Dinosaur Jr.
The Zoo, Brisbane
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Dinosaur Jr. were set to headline the Lost Weekend festival a few days ago. Instead, we're here at The Zoo on a Tuesday night, in the wake of that festivals cancellation due to "insufficient time to achieve critical mass". Which becomes more understandable when you look around and consider that one of the festival's biggest drawcards couldn't fill this 450-capacity venue. Let alone The Lost Weekend's initially-proposed Ivory Rocks locale, where they planned to host thousands of campers across three nights. Clearly, their ambitions exceeded Queensland music fans' interest in an indie-rock heavy line-up.
Dinosaur Jr. seem nonplussed by the change of venue. It's but a minor hiccup in a lengthy career wherein the band continue to create vital, relevant works; last year saw the release of their ninth album,
Farm, which proved that the trio - mean age 43 - haven't lost the songwriting nous that pushed them into mass consciousness in the early '90s, but without breaching a mainstream audience.
It's fascinating to study the band's interactions from a vantage point directly below bassist Lou Barlow (who performed an acoustic set of solo material at 'Lost & Found' across town two nights ago - [
link here]). Through an absence of verbal cues and largely sans-eye contact, their performance is wholly workmanlike; yet, their standoffish anti-chemistry cultivates a musical intensity few bands can match. Despite their apparent emotional distance, they operate within arm's reach of each other. They share the same plane: Murph eschews a drum riser, barefoot Barlow contorts to his left, and J Mascis scarcely steps away from his enormous pedalboard.
An imposing stack of Marshall amps loom behind Mascis, and they're not for show. What he lacks in movement is made up in volume. The band play
loud, and my ears ring the next day despite the presence of earplugs. Simplicity is central to the beauty of their compositions: discounting Mascis' fondness for vintage effects pedals and fast-fingered melodic solos, Barlow's tone remains unchanged throughout the set, and Murph's kit comprises the bare essentials.
In one of his few statements to the crowd, Mascis oddly mentions his upcoming appearance on ABC music trivia program
Spicks And Specks. Their song selection encompasses a 25 year career: 'Thumb' from 1991's
Green Mind is a suitably colossal set opener; 'Gargoyle' from their 1985 debut
Dinosaur, through to
Farm cuts 'Pieces', 'Over It', 'Plans', and the Barlow-penned 'Imagination Blind', while 'The Wagon' is positioned between 'Feel The Pain' and 'Freak Scene' in a power trio near set's end. The band appear to take requests during the encore: 'Sludgefeast' from 1987 breakthrough
You're Living All Over Me is the outcome. Its final passage contains the heaviest riff they've recorded, and it's executed with impassive precision. Without another word, they exit stage right.
Andrew McMillen
(Pic: J Mascis' pedal board, shot taken at Golden Plains by Tim O'Connor)