On the Road Again
Live Review

Dinosaur Jr.
The Opera House, Toronto
Nov. 2, 1997

It was a pleasant November evening (50 degrees!), but wool toques were on full display at the Opera House nonetheless. Dinosaur Jr.'s first Toronto performance in over three years brought out a strange assortment of characters; given that J. Mascis and crew haven't made a relevant record in about five years, the young-ish (i.e., under 20) make-up of the crowd was quite surprising. The absence of earplugs - an absolute must at a Dinosaur show - amongst many in the Opera House also spoke volumes about their inexperience with Dinosaur's, well, volume. And for someone who so obviously spent his formative years getting food thrown at him in the high school cafeteria, Mascis sure attracts a disturbingly large amount of drunken tucked-flannel jocks.

But if Dino's crowd has changed over the years, so too has Mascis. No longer one to spend the show staring at the serial numbers on his effects pedals, Mascis now produces the occasional smile while deafening his fans. At one point he even thanked us, telling us that we were "great." But he didn't have to say a word, as Dinosaur's set list was gratifying enough on its own. Sure, they lumbered through tunes from the OK new release Hand It Over (ten minutes of "Alone" was more than enough), but die-hards could feast on the slew of pre-'92 classics: "Freak Scene," "Keep The Glove," "Puke + Cry" and "The Wagon" all in a row! And then there was the slam-bang encore of "Repulsion" and the signature Cure cover "Just Like Heaven." The latter made four hockey player-types in front of me lock arms and sing along to Robert Smith lyrics in unison. Like I said, a strange assortment of characters.

- Stuart Berman