Tonight the legendary J Mascis is armed with only two acoustics and some pedals, but all of us in the crowd know, and expect, that we are going to be in for a bit of a treat.
‘Stumble’ from Mascis’ Tied To A Star plays like a ballad, with that all too lovingly familiar howl, dishing out the simple and sublime.
When he starts into ‘Heal The Star’, from the 2014 release, we start to see the virtuoso really coming into peak, big booming chords with that great slur giving some soul.
The distortion goes up a little and there’s some slick lead, some great moments with ease.
Cheers are high when Mascis proceeds to slip casually into classic ‘Out There’; it’s impressive as he loops his own playing on the spot, freeing him up for his famous lead neckwork, but something already seems a little amiss.
We’re treated to dancing guitar lines, but the looped chords underneath suffer from all the wrong distortion, and even at times loud clipping.
I’m not one to point fingers though; he might even want to sound this way.
We’re moved on and the issue seems to be accelerating, but perhaps it’s not even negating the song at all, adding this element to the long jam we find ourselves in, watching him go at it I’d say it sounds at least half-intentional.
The various tangents of experimentation in his recent years, coupled with a nuance for softer songs, are in their element in this kind of setting.
It is a wonder to watch him play – his guitars sound great, the acoustic tones bringing out all kinds of brightness when he wanders through Dino classics.
There’s not much in the way of conversation, just a great artist rattling through a fairly comprehensive set of his work, treating us to his fantastic cover of ‘Fade Into You’ by Mazzy Star to boot.
We even get a brief but all to glorious ‘Just Like Heaven’ to finish the night, dazzling and delighting all with his immaculate touch on the fret board, but stopping abruptly before the solo and surely robbing us of more delight.
Words: Matthew Thomas
Photos: Michael Gallacher
