Dinosaur Jr

A Dinosaur Jr concert is a minor event for Florence's diverse rock community. Plenty of people and plenty of enthusiasm at the Auditorium FLOG, as befits one of the historic bands of the American underground, on permanent tour since their reunion two years ago.

Compared to the one-off show for Frequenze Disturbate in Urbino back in 2005, the setting here is undoubtedly more intimate. There it was a huge arena with an audience of many thousands; here it's a mid-sized club with about a thousand fans, meaning more contact with the crowd, more dialogue — if you can call it dialogue with one of the most introverted bands in rock history — more fast songs, more pogo. A great live act. And yet, this writer still holds an indelible memory of that Umbrian show, both for the quality and quantity of the songs and for the thrill of seeing a personal idol live for the first time, so let's clear the air right away: personal preference lies there.

Back then it was all songs from the first three albums and the singles produced when the Mascis-Barlow-Murph trio was still together; tonight they play a completely different set that also includes material from the post-breakup albums, with "Feel The Pain", "The Wagon" and "Out There" getting the loudest roars from the crowd, and of course tracks from "Beyond", the latest album from the reborn trio.

There's no doubt, though, that the fans' love for the band's "classic" output really comes through with the big hits, from the evergreen "Little Fury Things" to the achingly sweet "Forget The Swan". They even dust off a track wrongly considered minor, "Mountain Man", also from the debut album "Dinosaur", plus the splendid "No Bones", straight from the peak of the band's output.

While the songs in the first part are short and fast, played with the usual fury but with metronomic precision, in the middle section of the show Mascis lets loose with endless solos, and each track is stretched out to infinity by the trio. In the closing encores, with the mood now relaxed, they fire off the noise-pop monument "Freak Scene" to close out an excellent performance.

The volume was deafening all night — which is exactly what you expect from Dinosaur Jr, and everyone knows it — but the thrill of being able to almost touch these living monuments of raw, genuine rock, watching them play barely a foot away, makes any discomfort well worth it.

Rock and hardcore, melody and noise, '70s guitar heroics and '80s new wave — contradictions never so well distilled into a single band, arriving in fine shape at middle age and at the reunion that eventually catches up with everyone. Since every label now seems outdated, Dinosaur Jr have essentially become "classic rock music". Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is a question we're in no hurry to settle.

A concert highly recommended to anyone who still believes in rock, and to anyone who needs a sign to start believing again.

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