Dinosaur Jr live at the Rave (Friday,July,22)

[watchitburn1987]

My friend and I decided to witness Dinosaur Jr after I had gotten into the band the past several months. Their albums seemed to have a certain "Heavy pop rock" element to them and everything I read about the band praised them. Sonic fucking Youth were huge Dinosaur Jr fans. So of course I had to check them out (The band broke up fifteen or so years ago because of internal band problems). We did not purchase tickets; instead we used free Dinosaur Jr tickets (Free as in "two drink minimum). My perception on this concept was very negative, thinking it would involve at least three different steps to accomplish getting in. Much to my dismay all we had to do was go to the bar, hand the bartender are tickets, pay twenty dollars a ticket, pick up are actual ticket for the show and out two drink tickets. The simplicity was awesome in doing this plus we saved fifteen dollars or so. Since I was a total loser and wanted to be at least a half hour early, we were there even before the doors opened. The second they did, we casually walked in and managed to get front row. In addition to being front row, we also had the benefit of being able to lean on the metal barricade. After what seemed like an incredibly long wait the opening band took stage. Heaven forbid that I forget the bands name but um...I did. They were all right and had an awesome bassist which is all that counts ha ha ha. Love as laughter was the next band, sometimes they tricked me into thinking they wrote good songs but many times the next song would dismiss that thought. After they were done Dinosaur Jr was the only band left. At this point I looked behind me and realized that there were a bunch of people behind me, damm did it feel good to be front row. Someone who worked at the rave stepped out (he was on the ground level not the stage) and said "I hope all of you have ear plugs cause these guys are fucking loud. I saw there sound check and those (pointing to the two Marshall full stacks) are louder than the whole PA system". This concept made me very nervous on account of me thinking that my ears will probably be ringing for the next three or four days. Dinosaur Jr finally came on (they came on pretty quick the wait wasn’t to long) and I started to almost laugh. J Mascis had hair that was down to his lower back that was straight grey. Murph was bald, had his shirt off and had a gut. Lou Barlow looked like a overall champ with jeans, a sweater and a full head of black curly hair. After J struggled to get his mike stand properly adjusted they started to play. Holy shits were they loud. When he would use any effects on his guitar and during his solos i thought my ears were going to bleed. They continued to play for over and hour with a great amount of energy and were fucking great. Overall I would highly suggest seeing these guys play if you ever have the chance. I have seen a decent amount of bands play and Dinosaur Jr could probably blow any of them out of the water (aside from Rancid and the mighty Call Me Lightning)

Waukesha’s best live journal critic whose ears are still ringing a whole three days later - Jake Nelson