Dinosaur Jr at The Forum

 
Dinosaur Jr
Clinic
The Forum, 9 June 2009

Despite being late and missing the first act (Hush Arbors, a pleasant if unremarkable folky group I had already seen supporting Vetiver earlier this year) and arriving mid-way through Clinic's post rock friendly instrumental set, the venue wasn't that full most likely due to the tube strike, which saw people bail on the chance of seeing one of the few bands who always sound great at The Forum (which usually is notorious for being one of the worst sounding venues in London).
Clinic I found to be a strange but less than exciting warm-up. Sure they looked great, all dressed as surgeons complete with face masks, but their similar sounding set became a little dreary after a while.
Thank god for Dinosaur Jr then, who came along with to wake everyone up with a loud but fun set full of oldies and surprisingly lacking on new numbers (given their new album Farm is out in a couple of weeks), aside from I Don't Wanna Go There. Because of this the show felt like a little trip back to the early 90s when Dinosaur were my absolute favourite band. Sure Lou Barlow was famously out of the band by then and replaced by the stoic, scary-looking Mike Johnson, but the Warner-years were well represented with post-Barlow tracks such as The Wagon, Feel The Pain and Out There, which sent a couple of 40-something dudes standing next to me at the front into some wild frenzy. I don't blame them, the opening guitar solo to Out There has to be one of the most awesome starts to any record ever. Sadly though Start Choppin is still conspicuous by its absence.
Both Murph and Lou seem to be wearing well, but J, looking a little less plump than the last time I saw the band, with his long white wizard's hair makes a striking and bizarre figure, welding his Fender Jazzmaster and keeping the attention firmly on him. I'll always remember the first time I saw how his hair had turned completely white, at a tiny solo show in 2001, and how my jaw pretty much hit the ground. He doesn't speak much on stage, never has, but his guitar playing is still astounding, it's enough to send shivers.
The show ended on an Earth-crumbling version of Freak Scene (which encouraged the older guy next to me to climb the barrier and jump on stage before amusingly trying to avoid capture by the security guards) and, after a few minutes of cheering, the band looking happy returned with a double whammy of Sludgefest and their cover of Last Right's hardcore classic Chunks. Thank god for earplugs, that's all I have to say. Fantastic show.

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