With its RSL charm, beer prices and décor, the Oakleigh Caravan Club may be my new favourite venue. Ben Salter opened the night with songs from across his career with The Gin Club, The Wilson Pickers and solo repertoire. For all his charisma, professionalism and towering voice, he tends to be let down by some pretty dour songwriting. I wanna like the dude, but the only spot in his short set that got the suburban bogan contingent shakin’ a leg and chicken-pecking along was a cover, Smokey Robinson’s Tracks of My Tears.
Mascis made his presence known by shuffling out on to the stage looking like an escapee from a nursing home and sat down in front of a lyrics stand, obscuring half of the room to a crucial view. As anyone that has attended a Dinosaur Jr/J Mascis show will attest, not being able to see what he’s doing with his left hand is a bit like watching a porno and not being able to see it go in. After three songs I moved to the other side and thereafter, it was total guitar hero bliss for 90 minutes. Balladry was dispensed with early, with two of the better numbers from last yearsSeveral Shades of Why album, an Edie Brickell cover (“Paul Simon’s wife”) and Ocean in the Way from Dinosaur Jr’s brilliant latest Farm. The looping pedal was then finally put to use, laying down the chorus riff from Get Me so he could let fly with a wailing solo over what must have been at least 128 bars, and it never really got boring. Fog rarity Ammaring also featured five minutes of screaming fret-wankery that had all the 90s burnouts smiling and nodding along. Flying Cloud and Blowing It from ’91’s Green Mind followed, with another excuse for a guitar solo closing the main set, the epic Alone. After a ten second break Mascis returned for the encore of Repulsion and Little Fury Things, mumbled a ‘thanks’ and trundled through the audience, out the front door and into a waiting van that may’ve even been parked in the handicapped spot. Not one for saying much, he showed more charisma tonight in his two hands than across his entire interview career, and I didn’t mind a bit. It has been said before that he only ever plays the one solo, but what a solo!
LOVED: J’s left hand.
HATED: The music stand.
DRANK: A fancy mix of Coopers, Bulmer’s and Corona.
