There was a packed house to witness the godfathers of grunge play their highly anticipated Brighton show on Saturday night. Dinosaur Jr. have gathered cult following over the years, having dominated the American alt rock scene throughout the 80s and 90s and recently reformed to come back with three fantastic albums. It was no surprise that this show had sold out within days of tickets going on sale.
Having reformed in 2005, the band are now complete with all of their founding fathers – singer and guitarist J. Mascis, bassist and singer Lou Barlow and energetic drummer Murph.
Their penultimate show of their five date UK tour was bound to be a special one. Backed by a mountain of amps, the band created a wall of noise that seemed to hit the spot perfectly for most of the punters.
Mascis’s silver locks shone under the stage lights. He oozes stage presence and charisma. His brooding, growling vocals fit well with the Murph’s relentless drum clatters. It’s little wonder that Mascis was invited by Kurt Cobain to join that band called Nirvana twice in the past.
Starting with ‘The Lung’ and then ‘The Wagon’, a fan favourite off their 1991 LP ‘Green Mind’, racing guitar solos mark out the verses while the choruses are made up by choppy power chords.
After hearing the band perform some of their slower tracks such as the fantastically fuzzy ‘Crumble’, it’s obvious where newer bands such as Yuck find their inspiration. The track, from their 2007 album ‘Beyond’, proved to be one of the standout performances of the evening.
Barlow later took his turn to sing a few notes during ‘Rude’, a track off their 2012 effort ‘I Bet On Sky’.
The band even played a track from Mascis and Barlow’s high school hardcore punk band, Deep Wound. Introducing it, Barlow described Deep Wound’s work as “fast music” but explained that they were going to play one of their ‘slower’ songs. Despite this, it was in fact far quicker than any of the Dinosaur material. Although this provided an interesting change to the show’s tempo it was very clear that the crowd just wanted to hear more Dinosaur Jr. songs.
The compromise of seeing such a huge band in a small venue is that it’s a battle to get anywhere near them. The front seemed like the place to be, but getting there seemed like an impossible mission (unless you had been there since the minute the venue opened). The more likely option was standing right at the back or in an area where the smell of the toilets was too close for comfort.
The band ended their blistering set with a fantastic cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’ – with extra beefed-up power chords. Judging by this show, the band seem more than ready for their massive Coachella show later this year.
Concorde2, Saturday 2nd February 2013
Words by Jack Dutton
