Dinosaur Jr. played Terminal 5 with innumerable special guests – 12/1
Indie rock legends Dinosaur Jr. celebrated the 25th anniversary of their fantastic, enduring LP You’re Living All Over Me at New York City’s Terminal 5 back on the first of the month, joined by a bevy of special guests including Frank Black, Johnny Marr, Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon. A set from Kurt Vile and the Violators opened the show.
There’s little to write about this show that hasn’t already been covered in great depth by numerous other publications. The incredible cast of guest musicians assembled to join J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph on stage during the two-hour-plus extravaganza was nothing short of awe-inspiring. In addition to members of titanic bands like The Pixies, The Smiths and Sonic Youth, Dino was also accompanied by Al Cisneros of Sleep and Om, Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, Dale Crover of The Melvins, Tommy Stinson of The Replacements, Suzanne Thorpe of Mercury Rev, Dante Ferrando of Gray Matter, Don Fleming of Velvet Monkeys and Gumball, and hell, even Portlandia/Saturday Night Live‘s Fred Armisen (drumming on a Stooges cover, no less). Even that list probably isn’t exhaustive enough to cover every single individual who took the stage. There were just that many.
Anniversary shows and tours are nothing new among bands whose best-known material is a few decades behind them, but between the guests and the ongoing vitality of Dinosaur Jr. as a band, this one still managed to feel special. You’re Living All Over Me is surely the band’s finest front-to-back piece of work, but since the original Dino lineup reformed in 2005, they’ve done a pretty astounding job of recapturing the spark they possessed way back when. Thus, both the straight-through performance of the record of honor and the songs new and old that followed delivered plenty of the technically accomplished and very loud magic that made the band so remarkable in the first place. Mascis’ guitar work is as mind-blowing as ever. The man rips solos that could tear a hole in the space-time continuum without breaking a sweat. Murph’s drumming is tight, understated and precise, while Lou Barlow’s energetic bass thrashing maintains the fuzzed-out low-end and counters the barely-there stage presence of his bandmates.
This particular night saw the trio not only cranking out killer versions of their own songs, but also stepping into uncharted territory with some unexpected covers and additional or alternate members in the form of their distinguished guests. Mascis took on Morrissey with a cover of “The Boy With the Thorn In His Side” that was a good deal more muscular than the Smiths original, and featured Johnny Marr on second guitar. Frank Black sang lead on a song from 2012’s I Bet On Sky, then led the band in a scorching and enthusiastically received rendition of The Pixies’ “Tame.” Al Cisneros and Kurt Vile stepped in on bass and second guitar for the doom-y deep cut “Alone,” which featured Mascis’ longest and most adventurous solo of the night. It was Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon who turned in the evening’s true show-stealing performance though, delivering a room-leveling lead vocal on the already-insane “Don’t” from 1988’s Bug.
When music geeks talk about once in a lifetime shows, this is the sort of night they’re referring to. Mascis, Murph and Barlow were on fire with their own material, and the ridiculously stacked roster of indie rock royalty guests kicked the whole night into the stratosphere of legendary concerts. Fear not if you couldn’t make it to Terminal 5 though, because the lovely folks at NYCTaper documented it all in downloadable format. Trust me, it’s a recording you’ll want to have.
