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This is a very early show, and we've missed the first band, which I hear is probably okay. The second band is Magic Markers. They are a noise trio, with standard guitar/bass/drums configuration, but nothing like the standard rock trio sound. Tom sort of hates them; his exact words are, "Any three angry people with no talent could do as well." I'll agree with him about the bassist, who never really does anything that works for me either as music or as interesting noise, but I find the drummer's jazzy, beat-free meandering intriguing. And the guitarist/vocalist does a sort of urgent, occasionally poetic spoken word thing with a weird earnestness that I find somehow compelling. I don't think they're great, but I don't think they deserve the disdain and loud booing that they get from this crowd, either. Fortunately, they don't seem to mind.
Now, okay, I recognize that it's historic to have the original lineup of Dinosaur Jr. back together for this tour, and there's something heartwarming and great about laying to rest one of the more publicly vitriolic feuds in rock. But I have to admit that my personal favorite Dinosaur Jr. material was later stuff—I'm a "Green Mind" man, myself—so I've come here resigned to the fact that they're not going to play any of the stuff I'd most like to hear. With that out of the way, they put on a very solid show. J Mascis' voice is the same weird crowing it always was, unlovely but surprisingly effective on these solidly tuneful songs. He has, of course, a killer rhythm section here. (Although I never saw them back in the day, so I wonder if Murph always made this many mistakes, or if he's having a bad night, or if he's just not the drummer he used to be.) The sound is kind of terrible for the first few songs, all booming bass and kick drum, with the guitar nearly inaudible. That won't do at all. Fortunately, it's sorted before too long. Some of J's guitar gets a little wanky for my tastes, but then, he's always straddled that line, and when it holds together it's awesome and beautiful. He does particularly great stuff with a combination of wah and distortion that produces a compelling rhythmic screech. The crowd (who, you can just tell, spent a lot of time listening to these songs in their frat houses 15 years ago) is worshipful, although remarkably lazy about making noise after the "end" of the set, before the fairly obligatory encore. (Which starts with their deconstruction of "Just Like Heaven," by FAR my favorite version of that song.)
