Five Thoughts About Dinosaur Jr./Sonic Youth @ Terminal 5, November 21, 2009
Five Thoughts About Dinosaur Jr./Sonic Youth @ Terminal 5, November 21, 2009
-Dinosaur Jr. frontman J.Mascis doesn’t exactly fulfill the platonic ideal for a guitar god. He’s pudgy, has long gray hair like your grandmother, his eyes are constantly locked on his feet, and when he’s not singing, he barely talks or moves. Fortunately, his lack of charisma apparently means that there’s more room in his brain for guitar-genius moves. A Dinosaur Jr. show is basically an hour-long experience in watching a barely mobile man look down and nonchalantly just destroy everything in his path with one guitar freakout after another.
-It still falls to poor Lou Barlow, apparently, to do the frontman work; at the end of the set he had to plug Dino’s upcoming Brooklyn dates. But apparently the famously bickering songwriters have reached an impasse, as the trio is now performing material written during Barlow’s mid-90s exile from the group. (Which was a big no-no when they first got back together in 2005.) But as great as it was to hear “Feel The Pain,” it would be nice to get some love for “The Wagon.” Also, nice Japanese Tony The Tiger shirt, Murph.
-Sonic Youth’s stage set consisted of four prints of some ancient looking symbol, most likely designed by some acclaimed underground artist friend of the group that neither of us have heard of. Said prints would glow in synch with the pulse of the music—a very understated and original way to add some visual spectacle to the show.
-Speaking of spectacle, and in contrast to J., Thurston Moore might be getting up there in age, but he sure as hell is not too old to stomp the shit out of his guitar with his microphone. And after that’s over, Moore is also not too old to immediately dive bomb-hump the amplifiers in front of him, smacking his defenseless axe against the floor without mercy. It goes without saying that during all the chaos, the noise was generated by Moore was both awesome and often strangely beautiful.
-Sonic Youth’s set mainly featured confident, fluid versions of tracks from the recent The Eternal along with golden-oldies like “Shadow Of A Doubt” and “Silver Rocket.” At the beginning of their encore, Thurston asked the audience “so, how about that Pavement reunion? About fucking time!” while looking at touring bassist/Pavement member Mark Ibold. But while that reunion is exciting, and it’s great to have Dinosaur Jr. back, it seems that (as always) Sonic Youth had the right idea all along. It kept working, plowed through obstacles, and now stands virtually untouchable. An inspiration to us all, even while humping the amplifier.
-Michael Tedder
