Dinosaur Jr. at The Garage

Dinosaur Jr. 

Man On Man

The Garage, 15 November 2023 

Felt quite emotional seeing Dinosaur Jr. performing all of Where You Been to celebrate its 30th anniversary, an album that meant so much to me in my teen years. It was also amazing to see them in the intimate setting of The Garage again, as I saw them in this same venue on the Without A Sound tour back in the mid 90s and stood in the exact same spot in front of J.

I remember when J played Get Me that night it was one of the few times I actually welled up with tears, the yearning chorus of "You're not gonna to get me through this are you" coupled with J's mournful wailing guitar was so moving and transportive, it was one of those memorable moments that demonstrated the true power of music. I remember when the show finished we grabbed J's pint glass, wanting to get closer to him somehow, only to discover he had been drinking ice tea. He was so un-rock-star that he even walked through the crowd after the show and we told him how great it was and offered to buy him a drink, and he cheerfully showed us he already had one. It was a wonderful night.

All these years on, I'm back in the same spot, hearing those same tunes, and it feels like no time has passed at all. Of course J now has long white hair and a beard (he looks like an amazing day-glo wizard) and Lou Barlow is back in the band instead of the stoic Mike Johnson (I wonder what he's doing now, he did some great work with Mark Lanegan too), but the memories and magic quickly come flooding back. 

It was a four night residency but I chose the last night hoping for something more special but by the sounds of it every night was pretty special (guests such as Richard Ayoade and Graham Coxon turned up on previous nights). Before we got to the special guest fiesta though, the band came out and J told us they were going to play all of Where You Been and launched into the thrilling guitar soloing on Out There. It's crazy just how fresh and timeless it still sounds, but it helps that J still sounds the same, despite the cool white tresses. I remember friends saying they couldn't get into Dinosaur Jr. because of J's cracked, raspy vocals, but that's always been part of the appeal to me: he's always sounded desperate and heart-broken, and it fits the music perfectly, plus he's always made his guitar sing beautifully, in a perfect counter-point to his voice.

Start Choppin was always a favourite of mine and it sounds, lively and upbeat and full of life tonight. What Else Is New really has me getting tearful though. Not only does it sound soaring and emotional, but I start thinking about my dear friend Dan, who passed away last year. The first time I ever spoke to Dan it was because he was wearing a Dinosaur Jr. t-shirt (the famous cow face one), "cool shirt" I told him and from then on we were friends. He would have loved to have seen one of these shows and it feels so sad he isn't here tonight. But maybe out there, he knew I was thinking of him and his presence was at the show through me.

By the time we reach Get Me, the song that had me welling up all those years back, I probably had the tears out of my system and was thrilled instead to see the first guest arrive on stage: Tiffany Anders who sang back-up on the original recording of Get Me as she does on the record. Before they began, she gave a little speech about how she was just 17 when she sang on the record and a huge fan of the band, who even wrote them a fan letter using the address on the back of one of their records (although I'm sure it didn't hurt that her mum is film director Alison Anders). It is rather magical to hear her sing on the song and it sounds as beautiful as ever.

Amusingly, after every song J drolly told us "another one down", as if he was getting through playing the album as quickly as possible but it certainly didn't sound that way. By the time we got to Hide, Lou prompted J, saying "tell them how you forgot this song" and J, more talkative than I've ever seen him, told us "I was listening to the album because we were going to play it, and it got to this song and I said, what is this?!" he had completely forgotten the song and didn't remember writing it or recording it. Thankfully he re-learned it and, maybe because it was almost new to J, it sounds so vital and full of energy tonight. I've always loved that track and it was a thrill to hear it live tonight despite being so unmemorable to J all these years!

After playing the album through, J told us "now we have some guests" and the first of these was punk legend Andy Blade from Eater (one of J's favourite bands apparently), singing the suitably gnarly, No Brains. Then came Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai joining them on the Farm track Pieces and after that a very floppy-haired Bernard Butler playing a joyful version of The Wagon. He looked particularly happy to be there I must say and even went and shook J's hand at the end with a huge smile on his face.

But best of all, Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine, who played no less than three songs with the band, all while wearing a Dinosaur Jr. cap over his, now grey, curly locks. These included the Dinosaur Jr. classic Tarpit from You're Living All Over Me (so excited to hear that one I must say), the rare MBV track, Thorn and, maybe best of all, their gloriously noisy cover of The Cure's Just Like Heaven (better than the original I think!). It was amazing to see Shields play his guitar up close and hear his distinctive sound in such an intimate setting (I have seen My Bloody Valentine once, probably my loudest gig ever, but that was at the far bigger Roundhouse), and it was incredible how his guitar immediately sounded like My Bloody Valentine, even when playing Dinosaur Jr. or The Cure. It was absolutely beautiful.

After the guests left we got some more Dinosaur Jr. classics: Gargoyle from their debut record! With Lou rocking out on vocals (he looks fantastic with his full head of curls these days I must say). Then we had one of the band's biggest hits, certainly MTV wise anyway, Feel The Pain. It did make me wonder again how Lou feels playing all these tunes that were recorded after he was forced out of the band in the 90s (he found out when J placed an ad looking for a new bassist apparently!), especially having to play an entire album he wasn't involved in, rather than just random songs, but I have to say, he handled it all brilliantly and sounded and looked great, so maybe he sees the positive side now. I'm certainly glad he seems to be enjoying it anyway and it is cool to have the original line-up still together since they got back together in 2007.

The show ended, as it should, with a joyous version of Freak Scene, which had the entire crowd bouncing around like it really was 1993 again. It was absolutely incredible and I feel so grateful I got to witness it! I'm also very thankful I had my earplugs again as the band may be getting older but they certainly aren't turning down the volume and hopefully they never will.

Supporting Dinosaur Jr, tonight were the surprisingly delightfully noisy MAN ON MAN, made up of Roddy Bottum and his partner Joey Holman (who apparently are good friends of J's). I've been a huge fan of Roddy's for years as Faith No More were one of the first bands I ever loved, so it was pretty exciting to see him up close performing, especially since he seems to be having a ball playing music with Holman ("we're a couple" he told us early in the set, proudly). The music was definitely fitting with Dinosaur Jr. with loud, fuzzy, swirling guitars (Roddy started playing guitar and then swapped to his customary keyboard, while all drums were from a drum machine). Roddy said the music came when they starting writing together during the pandemic in the aftermath of the death of Holman's mother and at first was very pretty but then they said, fuck this, let's make it loud! And they certainly succeeded. It's a fun set, and it's nice to see a loving gay couple playing together on stage, playing great music and enjoying life. I absolutely loved the matching outfits too. Definitely catch them if you can!