Photo Credit: Blaine Schultz
Dinosaur Jr.
“Wish that I could run and hide,” Dinosaur’s J Mascis sang on “Been There All the Time,” Thursday evening at Summerfest’s Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard.
Perhaps he was stating the obvious as he was protected in his own sonic cocoon of three (3!!!) full Marshall stacks behind him and a Fender Twin Reverb amp facing him at ear level. The trio relied on power as much as songcraft and melody.
Likewise, bassist Lou Barlow used a pair of amplifiers. It’s not unusual to hear a tinnitus sufferer recalling the group back in the days of playing clubs like Papagaio’s, but certainly this evening’s volume was well managed by the sound engineers.
Visually, Mascis and Barlow’s yin and yang presence onstage was as intriguing as the music with Barlow’s animated lurching and bouncing around the perfect complement to Mascis’ desultory conservation of energy. Between them drummer Murph proved to be the through-line, the engine room that propelled all motion forward.
Mascis and Barlow had a falling out that led to the bassist leaving the band and he returned in 2005. Thursday’s set drew from Dinosaur Jr.’s entire history. Barlow unearthed “Training Ground,” the song about not going to college he and Mascis played in pre-Dinosaur Jr. hardcore band Deep Wound.
Lou Barlow performs at URSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Dinosaur Jr.’s calling card has always been how catchy melodies emerge from a tsunami of harmonic overtones. Like their spiritual forefathers Blue Cheer, the trio’s layers have dared the casual listener to judge a book by its cover. Case in point, their unlikely hit, a version of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” The lesson here is that a good song is a good song, even if it is nearly turned inside out.
Toward the end of the set during a long jam, the group offhandedly connected the dots in terms of cosmic lineage. Barlow’s manic bass chording somehow recalled the musical importance of Rick Danko’s playing with The Band. Mascis’ hillbilly-Neil Young twang, on paper at least, should be out of place, but remains as appropriate as fellow Jazzmaster wrangler Tom Verlaine’s vocal stylings.
