The Martlet

When I got my ticket to see Dinosaur Jr. Nov. 11, I didn’t have high expectations. I had just seen them in Seattle the week before and, while I thought it was totally worth seeing them again, I went to hang out with friends.

The nice thing about lowering your expectation is you leave room pleasantly surprised.

The crowd at Sugar was more energetic than the crowd in Seattle and, on average, a fair bit younger. This may have had something to do with it being a holiday at the tail end of our reading break.

While the Seattle crowd didn’t get riled up until the opening bars of “Feel the Pain” two-thirds of the way through their set, the mosh pit at Sugar got going right from the start. Ironically, it was on “Feel the Pain” at the Victoria show where chance could have easily brought down the momentum the band had built up.

When he broke a string in the song’s second heavy break, J. Mascis showed his true skill as he pulled a chord with the strings he had left and put it through his loop pedal. He then switched to his backup guitar mid-song. Bassist Lou Barlow managed to clue in and he did what he could to keep the groove alive.

I might chalk the energy difference with the band to their day off as well. Lou Barlow commented on Victoria’s great sushi, so that could have been a factor as well. That said, the audience’s appreciation and hunger for a true grunge act was apparent in the crowd.

Friends I saw this show with were a little disappointed that they couldn’t enjoy “the song part” of the songs. Instead, they felt subjected to torrential solos which, as a bit of a guitar nut, I didn’t mind.

The opening band Pink Mountaintops, a Victoria/Vancouver offshoot of punk act Black Mountain, came in billed as “guests” and did a much better job than Lou Barlow’s side project with the Missingmen did in Seattle. Their folky five-piece definitely had a ‘70s feel to it, with the singer’s Lou Reed-esqe sound and the harmonizing with the ladies of the group, a violinist and keyboardist.

Definitely a lot less loud than Dinosaur Jr., Pink Mountaintops’ energy was fun and catchy and definitely did more for the crowd than Lou Barlow’s self-deprecating opener.

Mascis must have been pleased with the energy of the show because, rather than doing an encore, he opened it up and said, “What do you want?” I screamed out that I wanted “Pick Me Up” which they hadn’t played in Seattle.

When it was released for Rock Band as downloadable content, the song had made me aware that a band I had known in the ‘90s had kept it together and done some kick-ass stuff.

They did play the other song they’d put out from the old circuit, “The Wagon,” which rocked hard.

“Just like Heaven,” a Cure cover that Dinosaur Jr. made famous in the ‘90s, has become a number they play maybe one set in eight.

Those of us in-the-know appreciated how ending with that song was a real sign of respect for the audience.