1,301 SUPERCHUNK, Junk Drawer and 1,302 DINOSAUR JR., Man On Man, Bristol Strange Brew and London Highbury Garage, Friday 10th and Sunday 12th November 2023

 

Another very definite “double header” here; 2 gigs in the space of 3 nights, both hosted by veteran 90’s grunge-era dynamic guitar-heavy US alternative rock acts, celebrating the 30^th Anniversary of the release of their most commercially successful records! Although at the time, my then-28-year old US alt-rock heart belonged to my beloved Gigolo Aunts and their 1993 “Flippin’ Out” release, I still bought and enjoyed both Superchunk’s “On The Mouth” and Dinosaur Jr.’s “Where You Been”, and caught said acts “live” that year, the ‘Chunk headlining at Windsor Old Trout (gig 246) and later appearing on the Teenage Fanclub Anson Rooms undercard (gig 252), and Dinosaur mainman J Mascis’ noiseniks playing a dusky Sunday evening set at that year’s Reading Festival (gig 248)! For these 30^th celebration dates, Dinosaur broke cover first, announcing 4 nights (!) at London’s Highbury Garage, which Mascis devotee Tim was all over, getting us both tix for night 1 before they all quickly sold out, then Superchunk followed suit with a tour which passed through Bristol, so I hooked myself up for a trip to Strange Brew, a new Bristolian venue on me…

 Chunk was first, so I hit the road about 6.45 for a Friday drive down the M4, figuring doors at 7 so no need to rock up earlier, right? Wrong, as it happened, as support Junk Drawer had started their set at 7.15! However, missing half their set proved to be a lucky escape, as it turned out; a big guy in a kaftan never bodes well for my prog/ hippy-averse tastes, a comment about their stopping at Stonehenge on the way down from London only serving to underline this point! Their set consisted of a mulch of droney metronomic noise (one song briefly sounding like The Doors’ “LA Woman” before retreating into the sonic murk), ultra-dreary soporific balladry and an interminably long closing plod about the sky falling into the sea. Yikes! 

I took a glance around this newish but worn-in venue, a wide bar with interesting art pieces suspended from the ceiling, and a stepped open stage which I took a spot in front of, house left, as lead singer Mac McCaughan and his charges set up, before taking the stage at 8.30. A slightly different ‘Chunk line-up this time, shorn of Bob Mould’s backing boys Jon Wurster and Jason Narducy (Jason himself subbing for ‘Chunk mainstay Laura Ballance, who’s a non-toura Laura these days) and instead featuring another Laura, hard-hitting drummer Laura King, plus Ex Hex favourite Betsy Wright on bass. This line-up however immediately showed a more relaxed band dynamic than their most recent UK foray, on the back of politically-charged “What A Time To Be Alive” back in 2018 (gig 1,088). Mac announced, “We’re Superchunk; it’s been 30 years or so, some of you weren’t born then!”, before launching into the untitled opening squall of languid noise. The irresistible groove of “For Tension” followed, Mac’s few-octaves-too-high-for-comfort vocals overlaying the propulsive rhythm, getting me rocking down the front from the outset and setting the tone for the early set. The superb ascending riff and air-punching chorus of oldie “Seed Toss” (which took 2 attempts to start, Laura initially playing too fast!) was an early highlight, as it became evident that Chunk’s set tonight wasn’t a full-on start-to-finish rendition of “On The Mouth” but rather a set spotlighting its’ key tracks… 

The slower burn fire alarm blare of “Kicked In” preceded a clattering, drum-propelled “Water Wings” and a quite brilliant “Crossed Wires”, then the off-kilter strumalong and regimental drumbeat of “The Question Is How Fast” built to a circling climax, oddly bringing to mind some of The Byrds’ more psych-rock wig-outs, albeit with swathes of growling guitar overlay. Set closer “Hyper Enough” was as frantic a headlong tumble as ever (had NME scribe Simon Williams not referred to early Idlewild as “sounding like a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs”, he could just as easily applied that description to the ‘Chunk) before a 5 song encore, featuring a ragged yet anthemic as ever “Slack Motherfucker” and “Precision Auto”, another warp-speed hurtle, capped a splendid – and yes, fun – set which proved that despite personnel changes and advancing years, the Chunk still have it “live”. Great stuff! 

Sadly I missed a list (this being a pic I took earlier), Mac instead handing it to a fellow front-row punter, but I did get to finally meet the man after 30 years of fandom, enjoying a brief chat about Big Dipper (Mac’s Merge Records putting out The Dippah’s “Supercluster” compilation back in 2008) before hitting the road for a difficult and annoying M32-closure affected drive home. Dipper vocalist Bill Goffrier was in the UK but wasn’t able to make it to this gig; shame, that would have been something!

 A hectic weekend didn’t give me much time to relax my aching one-man Chunk moshpit limbs, and a superb family Sunday lunch at Miller and Carter got me back home literally 10 minutes before Tim arrived to pick me up for Dinosaur Jr.! So we caught up during a soggy drive up the Smoke, deciding to drive the whole way in so hitting slow traffic on the A40M but still parking up around the corner from The Garage just before doors. Grabbed a spot near the front, house left, as the place quickly filled up with black-jeaned US alt-rock grunge casualties, dragging out old school Dinosaur Jr. tshirts which largely looked as if they hadn’t seen the light of day in decades! A happy surprise about this evening’s bill was the late announcement of Man On Man as support; the new project of Roddy Bottum, formerly of plangent melodic 90’s rockers Imperial Teen, and his musical and life partner Joey, their excellent “Provincetown” album is one of my favourites of this year, with some dynamic synth propelled Stereolab-like darkwave rhythms underpinning hushed vocals and lyrics which was all about the gay life (hence the band name, I guess!). As if for emphasise this latter point, the two-piece (Roddy gesticulating and arm-waving behind the keyboards, and Joey on guitar) took the stage then shared a lengthy kiss before kicking into the irresistibly groovy opener “Showgirls”, my favourite on the album and a deliciously metronomic Sloan “I Am The Cancer” soundalike. Fears that they’d peaked early were however unfounded as the rest of the set maintained that level; “Piggy” was a sleazy grunge march, “Daddy” an eerie monotone grind(‘r) and closer “I Feel Good” was a New Order-esque synth-laden singalong. Between numbers, Joey and particularly Roddy were buoyant, voluble personalities, Joey asking, “do we have any gey people in tonight? Surely there’s more than that… time to come out tonight!” and Roddy thanking us for coming early to support the support (“do you remember when you turned up for [a great] support band? I saw the English Beat opening for Talking Heads…”) and preparing us for the impending Dinosaur sonic onslaught (“you guys are in the line of fire – shit gonna get loud!”). Great start! 

We stayed in the “line of fire” as the roadies plugged in the wall of 9 huge Marshall amps cloistered around J; then the surprising yet unmistakeable atmospherics of Echo and the Bunnymen’s all-time classic “Over The Wall” heralded the band onstage, J in front of us with his cartoon baseball cap covering his back-length white hair, Murph solid and bald, oddly resembling my father in law (!), and bassist and former Sebadoh man Lou Barlow sporting a huge tousled mane and resembling a 70’s hair band rocker! “We’re going to attempt to play “Where You Been”,” deadpanned J, and the words proved prophetic, as it took 2 attempts to kick into the delirious laze-rock of opener “Out There”; although when it did get going, it and the slow build to huge chorus hook of follow-up “Start Choppin’” both sounded tremendous, overlaid with J’s drowsy vocal slur and intricate yet squalling riffery. The hurtling drone of “On The Way” was also an early highlight, Lou preceding this by announcing, “we’re nervous! [It’s a] big London show!”

 However, while nerves didn’t seem an issue, lack of preparation subsequently did. A few of the “Where You Been” tracks needed a couple of goes to get started, roadies constantly took to the stage to swap huge lyric prompts around in front of J, and at one point proceedings stopped as they didn’t have a keyboard ready for the next number, J drawling, “we’ll have to borrow Roddy’s…” and Lou lamenting, “we’re giving our crew a workout today…”. Also, some numbers seemed rushed and haphazard, J attempting to make up for the shortcomings by piling on layers of hard riffery and noise. A bit of a shame, as “Where You Been” is a fine album, fully justifying Dinosaur’s description of “ear bleeding country”, with a definite Buffalo Springfield/ “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”-era dusty countrified vibe, if you blast past the grungy guitar noise… 

Ironically, things improved after the album run-through, as the band proceeded to invite a number of guests onstage. Amazingly, first was comedian Richard Ayoade (!), looking typically awkward and gauche as he contributed extra guitar on hard-rocking and largely instrumental “The Lung”; then My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe provided extra solidity (if such were needed) for a quite brilliant version of the classic “Freak Scene”; and finally, after a cacophonous and lengthy set closer “Gargoyle”, Primal Scream guitarist Andrew Innes and swaggering Thee Hypnotics vocalist Jim Jones (Jones remarking, “this is a fucking treat, isn’t it?”) joined J and Co for the savage proto psych-punk of the Stooges double “TV Eye” and “No Fun”. At its climax, J mumbled a quick goodbye as the band departed, following an uneven and occasionally unrehearsed, but also occasionally quite breathtaking set of potent and powerful noisy rock. As Roddy had promised, shit got loud, but actually it was never unbearable – quieter than a Bob Mould show, f’rinstance! 

Back to the car after another failed set-list attempt (bah!) and home fairly promptly for 20 to 1 after speed restrictions on the A40M hampered our egress out of town. So, overall 2 definitely worthwhile Anniversaries to celebrate; I think the consistency of Superchunk shaded it for me, but high spots aplenty in both gigs. A fine dynamic 90’s grungy guitar double-header!