Dinosaur Jr. Played Irving Plaza on Friday, June 7th

It Was Dry Inside

I'll admit it. As I stood at my backdoor at 10PM, watching CoolDog wade through ankle-deep water in the backyard, CoolMom sleeping on the sofa in front of Crazy Stupid Love, I wavered. The rain was really coming down, and I hadn't even left for Manhattan yet.

This was Dinosaur Jr. we were talking about, though, so I gulped down a cup of coffee and headed for the car. I gave CoolMom a peck on the forehead, and she mumbled a "Be careful" through her haze.

As I approached the Pulaski Skyway, the burned out and blackened hulk of a BMW SUV blocked one whole lane of Route 1/9. Just off the highway in the grass was the other car, whose make I couldn't determine. It was also just a charred remnant. Making my way around the obstacle posed by the BMW, I noticed a line of onlookers over on the shoulder, staring through the rain. No police. No fire. Even the first responders weren't out in the weather.

I ever-so-cautiously made the rest of the drive to Union Square and got into Irving Plaza just before Reignwolf were supposed to take the stage. The crowd wasn't as large as it was for Johnny Marr, probably owing to the lateness of the show and the weather, so I was able to push my way almost to the front. Of course, a phalanx of six-foot-four young men lined the barricade.

Reignwolf's Jordan Cook took the stage right on schedule at 12AM. Armed with his electric guitar and a kick-drum, Cook unleashed his heavy, electric blues on the crowd. At one point, he moved behind the drum set, playing drums with his right hand and guitar with his left.

Following Cook's opening barrage, he brought out drummer Joseph Braley and bassist Stitch for the rest of his 40-minute set. The band continued with their Black-Keys-If-The-Black-Keys-Sang-About-Satan-And-The-Excruciating-Pain-Of-Love style blues, Cook climbing atop the monitors and playing guitar behind his head or with his teeth.

Dinosaur Jr. walked on stage at 1:15. The crowd immediately remarked on the absence of Murph behind the drums. "Murph's not here tonight," said Lou Barlow. "This is Kyle Spence. He's played with J for a long time. He'll be playing drums tonight." The band then launched into "Bulbs of Passion" from the re-issued debut Dinosaur LP and followed it up with "The Lung" off of the classic You're Living All Over Me.

"Hey, Everybody! We're Kings of Leon!" Said Barlow. "We were really bummed about not playing today, so we thought we'd come here," he said, joking about that band's rained-out headlining set at that day's Governor's Ball Festival where Dinosaur Jr. had played that afternoon. "Your sex is on on fi-ire!!!"

Guitarist and frontman J Mascis stood quietly, as usual, noodling and tuning his Jazzmaster, separated from the rest of the band by his wall of Marshalls as Barlow worked the crowd. It can often look like Mascis is just going through the motions. He almost never acknowledges the crowd or the rest of the band and stands over in his "booth" producing withering solos. As I watched him closely, though, I could see a real commitment during those solos. Mascis would close his eyes and turn his face to the ceiling as he worked the frets.

In contrast, Barlow was constant movement. He'd bend at the waist and flail his arms, playing his bass down near the bridge or almost all the way up the neck.

The set covered the entire Dinosaur Jr. discography. There were early cuts like "No Bones," "In A Jar," "Budge," and "Sludgefeast." The Barlow-less, 1990s, alt-rock catalog received nods like "The Wagon," "Start Choppin'," and "Feel the Pain." "Almost Fare," "Don't Pretend You Didn't Know," "Rude," and "Watch the Corners" from the band's latest, post-reunion effort, I Bet on Sky, had a different feel from the older material but still sounded great. They even brought out bassist Scott Helland for a cover of Deep Wound's "Training Ground."

A widening circle pit developed over the course of the show. The numbers of twenty-something (though I saw what must've been a few original Dinosaur Jr. fans in there) male moshers didn't necessarily increase as much as they just widened their area of coverage during the set. Things reached a fever pitch during "Freak Scene," but I was able to stay mostly out of harm's way and contain my curmudgeonly impulses.

"Thanks, everyone! We were Beach House. Thanks for coming," said Barlow as the band left the stage.

Dinosaur Jr. are a hugely important band. In the mid-eighties, they brought references to classic rock and the guitar solo back to underground music. Mascis rode the alternative rock wave for a bit in the 1990s. Today, whatever their direct influences, bands like Titus Andronicus, The Men, and Milk Music sound the way they do, in part, because of J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr. On Friday night, Dinosaur Jr. showed that they're still a musical force, despite whatever awkwardness may exist among the members.

As I waited for my car in the parking garage, I asked a guy wearing a purple and green "J Mascis" shirt what he thought of the show. "I basically live my life waiting for the next time that Dinosaur Jr. comes to town," he said. In the face of that kind of commitment, I guess maybe my decision to drive an hour and a half in the rain and to get home at 4AM doesn't sound all that heroic.

The lighting was awful, but here are a few pics: