Dinosaur Jr – Vicar St, Dublin – Live Review – 10/10/22
by Killian Laher

Dinosaur Jr kicked off their European tour on a cool Monday night in Dublin.  Support came from American band Garcia Peoples who appeared to have arrived by time machine from the early 70s.  They played a set of long drawn out, noodly guitar rock, which lapsed into tediousness from time to time.  Technically, they were highly competent but there seemed to be something lacking.  Positioning the drummer at the extreme right of the stage seemed a little strange.

The mood was lifted with the arrival of Dinosaur Jr.  Opening with The Lung, they powered through their set covering new and old.  I Ain’t and a metal-tinged I Met the Stones from last year’s Sweep It Into Space album sounded great, while J Mascis unleashed a grand bit of noise on Little Fury Things.  If anything, Mascis sounded less croaky than usual on Out There and the glorious cacophony of To Be Waiting.

In between crowd-pleasers Feel the Pain and Freak Scene which saw a minor outbreak of crowd surfing they found time for a mad-sounding Mountain Man.  Lou Barlow did get his two songs in the spotlight, neither of which were a complete success.  We got a muddy rendition of Garden early on in the show, and then their set was rounded off by an elongated version of Gargoyle which kind of killed the buzz a little.

A flawless encore featured In A Jar, the riff-heavy Sludgefeast (during which for some reason a few in the audience held lighters in the air), and they rounded off with the Cure’s Just Like Heaven, complete with an abrupt ending.  As a spectacle, Mascis, Barlow and drummer Murph are not exactly a compelling presence.  However, they generate a pleasing racket on stage.  Anyone who enjoys air guitar was in their element here.

Setlist
The Lung
I Ain’t
Garden
Little Fury Things
Out There
Crumble
I Expect It Always
To Be Waiting
I Met the Stones
The Wagon
Been There All the Time
Start Choppin
Feel the Pain
Mountain Man
Freak Scene
Gargoyle

Encore:
In a Jar
Sludgefeast
Just Like Heaven (The Cure cover)