It’s a very moody Friday evening as I pissbolt down St Kilda Road, the lightning a’smashin and the thunder a’roarin, racing towards the Melbourne Recital Centre preparing for a guitar fuelled foray with undisputed legend J Mascis.
First up is the ever-talented Adalita. Her voice is powerful, reverberating around the theatre with many a track from her recent album, All Day Venus, channelling the rock atmospheric. Three songs in and Trust is Rust leaves me reeling as I’m dealt a hefty drop kick straight in the feels from her stripped back sound and passionate ballads. It’s Cat Powers sprinkled and Janis Joplin flavoured, equating to quite the tasty treat of a warm up.
By the end of the interval, the audience has doubled in size and a younger crowd, the type who own socks hand tie-dyed by blind hipsters in Fitzroy, have joined the devotees. There’s a restless atmosphere and with the slightly erratic screams of “I LOVE YOU J,” from a chap in row G, one thing becomes very clear: everyone is hungry to see J Mascis. After a predictably brief introduction in his Massachusetts drawl, he picks up his Fender and launches into Listen To Me from his 2011 solo debut, Several Shades of Why.
Mascis is relaxed to the point of nonchalant and it’s obvious his battered and worn guitar is more like an old friend than an instrument. He knows his way around it with his eyes closed, fingers dancing up and down the neck seamlessly.
Me Again is the first venture he makes into his newest EP, Tied To A Star along with Wide Awake and Every Morning,all of which are received enthusiastically by the crowd. Showing outrageous precision and a crazed love for his distortion pedal, J Mascis and The Fog get an airing with Ammaring,channeling a wilder, more vivid version of Eddie Vedder.
With some extreme excess wattage at his finger picking tips, the tempo of his songs changes quickly and violently. They flip from soft vocals and controlled strumming that draws the viewer in, to heavy distortion and phaser pedal play, creating a heavy psychedelic sound that leaves everyone in rapture. As he plays Heal The Star and Listen To Me it is apparent that the bloke in row G hasn’t taken his head out of his hands for 20 minutes now. Dinosaur Jr. fans were not left disappointed after his renditions of Not The Same and Just Like Heaven were lovingly played, to which the emotionally exhausted man in row G, and a good few others, completely crumbled and shamelessly burst into tears.
BY ROSEMARY ANSTEAD
Photo by Emily Day
Loved: The shout of “That was a quick bong J” when Mascis reappeared for the encore.
Hated: Being forced to make my notes on a paper airplane.
Drank: Red wine in the rain.
