The power trio legends Dinosaur Jr. have set up shop in the Music Hall of Williamsburg for an extended run to pay tribute to their fantastic album Where You Been which turns thirty years old this year. On Thursday night December 7th, the group continued their ferocious playing and welcomed a few friends to the stage.
Opening the show was the Australian duo Luluc who mixed harmonies and ambient sounds with light noise to a full house as fans were packing the small Brooklyn club. After a short break, J Mascis, Murph and Lou Barlow ambled onto the stage, tuned up, and tore the Hall down.
Having played five nights previously, the band is completely locked in, sounding incredibly tight as they played the album straight through to the start. The opener “Out There” had the infrastructure rumbling as Murph and Barlow pummeled the low end. “Start Choppin” was ripping with lead lines from Mascis while “On The Way” was psychedelic punk rock with dripping distortion. Mascis sang with a warbling falsetto on “Not The Same” before the highlight of the album “Get Me” pushed along on a fantastic groove as J used stabbing riffs with fluid, expert skill.
The head-bopping “Drawings” was a treat before the muscle car revving of “Hide” used some off-kilter drumming from Murph to propel the song forward. The album tribute wrapped up with “I Ain’t Sayin” as the note-bending fury from Mascis closed the on-point recreation of the album. Without missing a beat the band pushed on as friend John Moloney joined them on a second drum kit to slam the hell out of “The Wagon”.
Ryley Walker joined the trio on second guitar for “Lung” delivering a nitro injection to the tune and stuck around to expertly augment “Kracked” as well. Dinosaur Jr. then brought out JG Thrilwell who played the role of Iggy Pop on this night, singing lead on both “No Fun” and “TV Eye” which saw the most animated strumming from Mascis all night.
To close out the set the band brought out Marissa Paternoster to shred on “Freak Scene” and while her band broke up just this week, Paternoster was in top form, firing off six-string salutes left and right. After a short exit from the stage, the trio returned to encore with the swaying “Feel The Pain” and the crashing cover of “Just Like Heaven”. One final guest popped up as Scott Helland joined the group, playing bass as Lou took over lead vocals to perform a throwback to the band’s early days as the foursome fired up some Deep Wound to end the night with “Training Ground”.
One of the loudest, fiercest, power trios are still rocking today, Dinosaur Jr. did Where You Been justice and added some dynamite, guest-augmented classics, to deliver a tight-as-hell show Thursday night in Brooklyn.
