Dinosaur Jr digs up hits in Oslo
J Mascis brought his wall of sound and the rest of Dinosaur Jr to Oslo, Norway this weekend in support of the band’s new album – Farm. The show was a short, but raucous affair with the band covering a lot of common ground spanning its quarter century plus career. The band did little interaction with the enthusiastic Norwegian crowd, tossing out the odd ‘thank you’ before plunging into the next buzzing, melodic gem. It didn’t seem to phase the near capacity crowd at Rockefeller, which responded most favorably to the trip down grunge’s memory lane.
Standouts from the evening included ‘The Wagon’ – the opening track from the band’s fabled 1991 release Green Mind, fan favorite ‘Feel The Pain’ from 1994′s Without A Sound, and the encore tune, a fuzz-fueled cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’. The vocals were a bit down in the mix for my tastes, but there was no denying the sonic assault of Mascis’ fuzzed-out tones, the battering ram of Lou Barlow’s low-end rumble (pumped through a single Marshall stack) and Murph’s frenetic poundings.
Mascis wielded at least two of his favorite Fender Jazzmasters for the bulk of the night. Pumping sound through a massive pedal board that oddly was half covered in selophane wrapping, keeping the top half either free from moisture or just off limits – not really sure which. From there, the signal jumped back to a trio of full stacks… three amp heads – two Marshalls (one of which was a JCM-2000) flanked one Hiwatt. The heads fed six, 4×12 Marshall cabs.
Enjoy the crappy iPhone pics from the gig, which includes a bad shot of J’s board, his amp spread and two-thirds of the set list!
