DISQUS

MC · 10 months ago

Looking forward to more of this new series...

This flashback gave me a flashback of my own... also including worries of hearing damage after a concert in Worcester. Mine was from seeing an Iron Maiden and Judas Priest double bill at the (then) newly-opened Worcester Centrum. I think it was 1981 or 1982.

Old_Davy · 10 months ago

FOR ME IT WAS KING'S X IN 1992. I had to leave early and I could STILL HEAR THE BAND IN MY CAR THREE BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE THEATER IN MY CAR WITH THE WINDOWS ROLLED UP.

edmur · 10 months ago

hey! how come you didn't ask me to go to that show???

mojo · 10 months ago

I think you were in ATL or Providence and were out of stow at that time?

MichaelFortes · 10 months ago

I saw Dinosaur Jr in '94 or '95. Same story, incredibly loud and my ears didn't stop ringing for three days. It was so loud, it seriously hurt. The one reprieve was when the drummer busted his bass drum head, and for a few minutes Mascis played softly and unaccompanied while the drum head was being fixed. That was the loudest show I had ever attended, until just recently, when I saw Earthless and foolishly forgot my earplugs. That show was so loud, I experienced distorted hearing about five days after the show. Those decibel levels should have been illegal.

mojo · 10 months ago

That is why I wrote the line about "medical experiments."

It's hard to imagine, really, even with that description--but it was so loud it physically hurt! Never before, and never since have I had this sensation. It literally rattled my sternum and collarbone, standing toward the front (I got out, fast).

steed · 10 months ago

I feel for you with the interview part. I remember my worst one ever, with the band Firewater back in 1998. They came onto my radio show and singer Tod A. answered every question in a foreign language (German I think). While I didn't idolize them like you and J. Mascis, it was a giant F.U. to me, someone who enjoyed them and played the hell out of them and I've never gotten near a disc from them since.

solipsistnation · 10 months ago

Man, Riley Commons.... People who had been around a little longer called it Gompei's. I saw SO MANY bands there-- mostly local, or Boston-area, but occasionally people from farther away. It's not really a dining hall, either-- it got used as part of a cafe thing part of the time (there was still a pizza kitchen in the next room in 1997, I believe), and was where the local drama groups would usually put on plays using the same portable stage pieces that were used when bands played. It wasn't really ideal, but mostly worked out. There was a residence hall right upstairs, too-- imagine trying to sleep or do homework with Dinosaur Jr's massive sound system downstairs. Eesh.

AZJack · 10 months ago

Hello, all. Jack here from said 'Jack' in MoJos article. The funniest part of all this is that I am sitting here reading this article...and I can FEEL the pressure building in my head. This shit was so loud.....

Imagine, if you will, a waterballoon. Remember as a kid, those hot, humid New England summers and you're taking that waterballoon and you're going to fill it with the garden hose. And instead of s-l-o-w-l-y turning the valve, you turn it really fast, the balloon fills up and then goes shooting out of your hand across the yard. Close your eyes..think about it. NOW...imagine this waterballoon is your head, Dinosaur Jr. is the garden hose and Mascis just goes and just turns the valve. I felt as if my head had shot across the WPI campus.

And not for nothin', it may not have been as bad if anyone had bothered showing up to the show. If I remember correctly, there may have been maybe 200 people there. A little bit larger crowd may have buffered the distortion.

If you'll excuse me...I have to turn off the hose...

solipsistnation · 10 months ago

Oh, hey.

I am told by people who were at that show that Dinosaur Jr. actually broke up immediately afterward, in the back room of Riley Commons.

mojo · 10 months ago

I had not heard that. If it is true that is AWESOME

solipsistnation · 10 months ago

It certainly might explain why he wasn't feeling particularly chatty.