Dinosaur Jr. Jam Out at Brooklyn Bowling Alley

Posted on Jan 19th 2010 2:30PM by Mike Ayers
Comments

When you're a band who's been around for as long as Dinosaur Jr., you might not get to play bowling alleys anymore, at least the way you once might have in the early days. But rounding out a three-night stand in New York, the iconic skate-grunge group indeed found some time to roll a few games at Brooklyn Bowl before they were slated to go on.

Nearly three quarters the way into their set, after a version of 'Pick Me Up' off of 2007's 'Beyond,' bassist Lou Barlow revealed that they had to stop their game in order to come play their set. "I'm getting my ass kicked," he told the crowd. "I thought if that went on any longer, I'd go and finish my game of getting my ass kicked."

Barlow was referencing the act of jamming, which the band has become pretty accustomed to. Lead Dinosaur J. Mascis surrounds himself with three large Marshall amp stacks to aid in this process -- songs like 'Forget the Swan' and opener 'Thumb' stretched into the 10 minute range, with Mascis seemingly off into his own little worlds, putting down one guitar for another during the middle of 'Pick Me Up.'

While it's probably an odd sensation to look over and see bowlers while you're trying to jam out, the sentiment wasn't lost on Barlow who also informed the crowd that at one point in the '80s "hipsters wore bowling shoes." To beat this point home, he repeated this three times.

When Dino emerged back for the encore, they seemed like they didn't know what to play and fielded requests, denying some and honoring just one: their cover version of the Cure's 'Just Like Heaven,' capping off an '80s kind of night.