Dinosaur Jr.
2nd March 2024
The Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Simon Coffey. Photography by Nick Paulsen.
Tonight’s show may be celebrating 30 years since the release of Dinosaur Jr’s fifth album, 1993’s ‘Where You Been’ but it’s been 34 years since I first saw Dinosaur Jr. at Tamaki Makaurau’s Powerstation on Oct0ber 4th, 1989.
Dinosaur Jr have visited Auckland a multitude of times since then (the last time was in 2017) and have played a multitude of venues, this time they are on a return engagement at the Great Hall, having been here in March 1995.
Tonight’s lineup is not actually the lineup that recorded Where You Been, Lou Barlow had been replaced by Mike Johnson (who hung around for two more albums) – while in 1989 it was also a different line up with Donna Dresch on bass, which confused the fuck out of everyone still trippin’ on BUG.
Dinosaur Jr. tonight, to be clear, is J Mascis (Vocals & Guitar), Lou Barlow (bass & Vocals) and Murph (drums), the line-up that excites the purists and OCD in the sizable crowd tonight.
Office Dog
Formed in 2021, Flying Nun darlings Office Dog are bassist Rassani Tolovaa, drummer Mitchell Innes and Kane Strang on vocals and Guitar. A series of singles through 2022-23 were instant Student Radio Hitters, in the lead up to the release of their debut album Spiel, at the start of this year.
Office Dog’s alt-new wave-punk sound is unmissable, think Built To Spill plus The Cars plus Superchunk, their saving grace (IMHO) is the slightly jagged edge that pervades, that element of angular discomfort similar to early Gang of Four, but nowhere near as grimy as The Fall. Like their musicological forebears, The 3Ds and The Beths they are attempting to (also) straddle across genres, and they pretty much pull it off tonight.
Kane Strang’s vocals are unhurried and well-measured, but perhaps a little lonely, he has obviously profited from his previous musical journey, and while the hookless lyrics are sparse, it is his emotive style that holds the audience’s attention.
Mid-set their attempt at being heavy doesn’t quite cut the mustard, the band feels overstretched, later they bring on a couple of guests, visually and socially it adds impact, but musically not so much. Towards the end Office Dog ratchets it up once again and this time it all seems to dovetail for them, slightly sweet and slightly skewed works better.
Dinosaur Jr.
Let’s get this over with now! They religiously played the whole of 1993’s Where You Been, album pretty much perfectly, though J did occasionally embellish his guitar mahi, as he always does.
Setting the scene…
Gray J Mascis was impressively towered over by three Marshall stacks, which had me wondering WTF!, until told that likely not all three are used in singularity, but rather they have different settings for various songs. A guitar geek’s heaven, and possibly a signifier of how seriously J takes his mahi.
Lou Barlow only had a single Marshall stack, but his magic comes from his long black shaggy hair… and not playing bass as expected. Like Lemmy from Motorhead, he stretches his instrument to its limits, aggressively strumming, playing power chords high up the fretboard and using effects to broaden and expand his output and contribution. He’s also the active one, energized onstage, constantly contorting his body and attacking his bass. All in socks!
Meanwhile slick-top Murph, his secret love of Jazz drumming (shhh), his history as a hardcore drummer and fan, and the life experience and upskilling time saw him creating perfect breaks, pounded beats and picture-perfect fills through the night, a counterpoint to the other two’s mania.
And let’s not forget to shout out to the not-so-surreptitious keyboardist, unobtrusively hidden at the back, easily noticeable from the circle, but not the floor, who adds the extra element to many of the songs tonight, in particular on Goin’ Home and also acted as J’s guitar-tech.
As the three/four shared a live version of Where You Been, and when the initial muddy mix cleared, it was a constant astoundment of the clarity and conveyance of sounds, harmonics and patterns that J and Lou were creating in perfect unison. With Murph’s time-perfect backbeat, songs like Start Choppin’, Not the Same, Get Me and Goin’ Home (with the sneaky keyboards) were crowd pleasers, especially for the brave souls up the front.
Not many words were uttered, most were sung, Lou introduced the last song of the show, actually the album with much mirth. And as the night went freeform, Barlow got to be front and centre singing the vocals on his penned Garden from their latest album, 2021’s Sweep It Into Space, beautifully sung, a lovely contemporary juxtaposition from the just shared album.
Garden was part of six post Where You Been songs, the audience is treated to showerings from inbetweener albums, BUT as the familiar tones of The Wagon and Feel the Pain fill the Great Hall, the audience is re-emboldened, come alive and are euphoric, enraptured by seeing and hearing Mascis and Lou sing in unison.
MORE! Barlow introduces taonga (treasure) Forget the Swan from their 1985 debut album Dinosaur (before they were forced to add the Jr.) Lou and Mascis on dual vocals again, classic (very) old school Dinosaur Jr. which evolves into an Extended jam version. Is this the end?
No. Minutes later they emerge, encore, J speaks and thanks as Freak Scene, the song that started it off in Aotearoa from Bug spreads aroha, and is quickly followed by their ubiquitous cover of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven, which ends abruptly (like the record).
Now is the end, the crowd are left in heaven, once again, in a sea of Dinosaur Jr. t-shirts.
Were you there at the Auckland Town Hall for this Alt-Indie Rock gig? Or have you seen Dinosaur Jr. perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Out There
- Start Choppin
- What Else Is New
- On the Way
- Not the Same
- Get Me
- Drawerings
- Hide
- Goin’ Home
- I Ain’t Sayin’
- Garden
- Been There All the Time
- The Wagon
- Little Fury Things
- Feel the Pain
- Forget the Swan
- Freak Scene [encore]
- Just Like Heaven [The Cure cover][encore]
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