I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 12, 2025] J. Mascis

When this show was first announced it turned out to be on the same night as the Babymetal show that my son and I were going to.  But then it was postponed and I grabbed a ticket for the new date.

I couldn’t really imagine J. Mascis in a small club or playing quietly.  Well, this is the same place I saw Thurston Moore a number of years ago.  Amazingly neither legend sold out for a solo show (Thurston wasn’t solo, but it was his solo music).  J was by himself, but I needn’t have worried about being quiet, as he had a massive amp setup on stage.

I don’t know why it took him so long to get on stage (he showed up at 10:10 even though no work had to be done on stage).  His roadie also put like 5 different drinks on his stool, and I don’t think he had any of it.

He came out with a beat up acoustic guitar and proceeded to jam through almost 20 songs.

Before he started, some meathead started the E-A-G-L-E-S chant and J. smiled and then said, I’m impressed you guys can spell.

And then he got to business.

I admit that I haven’t listened to much of his solo work–although every time I hear one of his solo songs it reminds me of how much I love J and his vocal and guitar style.

He started playing Thumb from Green Mind (the first Dino album that I listened to) which was very cool.  And then came Little Fury Things, which was wild as an acoustic song because it still had fuzz, it just wasn’t a wall of noise like on the record.

But there was a lot of noise at this show!  J had a full board of pedals and it was awesome to hear him play fuzzy acoustic guitars and then jump on the distortion pedal to make the solo louder and more distorted.  And they were J Mascis solos to be sure.  His strings were metal and his fingers flew around the neck and bent notes like a electric guitar.  It was amazing to see him up close doing this (I’ve never been close to him with Dino).  And then he would stomp off the distortion and the mildly distorted verses would return, perfectly timed.

I had heard recently that J had released a new cover of a Cure song (not Just Like Heaven).  He told us he had recorded it a long time ago for some kin of tribute album that never got released).  So he put it out recently.  It turned out to be a Cure song I didn’t know (it’s a B-side from 1987).

He followed it with a song of his own, from his recent solo album.   Then he announced a Phoebe Bridgers cover (“Some of my friends like it, some of them hate it.”)  I had heard this cover of Motion Sickness, but liked it even more live.

At this point, J’s roadie, an older guy, brought up a board with lyrics on it and placed it in front of J’s mic stand.  He played a few songs from his solo albums.

Then he was back to some more Dino Jr. songs.  I am a huge fan of some of their records and others I don’t know well at all.  But he picked a pretty sweet spot in terms of songs  that I like.  He played 2 songs from 1993’s Where You Been (this and Green Mind, I think of as the quiet period of Dino Jr, although I have just read that those were the first two major label albums, so what do I know).

Then he switched guitars and played two songs from Tied to a Star.  The amazing instrumental Drifter, followed by Heal the Star which he jammed out for a long time with some wild soloing.

He played one song from the reunion album Farm and then a great song from Whatever’s Cool with Me.

He ended the set with Alone, a long slow song with some more cool soloing (and looped guitars).  He left for an encore break and I kind of thought he might leave the chords looping while he left, but no, he turned the music off.

The crowd was really good for most of the show with the exception of the three people around me.  The guy next to me was a music photographer and Jesus his camera was always in the way.  Holy cow.  And I have to say, J doesn’t do a lot on stage.  It’s not like any of these pictures would be radically different.  The woman to my left was also very very drunk and kept reaching out to J in a creepy way and getting closer and closer while getting drunker and drunker.  But the weirdest person was the woman who was initially behind me. she was really short so I didn’t mind when she kind of pushed her way in front of me.  But when J left for the encore break, she climbed on the stage, in front of his gear and tried to take his setlist (which was taped down).  She was caught and crawled back.  But she did the same thing when the show was over. Creepy.

J came back after a few second and played two more songs.  There were four songs on the setlist for the encore.  But after playing On the Run, he talked to the roadie and announced that he’d be playing one more song.  It was a cool version of Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You.

I would have enjoyed hearing Repulsion in this format, but it was super late already and I didn’t mind that the show ended.

I’m really glad I went to this show.  I had seen Dino Jr three times close to each other and wasn’t sure if I needed to see them again, but it was fun seeing J up close and in a different format than the main shows.  And it kind of makes me want to see the band again this summer.

1. Thumb ω
2. Little Fury Things Ω
3. Breathe (The Cure cover)
4. You Don’t Understand Me ϖ
5. Motion Sickness (Phoebe Bridgers cover)
6. Ammaring ∠
7. What Do We Do Now ϖ
8. Can’t Believe We’re Here ϖ
9. What Else Is New ⇔
10. Get Me ⇔
11. Drifter ♦
12. Heal the Star ♦
13. Ocean in the Way ∇
14. Not You Again €
15. Alone ≅
    encore
16. On the Run (Greg Sage cover)
17. Fade Into You (Mazzy Star cover)

Also on setlist encore:
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Every Mother’s Son
Repulsion (from Dinosaur (1985))

 

J.MASCIS
ϖ What We Do Now (2024)
♦ Tied to a Star (2014)

J.MASCIS + THE FOG
∠ More Light (2000)
Free So Free (2002)

DINOSAUR JR
Dinosaur (1985)
Ω You’re Living All Over Me (1987)
Bug (1988)
€ Whatever’s Cool With Me (1991)
ω Green Mind (1991)
⇔ Where You Been (1993)
Without a Sound (1994)
≅ Hand It Over (1997)
Beyond (2007)
∇ Farm (2009)
I Bet on Sky (2012)
Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)
Sweep It Into Space (2021)