Sub Pop residence in Cambridge last night at the cosy Junction 2 venue. Kicking off the evening was Luluc (pronounced Loo-Luke). Two Australians who apparently, split their time between Melbourne and their adopted hometown of Brooklyn found themselves in Cambridge on a cold blustery Thursday evening.. Twin acoustic and electric guitars, sweet harmonies and songs. A gentle introduction to the evening ahead.
Dinosaur Jr and all round legend J. Mascis is our reason for being here tonight. A couple of electro-acoustic guitars, pick-ups, pedals, loops and one hour, twenty minutes of solid music with just the occasional "hi" and "thanks". No stories of decades on the road tonight.
J. is seated in front on a music stand with an amp to the side. The man himself is on at 9pm. sits himself down, plugs in, turns the amp up to ten and away we go!
The new album 'Tied to a Star' takes the lion's share of the set and there are no complaints from me for that but there is plenty of selection and he does dip his toes into the Dino Jr world as well. Only pausing to tune a guitar, this really is a brilliant in your face non-stop grunge-a-thon.
I did find myself thinking though, both gigs so far this year (Nils Lofgren was the other one) and I have been seeing this for a long time, it's where artists basically, play or sing something, record it and then play over the top of it live.
A great moment last night when J strummed the guitar, then stopped playing to have a drink but the guitar was still playing through the speakers. J then played and sung over top of the base musical layer. Many artists do that now, a sign of the economics of the road? It's all fine but and certainly at this gig the sound that J. was able to get out of all the effects around him was amazing. Just not sure I am 100 percent comfortable with it in all cases.
So no gentle acoustics here, this was beautifully raw set from an old warrior … long may he continue!
Pete
