Dinosaur Jr. @ the 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA

This review is a month over-due, but this show was possibly even better than Caribou and the Black Angels, so it deserves a brief review.

Dinosaur Jr. sucked balls in Asheville, as they played ALL new shit and only one song from my favorite, You're Living All Over Me. The show at the 40 Watt Club, however, was absolutely divine! They opened with a killer "Bulbs of Passion," followed by the first track on their new album, Beyond, "Almost Ready." Man, it was LOUD as shit in the 40 Watt that night, almost as loud as they were in 2005 and 2006 at the Cat's Cradle! They played "The Lung," followed by "Little Fury Things," which made the 6-hour round trip worth every minute and gas mile. Late in the set, they played highlights such as the new "Pick Me Up," and a gut-wrenching version of "Feel the Pain," which is now in my top 5 favorite Dinosaur songs thanks to the live version. An extended 9-minute version of "Gargoyle" brought the house down at the end of the main set. The encore was a blistering version of "Kracked" which segue-wayed seemlessly into "Sludgefeast," which I was yelling for during the encore break.

All in all, this was my favorite Dinosaur set out of the four that I've seen. It was loud as shit, but still listenable, and the setlist was as good as it could be in 2007. J. Mascis may be thee single best guitarist I've ever seen live! To cap it all off, I downloaded an amazingly well-produced recording of this show and it is priceless. Go Dinosaur!