Los Angeles in the winter often comes with massive fog clouds that roll into the city at night and leaves me with a feeling of craving nostalgia in a warm me up to my core way. The air can often chill you to the bones and one of the best cures for this that I have found is of course a concert. With artists of all levels currently riding high on doing tours where they play classic albums in full Indie Rock icons Dinosaur Jr. decided to bless Southern California with an exclusive three night run of their classic 1993 album “Where You Been”.

Dinosaur Jr. have been melting people faces off with some of the loudest rock music to have ever been made since 1984. The godfathers of Shoegaze have several classic albums under their breath including “You’re Living All Over Me” (1987), “Bug” (1988), “Green Mind” (1991) and of course the iconic “Where You Been” which was released nearly 32 years ago in 1993. For three nights this past week San Diego And Los Angeles got to help celebrate this momentous occasion with some special guests.

J Mascis (singer/songwriter/guitarist), Lou (bass/backup vocals) and Murph (drummer) have had a tumultuous history in their past. Lou fed up with not getting to record his songs left the band in 1989 and started his own bands Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion to create what he wanted to. Murph got fed up with how things were running and left four years after Lou Barlow did. J Mascis kept the band going for a few more years before giving up the ghost to focus on his acoustic guitar music and his new band J Mascis & The Fog. But after some maturing and growing the band got back together in 2005 for a world tour (which I was lucky enough to go to their Anaheim show) soon enough they were recording albums and havent stopped touring and recording pretty much in the twenty years since then. 

Cut to inside The Belwether the second night of this mini tour. The room was abuzz with glee. The spectrum of ages went from the oldest of Gen Xers to the youngest of Zoomers. But before we all had the pleasure of having our hearing irravokably damaged by Dinosaur Jr. (WEAR EARPLUGS KIDS) we got our eardrums blown out by Los Angeles’s very own the glorious The Side Eyes. Lead by singer Astrid McDonald, guitarist Kevin Devine, bassist Chris Devine and drummer Sam Mankinen they took the stage with a confidence of a band much older than they are. You know how sometimes a bands set just flies by in an instant and all you are left with are the scorched memories? Well this was one of those. Hardcore punk at its fucking finest! Astrid strutted the stage and growled like a mountain lion as the boys in the band kept things tight and fast. Blasting thru a set of originals and a cover in under thirty minutes with procession and ease. Go stream their album “What’s Your Problem?” just released last year on In The Red Records and go see them live you wont regret it!!

Now that the room is packed and thoroughly warmed up J, Lou & Murph take the stage like the confident veterans they are and crack into the album with Side A Track 1 “Out There”. Even while taking photos of the band I felt the whole room lock in when J bursted into his first of many many guitar solos that night. Classic song after classic song after classic song. I had a shit eating grin on me the whole time they were on stage. When they got to “Get Me” they brought out Tiffany Anders to sing her part on the record (you can thank her for a lot of your favorite songs working their way into movies and tv shows). They perfectly closed out the last four songs on the album and here is where things got really interesting. Out from stage left walks Punk Legend and one of the greatest bass players of all time, founding member of The Minutemen and fIREHOSE, Mike Fucking Watt. Ever the charmer and kind soul joined the band to play The Stooges classic song “T.V. Eye”!

After this massive suprise they then brought out B Sharp Jazz Quartet cofounder Herb Graham Jr. to help sing “Little Fury Things” before quickly bring out Starcrawler front woman Arrow de Wilde to then help sing “Freak Scene”!! Dinosaur Jr. closed out this set with “Gargoyle” and “Feel The Pain” back to back before taking a quick restroom break. They then brought out MJ Lenderman solo artist and member of the band Wednesday to play “In A Jar” with the band. They ended this beautiful night with one of the greatest covers of all time Dinosaur Jr.’s version of the classic The Cure turn “Just Like Heaven”. The stage cleared. The room cleared and I was in bed before midnight. What a great fucking night.

Review & Photos by: Ben LaCross

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