times review : j solo at london’s bush hall : jan 05

[rambleon]

read the not very favourable timesonline.co.uk review here

First Night reviews

January 27, 2005

J Mascis

David Sinclair at Bush Hall, W12

HE HAS been a solo act, on and off, since 1996, but J Mascis remains best known as the frontman of Dinosaur Jr, the defunct band from Amherst, Massachusetts. Having pioneered American hardcore rock during the 1980s, Dinosaur Jr became part of the grunge revolution of the early 1990s by default, although it now seems distinctly odd to visualise Mascis as a contemporary of Kurt Cobain.

A man with a famously laconic stage presence even back then, Mascis could hardly have been any more laid back at the Bush Hall without lying flat on the floor. “Don’t stop talking on my account,â€

[rambleon]

well, i obviously don’t agree w/the reviewer b/c i had a great time that night + i thought j was in fine form … but we’re all entitled to our own opinion …

anyhow … i’d like to point out that he never played "out there" … i wish he had b/c that would have been awesome, but he didn’t … so i’m not sure which song the reviewer is referring to there

[simmons]

yeah. the reviewer does not wear same glasses as me. J is cool, and his persona is so great that there is no need for any other visual effects than him sitting there doing what he does.

[AGAP]

Obviously his fans didn’t walk out, & why would anyone need a distraction from his guitar & vocals…kinda the whole point of going to a Mascis show…out there guitar, substance versus so called style

Oh well, sometimes people just don’t get it.

Thanks for posting the review Rambleon

[Bucky Ramone]

Quote:

But there was none of Young’s natural showmanship or ability to communicate with an audience

…have been to two or three Neil Young shows, but in none of them he uttered a word between songs (apart from maybe one or two "thank you" -‘s), and I would call NY a great ‘showman’ either….

[Annastefka]

"rambleon" wrote:

Mascis was wearing the same generic track-suit top and ill-fitting jeans

Okay, what the hay, don’t you know you got to dress up to jam?

and lets ponder this one for a moment:

But genius was never quite as flawed as this.

Ummm, this guy has yet to meet our friend Kiyo Kato, he used to set up a guitar and amp on city streets, plugging in to street lamps and sometimes restaurants and shops. I was with him once when a the police were writing him up a ticket for disturbing the peace and the cop looked at me and said "that man’s either a musical genius or insane"

When we tell the children that Kiyo is coming to spend the night in Athens they all want to go to Grandma’s house,

[Author]

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