Setlist:Lung
Quest
The Wagon
Leper
Fury
No Bones
Swan
Tarpit
Lose
In A Jar
Bulbs Of Passion
Freakscene
-Encore 1-
Raisans
Mountain Man
-Encore 2-
Just Like Heaven
Sludgefeast
Holy shit, That was one hell of a show.
I forgot how fucking loud Dinosaur Jr was - my ears are still ringing. If you ever see these guys play live, be sure to remember your earplugs. Their sound is vibrate-your-whole-body/shake-loose-your-fillings loud.
I missed them the last time they were in town, and had been regretting it for awhile.
Growing up, I was a big fan of SST records (Black Flag, The Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, The Descendents, Bad Brains, etc.). I would buy almost any SST release as soon as it was released. Back in 1987 I picked up You're Living All Over Me by some band named Dinosaur (they were sued and forced to add the "Jr." later); I fucking hated it. It sounded like an all-out assault on the senses - it totally freaked me out.
That LP sat on my shelf for months, until one day I threw it on the turntable to see if it was really as bad as I remember. Then a funny thing happened; I "got" it. The music just started to make sense to my adolescent brain. I proceeded to listen to that album over and over again all night long, and it remains one of my favorite records to this day.
I never got a chance to see Dinosaur Jr. play live until early 1992, by that time Lou had been booted, and the set was culled mostly from the Green Mind album. It was a great show, but I still wished that I could have seen the JayLouMurph Dinosaur.
The 1992 show is also where I discovered the Dinosaur Jr. relationship curse.
The Dinosaur Jr. Curse:
This is the stuff of paranoid speculation, but I swear up and down that (for me) it's a huge jinx to take a date/girlfriend to a Dinosaur Jr. Show.
Every time I go to see Dino Jr. with a girlfriend we always get into a HUGE fight. One of those tooth and nail "Well then, you can fucking walk back to Aurora, you dirty whore"* fights. These are the kind of fights that leave scars.
This has happened with four different girls at five different shows (all in IL '92-'97), three of those fights were "relationship enders". This curse extends to all other tangential bands; I got into a fight with a girlfriend at a Sebadoh show, a Mike Johnson show, and even a Jason Lowenstein show (all relatively minor by comparison). Every J Mascis or Folk Implosion show I've gone to see has been sans-girlfriend.
I was kinda relieved when The Girl opted out on this one, and even my stunt girlfriend (Jes) crapped out at the last minute (for another guy, nonetheless). I was more than happy to go to this one alone.
The problem for me when going to see a show alone is that I drink. No, DRINK. If there's no one there to talk to I just slam drinks down. It didn't help that my friend Amber was bar-tending & kept hooking me up. If I'm drinking on a "friend" tab I'll tally my drinkin' on my hand with a Sharpie, so that I don't short the bartender after all the comped drinks. Usually I'll have five or six hash marks hanging out on my hand. Last night when I went to settle out the tab my hand looked like this:
Key (as shown):
Horizontal mark = Bud Bottle
Vertical mark = Red Bull
Dot = Shot
It looks like a crudely rendered battalion off to conquer my thumb.
I was choking down puke all the way back from the show, and celebrated my safe arrival at home by barfing all over the front lawn. Then I went in, slammed a bottle of Pedialyte, and (of course) decided to comment on everyone's blog.
I had to be at work by 9:30 today. Waking up was hell, but once I got going I was fine. I feel like a million (slightly soiled) bucks.
I got to see a (version of a) band that I've always loved, the show was incredible, I got to do some serious drinkin' on a school night, and I got to work on time. I rock.
---
* line actually said at the 11/05/94 Riviera show
9 comments:
Oh man, I forgot all about the curse of DJ. So that's why you wanted me to go so badly huh?
And you have me to thank for getting out of bed on time.
I was just humoring you. I knew that I'd have to drag you kicking and screaming to this one (for once the fight would peak on the way to the show).
The Girl deserves mad props for shaking my ass outta bed this morning. After this morning, I'm convinced that she was Elizabeth Báthory in a former life.
"Well then, you can fucking walk back to Aurora, you dirty whore"
If I had a nickel for every time I have said that...
Never been able to see the Lou Murph Jay lineup myself. Maybe this summer.
This gets me to thinking of my dream reunion tours. I got to see one of them happen (The Pixies) and it was great. If we could get the Replacements back together that would be awesome. Others include Talking Heads, Police, Cars, Rave Ups (I know I am probably alone on that one but I friggin' loved 'em), The Jam, and on and on. I make no consideration of dead band mates in dream reunions.
re: placements
On March 30th, 2006, Billboard confirmed that Westerberg, Mars and Tommy Stinson had recorded several new tracks for a best-of compilation, entitled Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? and due out on June 13th, 2006. Session musician Josh Freese plays drums on the two tracks, while Mars contributes backing vocals. Slim Dunlap did not participate in the sessions.
I forgot to mention Husker Du. They broke up before I got to see em.
I had heard a few rumblings about the boys reuniting but I think it was a conversation between Santi and Stevie while they were both wated so I just tuned it out.
There is also a documentary in the works being compiled from fan footage and interviews. Can't hardly wait.
I wonder if Tommy Stinson is still on retainer with Axl Rose.
Is it on retainer, or under retainer?
I woulda lost my shit hearing "Raisans" as an encore. I'da been like, "What? No fuckin' 'Raisans'? WTF?!?"
BTW. I hope you took a train or bus or cab. If you drove, I would retrace your route to the venue looking for shrines to the people you ran over and take your car to the wash to get the brains and hair out of your grill.
FREAKSCENE, really? I'm jealous. I wanted to go soo bad and then a friend emialed me the very next day saying he had tix but didn't want to go alone.
Tragedy.
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