Henry Rollins: The Column! My Travels With Dinosaur Jr.

By Henry Rollins Thu., Dec. 29 2011 at 4:00 AM

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.]

I am on the road with Dinosaur Jr., the mighty trio from the great state of Massachusetts. They're in the middle of a week of shows that feature them playing their breakout 1988 album, Bug.

Thankfully, this is not some act of desperation, or a band cashing in on past achievements. The great news is that there are a lot of Dinosaur Jr. albums -- and none of them sucks.

Oh, there might be that one you play a little more often than the others for sentimental reasons, but you don't wonder what the hell happened on any of them -- they are that good.

The last two albums, 2007's Beyond and 2009's Farm, were excellent, as were the tours that supported them. The band revisiting Bug is just a great night of music for those who know what they are in for. As an added bonus, the opening act is Pierced Arrows, the new band of Fred and Toody Cole of Dead Moon. They are as real as the day is long. What a band. Count me a fan.

Previous to their scheduled shows on the East Coast a few months ago, Dinosaur Jr. contacted me and asked if I would be interested in conducting a short interview with them onstage before they went out to play. Are you kidding?! A chance to see Dinosaur Jr. night after night? I said yes so fast it hurt. It was a great time. And recently, when the band asked me to come aboard for the West Coast leg, I gladly leaped at the chance. What a great way to end the year.

And so here, for the purpose of relaying the 411 to our fabulous Los Angeles readership and the rest of the world, I give you my reportage, written from the side of the stage into my steno pad during the California shows the band just completed.

A Fanatic's Notes Dept.:

12/12/11, Costa Mesa: Band onstage and delivering big-time. Rhythm section extremely together. Drummer Murph has steadily upped his game over the years and is now driving the band forward with great force. There is a happiness I feel whenever I see this band play, that hits me the same way every time since I first saw them in 1986. The waves of sound batter and melt you. It is dense-melodic-carameloid lava punctuated by bass and drum explosions. It is an awesome combination of force and momentum that by turns comforts and smashes.

Tags:

Bug, Dinosaur Jr., Henry Rollins

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Jorge Roberto

Hi! I am not sure Henry reads this but I am guessing that every now and then what is written here is passed along to him. I'd like to comment about something said on Broadcast 118 (I know it is really late for me to say anything... I am listening back to the old shows online). When he played the song Corcovado, the version with João Gilberto and Stan Getz, he mentioned that the word Corcovado meant "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars". Corcovado in portuguese is the name of the mountain in which the statue of Christ the Redeemer ("Cristo Redentor") is located. It is also one way to refer to the actual Christ the Redeemer statue itself. The song was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, or Tom Jobim, which is one of Brazil's main songwritters of all time, and is one of the many beautiful songs that has Rio de Janeiro as a landscape. Anyway, I just thought he would like to know that. Happy new year! Regards from Brazil, J.

Jennie Vasquez

Interesting information, thanks for sharing.

Jennie Vasquez

Most of us, as we get older, continue to love many of the things we loved as young adults. For some of us, including myself, as we age, we still like something but the same enthusiasm we had for say our favorite band, isn't like the first time we heard them or saw them play. Where the enthusiasm goes? Who knows? Likely the normal routine of life makes things we once adored become bland and not as exciting but we still love it.

I'm fascinated by how much Henry enjoys every performance like he is a young man seeing his favorite band for the first time. His backstage notes make you almost feel like you were there and make you wish you were in on all the fun. I wish I could have that enthusiasm for things. I've known others that have similar passions for other things. They never tire of the things they have always been interested in. Life would be less boring if we could all stay as fanatic about the things we fell in love with long ago. Must be a nice quality to have and one to hang onto if you have it.

As for Dinosaur Jr, I don't think this band is in danger of being seen as cashing in on to the past. The band is still plenty young and remains creative. It is in no danger of becoming extinct anytime soon as long as all the members continue to enjoy what they do.