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At around 9ish the now silver haired (and slightly podgy) J Mascis politely excuses himself through tonights tightly packed audience making his way towards the stage. As J begins to set up for the show you can see him sneak a few glances through his 'Junior Soprano' type glasses which instantly attracts the attention of some die-hard Dinosaur Jr fans in the front row who wave at J enthusiastically. J pauses for a minute before returning a little wave accompanied by a nervous smirk with a slightly bemused and almost disturbed look on his face. Bless Him. After a few acknowledgements are exchanged back and fourth between the stage and sound desk, the sound-man urgently makes his way through the crowd to find a vocal mic that actually works and then show is ready to begin. Mascis Wastes no time in giving the audience what they want and opens his set with the fantastic 'Thumb' that has us all applauding with gratitude halfway through the second bar. J is on form tonight both on guitar (naturally) and especially on vocals. We all know the man can play guitar like a demon but tonight his voice sounded amazing. He also incorporated something in his set that I haven't seen many solo artists do (apart from Flour). He would play one bar from a section in the next song or two that would actually be recorded onto a sampler of sorts, of which he would later trigger, whilst proceeding to stretch his foot out for the famous 'Rat' pedal and sonically wail his way through a classic Mascis style solo that sounded incredible. You don't see many people try and solo like that with that kind of sound on an acoustic and unless you can do it quite as well as J don't bother. We were treated to various Dinosaur delights including 'The Lung, Get Me, 'What Else is New' as well as some of the more recent material from the 'More Light' album such as 'Same Day'. I found it quite amusing that when he started every song, I would catch myself quickly trying to flip through my Dinosaur Jr memory archives (as I'm usually quite bad with song titles) and try and work out what song it was by the time the first bar had finished. It also hit me with a lot of memories of what I was doing around the time of listening to various Dinosaur records at different points of my youth. One of my fondest Dinosaur memory's I have to say (sorry to deviate from the review a little bit but we'll return shortly) would be listening to 'Where You Been' and waiting for the drum-fill intro for 'What Else Is New' to kick the song in whilst riding my BMX home from school in the pissing rain with the wind against me and thinking how perfect the music suited with that particular moment. It was great to turn around and see various people smiling their arses off as much as me - probably even thinking about their own favourite Dinosaur associated past-times. Ahem! Anyway, J was kind enough to air some new material for us from his forthcoming album, including the next UK only Single 'Everybody Lets Me Down', and although nobody had really heard any of them before, you couldn't help but feel that you had already heard them a hundred times before and would almost feel that you could attempt to sing along. As we enter the 'November' stage of the set J gives the old school Dinosaur fans another treat and casually starts up the brilliant 'Repulsion' which is met with instant applause and appreciation with the audience grins getting bigger and applause getting louder... and rightly so. Once the last chord is hit the crowd erupts once more and J almost sheepishly looks up at tonight's Cheshire smiling audience and calmly says, "Thanks for coming out". He slowly grabs his acoustic guitar by the strings and gently places it on the stage floor and proceeds to make his exit. But we don't let him get away that easily. Before he can get anywhere near the edge of the cabaret like stage he's bombarded with enthusiastic and almost pleading calls for more! This continues for about a minute or two of which his guitar tech turns to him and asks if he is going to do anymore? J doesn't really reply but gives a grimace with raised eyebrows followed by a little nod and lightly plods back to his stool. He picks up his guitar and quietly mutters "Well, I suppose I do have some more that I could play you..." NO SHIT! With his back catalogue you would think so! Within seconds he delivers the last gem of the evening and casually goes into 'The Wagon' (Go on son). Those who were quietly singing along to themselves earlier in the evening were now happily, (and unshamefully), singing along (including me) and before we knew it, it was over. Mascis once more raised his hand and again muttered words of thanks before quickly dismantling his pedals to avoid any further encores. Although the set seemed a little shorter than is generally anticipated it was obvious that we all loved the show and could have happily endured another hour or so. I appreciate that this rambling kind of view may seem a little over the top, well fuck it and fuck you! (Sorry). J Mascis is amazing be it with the Fog or Dinosaur Jr and should be checked out by everyone at least once. Various Dinosaur fans would say to those who haven't entered this realm "start with this album" and then generally recommend a route for you to check out next which is nice but it doesn't really matter. I would personally say that although the production on every album differs (especially on the earlier ones), it's pretty much all J and generally great. So for those of you that interested in checking out J's recorded history with Dinosaur Jr I have made a list of their albums below. So if you don't own a Dinosaur record may I suggest that you go buy one and see if it grabs you, if so take your time to check out the rest. albums Enjoy! The Hornbearer |