Pretty Lame review by someone who doesn’t quite have all the facts but at least the Star covered the show…

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060412/COLUMNISTS15/604120546/1081/ENTERTAINMENT04

April 12, 2006

SOUND EFFECT
Dinosaur Jr. brings the noise

By David Lindquist
david.lindquist@indystar.com

• Where: The Vogue.

• Bottom line: Noisy trio rattles Broad Ripple.

It’s too bad Dinosaur Jr. didn’t use "Songs for the Deaf" as an album title when the band’s classic lineup was active in the late-1980s.
Dinosaur Jr.

Queens of the Stone Age did use the title in 2002, but the reunited Dinosaur Jr. played loud enough Tuesday to entertain any hearing-impaired fans at the Vogue.

By raising the volume to irrational levels, founding band members J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Emmett Murphy sent vibrations across the nightclub’s wooden floor.

And instead of being a repetitive thud, the vibrations could be distinguished as Mascis’ mid-range guitar, Barlow’s low-end bass and Murphy’s pinpoint drums.

The vibrations even conveyed the music’s general message of breaking out of an oppressive situation.
Of course, it’s necessary to hear Mascis’ deadpan vocals and frenzied guitar-playing to fully appreciate Dinosaur Jr. as an indie-rock pioneer.

Within the lyrics of "Kracked," Mascis begged for rescue in a rural drawl he developed in Western Massachusetts. His dialect isn’t quite in the startling territory of "Sling Blade" character Karl Childers, but it’s not far removed.

The together-again Dinosaur Jr. (Barlow quit or was fired in 1989, depending on who’s telling the tale) is focusing on songs that came before Mascis polished his vocals and guitar tone to make modest modern rock hit "Start Choppin’" in 1993.

In the pre-grunge era, Mascis was a peer of Sonic Youth’s twin towers of guitar, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, but rather than following their experimental path, Mascis specialized in squealing, scribbled solos in the tradition of Neil Young.

The Vogue audience heard many instances of solos taking over for Mascis’ singing. The long, piercing guitar lines delivered more emotion than his vocals.

Barlow slugged out chords on his Rickenbacker bass, and Murphy’s drumming consistently danced above the fray.

All three musicians were nimble during crowd favorite "Freak Scene" and a cover of the Cure’s "Just Like Heaven."

It’s possible to dismiss the Dinosaur Jr. reunion tour as a hollow exercise in nostalgia.

There’s value, however, in Mascis, Barlow and Murphy demonstrating a sonic intensity that was rare then and is even rarer today.