certainly takes that philosophy to the hoop. J Mascis takes the contrary view. Prior to tonight's show, people were telling me it will be the loudest thing I've ever been to. Definitely not, but it is up there. My boots are still tied though, and that was in the same room, standing in the same place in front of the same stack of loudspeakers...

It wasn't the bad loud, like the Motorhead show a couple of weeks ago (which was kind of loud, but not ear-splittingly so, and yet it was such a jangly mess you couldn't hear anything anyway), this was the good loud, definitely. You could really hear everything, and I wanted to hear everything. Mascis has his schtick of being a mechanical automaton, built solely for the purpose of shredding a guitar, I believe it. I also believe that the breaks before the encore are just so someone can jam a key in his back and wind his springs back up. Barlow even made a point of swaying back and forth with a slackjaw zombie expression for a bit, wish I'd caught that.

It was great to see another band get back together and make the local rounds, we've been really pretty lucky the last few years to see so many good ones come through, and so many that seemed to be doing it because it's what they want to do, and not because they can make a couple of bucks.

Lou Barlow & the Missingmen opened, and after some serious technical difficulties with an effects pedal, put out a good solid set for what he said was their second show, ever. The Missingmen being those of "Mike Watt & the Missingmen", and I do believe that if Mike Watt comes to Boston, I will need to be there.

Here are some of the pictures that didn't suck. I was pretty close, but really should have made a point to be At. The. Front. at the Middle East, since their stage is somewhat lower than say, Paradise, and I keep neglecting that in favor of my Leanin' Pole. Silly me.

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Not your day?:

These are kind of "before and after" someone turned on "Rock Star mode" on J Mascis' remote:



Lou Barlow & the Missingmen:





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Comments

No link for you... (not verified) - Fri, 01/08/2010 - 2:18am

The band is definitely tighter than when I saw them in the 80's! This is shot on their first reunion tour leg,I think. The extras are nice but it would have been cool to have the full World Cafe bonus performances. Anybody expecting a slick, super professional DVD will be put off by the slightly low-fi quality of the interviews and bonus footage although the people interviewed really seem to express what makes Dino Jr. such a special band. A Dinosaur Jr. fan knows what to expect and they'll get it in this raw and rocking DVD.