Recap Dinosaur Jr. at Majestic Theatre

Some folks felt it was unnecessary for Dinosaur Jr. guitarist J Mascis to bring three full stacks of guitar amps, plus one smaller amp (which was pointed right at himself) to the Majestic Theatre's stage on Tuesday night. Even the door guy warned and complained to audience members as they filled up the venue: “I highly suggest you buy earplugs, because this will be the loudest show we’ve ever had. Three full-stacks seems completely fucking unnecessary, but there was nothing we could do about it.” After seeing Mascis’ phoned-in performance, The A.V. Club highly doubts the legendary purple-clad guitar-hobbit would be interested in doing anything unless he absolutely had to. But this proto-grunge legend's reunion, release of two excellent albums (2007’s Beyond and 2009’s Farm), and return to touring are a bare minimum good enough for us.

After taking the stage, the trio wasted no time starting up mid-tempo rocker “Thumb” from its major-label debut, Green Mind. “There never really is a good time / there’s always nothing much to say,” Mascis sang in his signature drawl with his eyes barely squinted open. Meanwhile, drummer Patrick “Murph” Murphy pounded his drums with a look of resentment on his face and mop-topped bassist Lou Barlow bobbed his head and wandered across the fretboard. Virtually every song in the set was coated in noisy bursts of melodic wankery from Mascis, with solos sometimes lasting for several minutes at a time.

Fortunately, Mascis had a pile of guitar effects in front of him to make his leads swirl and hiss in a way that never stole from the songs, even connecting beautifully with Barlow’s lead vocals on “Back To Your Heart” and “Imagination Blind.” While--for the most part--the set spread evenly across Dinosaur Jr.’s discography, it pulled the most from Farm and completely avoided 1997’s Hand It Over. Barlow brought a much-needed sense of humor to the band's stage presence. He mocked the crowd's shouted song requests with a resounding "blah blah blah" and poked fun at Mascis' infernal between-song noodling by making faces and playing silly-sounding bass lines.

The set hit a powerful climax with “Freak Scene,” during which much of the audience shook and mouthed along. After closing number “I Don’t Wanna Go There,” Mascis--who really seemed big on maintaining his disinterested demeanor--didn’t even look at, let alone thank, the crowd. He just blankly set his guitar down and walked backstage.

When the band re-emerged for the encore, Barlow finally thanked the crowd for coming and asked for requests. The band settled on “Bulbs Of Passion,” which was the only tune played all night from the band's debut album, Dinosaur. Afterwards, Mascis smiled at the crowd and said, “OK, you get one more. What’s it gonna be?” Apparently someone screamed for Motley Crue’s “Live Wire,” prompting Barlow to laugh and jokingly begin singing and playing it on his bass. For a minute, the rest of the band even joined in, and it looked like this was really going to happen. Sadly, it did not, but the band did wrap things up with a brilliantly rugged rendition of The Cure’s "Just Like Heaven." Mascis looked bored with the crowd, Barlow looked bored with Mascis, and Murph just looked pissed off the whole time, but that's the kind of tension that made You’re Living All Over Me one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Let the ambivalence prevail, as long as it means we get more new stuff on the level of Beyond and Farm.