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This has gotta be the worst review of a show I’ve read, entitled to his opinion no doubt , but come on do your homework…expecting songs from the 90’s, when all along this tour has been billed as promoting the 1st 3 discs
Guess the guy didn’t notice the VERY excited crowd jumping up & down all thru the show. Kracked & Raisans unsophisticated, all bark no bite…
Review: Alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. play with an empty roar
Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune
July 25, 2005 DINOSAUR0725"Freak Scene" was the best song and the best way to describe Saturday’s peculiar little concert by reunited alt-rock trio Dinosaur Jr. at the Quest in Minneapolis.
The group’s forever-odd frontman J. Mascis still looks and acts like a musical Cousin It, his long straight hair covering an emotionless face and weary, groaning voice. On Saturday, he barely talked to the half-full crowd but spoke volumes on guitar, lending a tyrannosaurus roar to the band’s name.
More out of the ordinary than Mascis, though, was the narrow, unfulfilling set list and the overall sour vibe of the 100-minute show.
Even the über-contentious Pixies looked like they were having more fun in their reunion gigs last year than the three Dinosaur Jr. members on stage at the Quest — the group’s original lineup, including Lou Barlow on bass and Emmett (Murph) Murphy on drums. This late-’80s lineup has more name-brand value because Barlow went on to his own fame with Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, but Saturday’s concert proved the trio’s early years were not its best.
The show sorely lacked some of Dinosaur Jr.’s most memorable songs of the early — ’90s (post-Barlow), such as "The Wagon,"Green Mind" or "Whatever’s Cool With Me" — tunes where Mascis mastered his melding of ugly, grungy guitar riffs with pretty, sophisticated melodies. Instead, Saturday’s concert was defined by unsophisticated, all-bark-no-bite tunes, including, "Kracked,"Raisans" and "Does It Float."
Barlow’s vocal talents were downgraded back to scream status in tracks like "Does It Float," but the bassist did make the lone effort to personalize the show when he dedicated "Forget the Swan" to comedian Mitch Hedberg and Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller (two Twin Cities natives who passed away this year).
Things got better in the two quick encores, when the band played its guilty-pleasure cover of the Cure’s "Just Like Heaven," plus "Little Fury Things,"No Bones" and, of course, "Freak Scene," but it was too little, too late.
Chris Riemenschneider
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