The threat of snow is high but not enough to put us off the trek to the outskirts of Leeds city centre to catch J Mascis on a rare solo outing. The car park and surrounding streets are full and so is the venue. The 'Brudey' does deserve its reputation as the best venue in the North East, but on nights of sold out gigs getting a good vantage point is quite difficult. This is made all the move complicated when the performer is A) alone on stage and B) sat down.
To be fair none of this matters when J Mascis is playing. Most of us here know what he looks like (quite unique with that long grey hair and beard and thick rimmed glasses), and he doesn't move about much or indeed say more than two words. No we all know full well we are here to be in the presence of a master of his craft. As he makes the sounds radiate out of an acoustic that would make Hendrix proud the sound alone is enough to please us all, including us shorties at the back stood behind Brudey's glitzy mirrored pillars.
Luluc was the support for the show, being signed to Sub Pop they would have been great to check out. Listening to them the duo make me realise we missed a treat there. Small window has a guitar pattern like those of J's bandmate Lou Barlow's second solo album 'Goodnight Unknown'.
I am told J is on at 9pm prompt and sure to his word he is. There no words "Hello" until after the first song 'Listen to Me' from the first solo album 'Several Shades Of Why'.
There appears to be a salt shaker and a few small medicine bottles on stage, not sure what they are for. His assortment of what seem like 'magic' pedals are hidden behind the monitor and music stand, but he does call on them for a few songs. The loop station used on 'Every Morning' is amazing; he makes it look effortless to achieve those huge sounds. The flange on the cover of The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven' as the only song on the encore sounds immense, like there is a low flying aircraft ahead (yes even indoors). The overall electric distortion on the acoustic guitar sounds so very dirty, and the solo arrangements that J Mascis is renowned for are blistering on fire and build up more and more towards the end of the show, none more than heard in the cover of Dinosaur Jrs 'Alone'.
There are plenty of Dinosaur Jr tracks covered here, in fact nearly half are DJ songs. The majority of these are from 'Where You Been' like 'Not The Same' and 'Out There', to which the crowd respond very well. There's another cover in the form of Mazzy Star's 'Fade Into You', but mainly this is all J Mascis penned tracks. A personal favourite of mine is 'Little Fury Things' by Dinosaur Jr and 'Ammaring', originally by J Mascis and the Fog.
The middle of the set is full of the more acoustic sounds of the new album 'Tied To A Star', namely 'Me Again', 'Every Morning', 'Heal The Star', 'Stumble', and 'Drifter'. For an hour and 10 minute set there are plenty of songs covered. The lack of banter or any speaking at all (he did say "Thanks" after the first song, and "Woo!" before the encore) means he can just fly through songs. No frills, no chatter, just awesome guitar work.
Set list:
Listen To Me
Me Again
Little Fury Things
Ammaring
Every Morning
Stumble
Get Me
Drifter
Heal The star
Not The Same
Out There
Fade Into You
Pond song
Not You Again
Alone
Just Like Heaven
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.