Photos by Bill Shouldis

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why Dinosaur Jr. (with Henry Rollins interviewing Dino before their set) with Fucked Up and OFF! was one of the most anticipated shows of this summer. Adding a full performance of Dino’s Bug and you’ve got quite a show. It may have been an odd choice since J Mascis has said that Bug is not his favorite Dino album, but everything pointed to this one being worth your $35.

Sadly, due to an early set time, most people (of the working variety at least) seemed to miss OFF!’s 15 minute set. But word on the street was that it was the best set of the night. Definitely a shame that it was played in front of a mostly empty venue. But never fear NYC-ers, they’ll be back next week with Superchunk.

Fucked Up released the brilliant David Comes To Life last month, so obviously, their set centered around that. While the band has taken a bold step forward, it was refreshing to see that some things haven’t changed that much, as leader Damian Abraham spend most of the time on the floor. That being said, the sound didn’t translate well at first in the towering Terminal 5, but the band finished on a strong note. I heard the show at 245 Kent with Jeff The Brotherhood was much better (and sweatier) that their T5 show though.

I think a lot of people were intrigued by how exactly an interview between the notoriously apathetic Dinosaur Jr. and the fiery Rollins would go down. As I expected, the interview was a mix of awkward reminiscing, capped (unexpectedly) off by pair of flying shoes that headed in the general direction of Rollins’ head. Watch the video below (at about 9 minutes in, the shoes fly) and see how Henry took the gesture.

Finally, Dinosaur Jr. took the stage to play Bug. While the album has two of my favorite songs from the band (“Freak Scene” and “Let It Ride”), this performance seemed somewhat uninspired. Maybe this is because I remembered for the 40,000th time that I am over bands playing albums in their entirety. Yet, I keep getting tricked. While it’s always a cool idea, it rarely yields positive results.

The best part of the set may have been when they brought up some guy they met (in Boston?) to sing “Don’t” since Lou Barlow blew out his voice the previous night. Funny enough “Don’t” is the one track I always skip over, but it made for the most interesting live moment.

So not exactly the “show of the summer” to me, but still awesome to see three great bands together.

More photos below.

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I’ve struggled with my thoughts on Fucked Up over the years. I remember hearing the name and rumblings of strong live shows. It sounded trite and unoriginal.  I’d grown up listening to hardcore and post-hardcore in the mid-90s. Dischord bands like Fugazi or Rites of Spring and scenes closer to my home like San Diego’s Swing Kids, Area 51, or The Locusts. To this day these are some of my favorite bands. These were some of my first shows. I was strongly affected by the visceral performances and it was my first stepping-stone to other bands I grew to love.

So when I hear that overused and often ambiguous term “hardcore” or “punk” being applied to contemporary bands, I’m often skeptical. After listening to The Chemistry of Common Life and witnessing Damian Abraham’s contagious, all-inclusive attitude at live shows, they definitely changed my mind. Recently, they released David’s Town, a fake compilation of 11 original songs composed by members of Fucked Up and various guests musicians. The album is part of a rock opera and set in Thatcherite Britain in the late 70s/early 80s in the fictional town of Byrdsedale Spa. This album is brilliant both in concept and execution.

As part of this punk-rock opera, they will release David Comes To Life in June. If the fey, indie-pop inspired “The Other Shoe” and David’s Town are any indication of things to come, Fucked Up will pull off something so conceptually original, ambitious, and flat out good that it’s really difficult for me to find a parallel in the present-day.

“The Other Shoe”

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All photos by Eric Van’t Zelfden

Double Dagger and Fucked Up headlined an awesome show at NYU this past Friday. Billed as a Valentine’s Day show, there wasn’t much love in the air – just a whole lot of bald white dudes, shirtlessness, and rage. In fact, the closest thing I saw to love was probably a bunch of pipsqueak little college kids dry humping in the corner. Sidenote – the show made me question whether or not I looked that young when I was a college freshmen. It was like a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese in there. (Sigh)

Anyways, while I was a fan of Double Dagger’s last album More, their live show is 1000x better. Also, I had no idea that there was no guitarist in the band. The bass is so fuzzy and distorted, however, that it makes guitars unnecessary – a rare feat if you ask me. The floor was shaking pretty much the entire time the band was playing too. Think Fugazi (sorry to use this overused comparison but this time, it’s somewhat true) meets Shellac and you’ve got Double Dagger. These guys should be huge.

Fucked Up was, well, Fucked Up. That’s not a bad thing of course. But I’ll admit, Double Dagger was a hard act to follow that night. The highlight of their set was the handful of songs they played from their upcoming full-length David Comes To Life. The songs sounded, dare I say, somewhat poppy. I mean, we aren’t talking like tongue-in-cheek pop here but certainly plenty of catchy hooks. I really, really liked everything I heard. I can’t wait for that album.

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In a complete what the fuck moment,  the ultra conservative news channel pledges their love of the new Fucked Up record The Chemistry of Common Life and interviews lead singer Pink Eyes.

Check out the new video for “Crooked Head” from Fucked Up’s stellar album The Chemistry of Common Life. The video features footage from their infamous 12 hour show that took place in NYC last fall.