Dinosaur Jr. at Irving Plaza

Last night I saw Dinosaur Jr. at Irving Plaza and that sh*t was rocking. As you might already know, the band is on a reunion tour of sorts with the original lineup of J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph. I was pretty excited to see the show since I never had a chance to see the original lineup in their first go round. I’d seen them a bunch of times after Lou was out of the band and then a bunch of other times after Murph was out of the band too, but there’s always something magical about the original lineup of a band that you really love.

Despite being really excited to see Dinosaur Jr., I neglected to make any arrangements to see the show and then finally around 5 o’clock last night I was all like “I really need to make arrangements to see this show” and then just as I was thinking that, my friend Mike e-mailed me and asked if I wanted to go to the show because he had an extra ticket. Life is crazy sometimes. So anyway, I wrote back to Mike and was all like “Yeah, I totally want to go to the show.” Then I took a nap.

A few hours later I woke up and headed into the city to meet my friend Mike in front of Irving Plaza. Then we went inside and started drinking beer and next thing we knew, a big pink furry monster (actually a guy in a big pink furry monster suit or so I am led to believe) came out on stage and started dancing around and then a couple minutes after that J, Lou, and Murph came out on stage and started rocking balls. In the interest of full disclosure and also to make myself sound cool, I should point out that I had toured with J before back when I was playing bass with Cobra Verde, but he was about ten times louder last night then any of the other times I’ve seen him rock it over the past few years. I wanted to soak in the rock at maximum volume, but I found myself putting my earplugs in every once in a while just so I didn’t get my head blown off.

Dinosaur Jr. played mostly songs from their first three albums (these are the ones the original lineup did together) with the exception of “The Wagon,” which I was surprised but psyched to hear, and the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” which they played for their final encore.

After the show, Mike and I went and drank some more beer (which is always a recipe for good times if you ask me) and then I jumped into a cab and headed back to Brooklyn. When I got home, I ate an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream. I don’t feel too good this morning. But I have been rocked and that has made all the difference.

Dave Hill