This show was a damn long time coming. I don’t even remember when I bought the tickets, but it must have been sometime in 2019. COVID came along and cancelled the initial show, and unlike most other concert tickets I had at that time, these didn’t get refunded, they just pushed the show. They pushed it probably twice more, finally landing in September 2022. Which I promptly forgot about for a long time. And when I remembered, I pinged the guys who had originally alerted me to the show, and none of them wanted to go anymore. WTF, man!
The opener was a bro named Ryley Walker, who was actually really enjoyable. I didn’t know anything about him, and like 20 people were on the floor with me during his stripped down set, but it was legitimately enjoyable. Like a singer/songwriter vibe, but playing more of a soft rock sound rather than a country thing. Nice little groove. And completely different from the sound that was about to come.
Dinosaur Jr were freaking LOUD. Like, holy damn crap they were loud. The loudest show I think I’ve ever been to was a Diarrhea Planet (RIP) show at the Longbranch Saloon (RIP) many years ago, where I had to rip labels off of Miller Lite bottles to shove in my ears to try to save some shred of my hearing. This show took second place for sure. I ended up tearing a dollar bill in half to wad up and shove into each of my ears. Seriously so loud. My friend ended up going to the back of the room, hoping that would help. I stayed up front like a dope, gamely letting the youths bounce off of my as they half-heartedly moshed around.
The surprising thing to me is how little of the Dinosaur Jr catalog I actually know. In my head, I listened to them all the time back in the day. But in actual practice, I think I really only listened to 1991’s Green Mind and 1993’s Where You Been, and nothing else. I recognized “Feel the Pain” from the radio, but otherwise a lot of the songs were first-timers to me as they played them. Which was unexpected. But also really fun – these guys freaking jam. They feel like it is a good time for them, just plowing into each track with sloppy, fuzzy abandon. They also covered “Just Like Heaven” for the final track, and I freaking love that song, so it was a good time!
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