‘I Just Need More Wattage:’ Pre-Grunge Fuzzlords Dinosaur Jr. Turn It Up To 11 For A New Generation, Tour (Cover)

The list of bands that formed in the ‘80s referred to as “indie,” “legendary,” “cult classic” and similar terms may be many, but very few are still touring, releasing top-notch new music and getting bigger and more relevant within the music world. 

“It’s cool to be still doing it,” says Dinosaur Jr. frontman J. Mascis, between gigs in St. Louis.  Mild mannered and somewhat deadpan on the surface, the bespectacled white wizard wields what those in the immediate vicinity can refer to only as a “loud” six-string — usually a Fender Jazzmaster, drenched with fuzz and surrounded by Marshall stacks, resulting in something that varies somewhere between warm blanket and ear-piercing buzz saw.

“I never thought about it when I was a kid or anything, what would happen at, you know, 60 or something, but yeah,” adds Mascis, “It’s cool to still be doing it. I mean, The Stones are still going, so I figure that’s the benchmark now. How long do the Stones go?”

As leader of the three-piece formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984 and re-formed with 2007 LP Beyond, Mascis in just the last couple of years has seen audiences grow with regular headline touring, opening slots at arenas for Weezer and the Flaming Lips (“awesome to play Madison Square Garden” but they all look the same inside), co-bills with younger bands like Snail Mail and Band Of Horses (“we actually got some new kids as fans”) and even an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry (“weird, because it’s not my dream to play there or anything, like a lot of people”). 

A new tour announced today includes some of the band’s largest headline gigs to date, with two nights at Brooklyn Steel, the Fillmore in Silver Spring, and House of Blues in Boston (2,500 capacity), to go along with the release of new LP, There Near, which dropped today on Jagjaguwar. 

With his longtime bandmates, described aptly in the press kit as “king of the thunder tubs” Murph on drums and “human tornado” Lou Barlow on bass with the occasional lead vocal, Mascis and those around the band recognize the unique quality that comes together when the original trio performs and records together.

“We just realize we have a cool energy together, so we keep going,” says Mascis. “It’s not like we’d hang out all the time if we weren’t in the band, but yeah, I think we treasure the sound we make together that we know is special somehow.” The band is and was special in more than cult circles, with classic early albums like 1987’s Yr Living All Over Me containing favorites like noise-rock ditty “Little Furry Things” the thoughtful and blistering “In A Jar” and radio success in the early ‘90s with “Freak Scene,” “Start Choppin’” and “Feel The Pain.

Their mostly underground status endured, however, being part of the documentary “1991: The year Punk Broke” chronicling one summer of European music festivals for those lucky enough to snag a VHS copy, although a 1993 SPIN cover proclaimed “J. Mascis is God” ala Clapton. Coming before grunge and distinct from other Northeast-formed bands like the Pixies, Mission of Burma or Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. bridged the gap between college jangle-rock and what grunge would later become.

The goal, like many in today’s live music industry, is to set up the band to play as long as they want and continue to find success. 

“it’s really fun,” says Brian Schwartz, founding partner at 7S Management, who has worked with Mascis since the early 2000s and now through Dinosaur Jr.’s reformation and recent resurgence. “We don’t overdo it. We try to pack it where it makes sense. Now, that we’ve announced the new album and the first leg of the U.S. tour in October, there is a study plan throughout ‘27.”

“It’s a very strategic conversation that Andrew (Colvin) and I have with Brian every year,” says WME’s Justin Edwards, who represents the band in North America alongside agent Andrew Colvin. Edwards notes the intentionality of getting the band in front of different audiences, like with Snail Mail as support last year and Band of Horses on its most recent run of dates.   “Because of their legacy, you can go a bit deeper with this band tertiaries and beyond. Lansing, Michigan, was a market that we played as a fill date on a Friday night on the Band of Horses tour, and sold 800 tickets in a market that otherwise most acts would never go to or prioritize. We’ve, we’ve seen that happen in a couple different places just because the band has such an established history at this point.”

Part of the fun and intrigue is how other musicians want to be in the band’s orbit, including fellow slacker-rocker Kurt Vile who recently invited Mascis onstage to jam at a festival gig in Philly or Jason Isbell joining Dinosaur Jr. for the three-chord Neil Young jam dirge “Cortez The Killer.”

The collabs recently culminated with the Rolling Stone headline “WTF Was J Mascis Doing Onstage At The Grand Ole Opry,” after the guitarist joined rising singer-songwriter John R. Miller for a performance of Miller’s “Steering Wheel Drums,” in July.

“It’s weird because it’s not my dream or anything” to play the Opry, Mascis says. “I saw some people playing it for the first time and understand it’s their big thing to make their debut at the Opry, but I didn’t come from that. I don’t know how it came about exactly. The guy,  John R. Miller, asked me and I was just glad to get off the touring hamster wheel for a minute and do something else, you know?”

To his credit, Miller told Rolling Stone that having his guitar hero on stage was “so incredibly cool and surreal.”

The hamster wheel of touring took at least pause for a moment after the Band of Horses co-bill came to a close at the Astro Theater near Omaha on Aug. 1, after which Mascis said he’d be enjoying some time on his bike on the sand dunes in Provincetown. More live performances will pick back up in October with dates in U.S. southwest, including multiple dates in California, Colorado and Texas.

More than part of the appeal is Mascis’ guitar prowess and the gear itself, as his own signature Squier by Fender Jazzmaster is one of the most popular signature electrics in production, while his signature blistering tone is something that intrigues nerds and encourages earplugs.

“I have a Fender Telecaster that has a Floyd Rose and humbuckers,” Mascis shares, usually rocking single coils. “It’s very new territory for me. I thought the Floyd Rose would stay in tune better. I mean, I have so many guitars of all styles, so It’s just what I play live. I’m used to the Jazzmaster, but I kinda collect guitars.”

The sheer volume and air-moving novelty of Mascis’ fuzz-driven rig is notable in an era where many opt for digital or otherwise portable rigs, which means plugging direct into a PA for a more domesticated listening experience.

“I’ve noticed there’s a lot of younger people at the show, which is good because people my age don’t go out much,” Mascis says. Mascis says he likes to talk gear and try out new things, which he gets to do thanks to a partnership with Fender. “I think people just like the guitar. They don’t even know it’s my guitar a lot of times. I’ve heard it’s big in worship , like at churches, because it’s white. It’s a good guitar for the money, so that helps for a lot of that.”

Fender guitars is a sponsor in pop-up gigs in New York this weekend celebrating the There Near album launch, including three free gigs at Lucinda’s in the East Village (with Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog), Skinny Dennis in Brooklyn (with guitarist Steve Gunn), and TV Eye in Ridgewood with Thurston Moore Group, the Sonic Youth frotnman being a longtime collaborator and contemporary.

A ticketed show at Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg on Aug. 29 was set to include Mike Kinsella and Snail Mail.

Like other guitar heroes of recent years like Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Jack White or Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Mascis’ sound is unique and inspires people to pick up the guitar and try their hand at what may sound simple but doesn’t always work out at home.

“When people play through my rig, it’s not how a lot of people play,” Mascis says. “I have really high action, which people seem to not like. And for the Big Muff (the popular fuzz pedal from Electro-Harmonix), the thing is you just gotta keep playing or else it’ll feed back, which a lot of people don’t like and freaks them out. 

“There’s trial and error and just trying to make something you like the sound of, so hopefully other people like it,” he says. “You really need a big amp to use it, the fuzz, because the volume drops by half, so then you have to deal with that, too. I just need more wattage or it doesn’t sound like anything. If you haven’t stood in front of a Marshall and cranked it up and you’re a guitar player, you should try it and see what you’re missing.”

That wattage has surely led to some of Dinosaur Jr.’s reputation for volume, which endures.

“That’s a reaction we get every time we reach out to a promoter to book a show,” says Andrew Colvin of WME, who represents artists including Zach Bryan and Jason Isbell. “’Oh, I did them back at X, 15 years ago, loudest show I’ve ever had in the club.’ That’s universally the line we hear. We love it.”

Mascis adds, “I remember people complaining when we were starting out and stuff, ‘You have as much stuff as Jimmy Page at Madison Square Garden. Why do you need that for this 200-person club?”’ Mascis recounts. “I don’t know. I just want it, I guess.”

In today’s touring landscape, Mascis says it’s refreshing to see younger audiences at the band’s shows. With Lou and Muprh bringing the triumphant, somewhat primal energy, there’s no surprise the fans keep coming back and new ones are taking notice.  

“I don’t like today that the sound man wields too much power,” Mascis says, although Dinosaur Jr. employs its own front-of-house engineer on tour. “Woodstock was inspirational to me. You make the sound and then the sound man captures the sound, but now the sound man is creating the sound. It’s a whole different thing. So maybe that’s why people are liking us, too, because we’re still in the old-school model.”

With more than 40 years of material and a strong catalog to build from, Mascis suggests the band keeps it somewhat simple in determining what to play — apart from not really knowing the new songs well enough yet, that is.

“We do the best we can,” he says. “I’m a fan too. I hate it if you go see a band and they don’t play some of the songs you want to hear, so I understand that. It’s just a puzzle you try to put together.”

Dinosaur Jr. Near There Dates Announced today

Thu. Feb. 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel

Fri. Feb. 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel +

Sat. Feb. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer +

Tue. Feb. 16 – Silver Spring, MD @ Fillmore +

Thu. Feb. 18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle +

Fri. Feb. 19 – Jacksonville, FL @ FIVE +

Sat. Feb. 20 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live +

Tue. Feb. 23 – Orlando, FL @ Plaza Stage +

Thu. Feb. 25 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre +

Fri. Feb. 26 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl +

Sat. Feb. 27 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s +

Tue. Mar. 2 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman +

Thu. Mar. 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue 

Fri. Mar. 5 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic +

Sat. Mar. 6 – Detroit, MI @ The Majestic Theatre +

Sun. Mar. 7 – Toronto @ Danforth Music Hall  +

Sat. Mar. 13 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues

+ = w/ Starcrawler