July 20, 2005

{     Dinosaur Jr. July 15th, 2005     }    

If you had told me even six months ago that I would have been seeing the original lineup of Dinosaur Jr. on a sweaty evening in July, singing along to songs such as "Repulsion" and "Freak Scene," I would have called you a fool.

Sure, with the recent reunions of countless other indie bands (The Pixies, Slint, and Gang of Four come to mind,) it could stand to reason that Dinosaur Jr. would at some point take the stage again. Even with those reunions, though, one must consider the legendarily bitter feud between Singer/Guitarist J. Mascis and Bassist Lou Barlow, which eventually culminated in Barlow punching Mascis in the face onstage and leaving the band.

Needless to say, I wasn't holding my breath for a Dinosaur Jr. reunion, and even when one was announced, I wasn't considering the possibility of a lengthy tour.

Cut to Friday, July 15th.

The three of them (Mascis, Barlow, and drummer Murph) take the stage without saying a word. Any "could this really be happening" fantasies are crushed immediately when faced with Mascis' enormously loud guitar volume (my ears rang for two days after the show.)

The band played a set taken entirely from their first three records (recorded before the face-punching incident, thereby retaining the original lineup). This did not seem to disappoint anyone, however, as those records contain most of Dinosaur Jr.'s best songs. "Little Fury Things," "Repulsion," and their cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" were all included in the night's setlist.

There were absolutely no indicators of the previous feud, and there even seemed to be signs of compromise. Mascis played several lengthy, noisy solos, and the band performed "Forget the Swan," one of the few Barlow-written songs in the Dinosaur Jr. catalog.

As the band performed with the same intensity and tightness that they would have in the early nineties, the crowd responded in suit. As I was jumping up and down along with a hundred strangers to the rhythm of "Freak Scene," a goateed man in a flannel shirt extended his hand to me, and I shook it. "This," I thought to myself, "Is exactly what a Dinosaur Jr. reunion should be."