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DINOSAUR JR
+ Stepmother
@ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide,
26th February 2024
(Live Review)

Review by Colin Reid

Photos by Elise De Simoni (@elisedphoto)

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Dinosaur Jr @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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Dinosaur Jr are on tour celebrating more than 30 years of their classic 1993 album “Where You Been” and AMNplify was lucky enough to be at The Hindley Street Music Hall to witness a truly wonderful gig.

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Stepmother @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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Opening up proceedings were Melbourne 3-piece Stepmother.  They made a loud and raucous sound as they played an infectiously catchy bunch of songs mostly from their “Planet Brutalicon” album. They went down a treat with the audience and received generous applause.  They played a set of well-constructed songs with catchy riffs and easy to pick up and sing along lyrics. “Waiting for the Axe”, “Settle Down” and “One Way Out” all sounded great.  At one point there seemed to be something wrong with the drum kit, possibly a kick peddle had come loose which needed some on the fly repairs and prompted the singer to joke that we had been treated to the free form jazz version of that particular song whilst he played a lot of fill in until repairs were completed!

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Dinosaur Jr @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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Good as the support were the crowd of mostly black t-shirt wearing punters couldn’t wait for the main event.  Jay’s set up includes so many guitar-peddles it was a sight to behold as the roadies set it up. The band enter the stage to loud applause.  Jay is wearing a t-shirt from early 1980s British punk band Discharge. What is it with touring musos and that wave of British punk? Last month Paul Di’Anno was sporting an Exploited t-shirt at his Adelaide gig.  Back in the day I had a discharge shirt, it said “Noise not Music” which summed up discharge nicely. I think if Jay was to have one made up it should say “Noise and Music” to reflect the sonic wall of sound that he produces from all those peddles and the beautiful melodies he writes.

The band launches into “Out There” from the “Where You Been” album.  What an opening. It seems to go forever and sets the crowd alight.  What an opening track, it has everything! If all we got to know about Dinosaur Jr was that one track it would be enough but instead it is just a taster, a promise of what is to come.

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Dinosaur Jr @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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It is a contrast of styles between Jay and bass player Lou.  Jay barely moves, he just keeps station around his guitar peddle board.  His only breaks are to receive a new guitar or sometimes to change the tuning between tracks. Lou on the other hand is a whirlwind prowling the stage wearing non matching stripy socks and no shoes, a mass of curly dark hair down over his face and alternating between plucking notes over the pickups or slamming chords high up on the neck of his bass.  The band are a tight knit machine, on one hand so laid back and yet so powerful.

By track two “Start Choppin” large sections of the crowd are swaying, singing and smiling. What a night this has become. The crowd is a good mix of ages ranging from older blokes getting close to the 60 mark with hair as silver as Jay to young blokes with facial piercings and girls with bleached feather cuts reminiscent of Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers and everything in-between.  It reflects the influence that Dinosaur Jr has.

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Dinosaur Jr @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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The set list is mostly from the album they came here to celebrate but there is also a good mix of tracks for other records to help breaks things up.  This includes a track off their latest release which sees an instrument swap between Jay and Lou whereby Jay plays bass and Lou takes lead vocals and guitar ‘check it out’ calls out ‘Jay’s on bass!’.  It is a nice touch.

The regular set closes out with the huge trio of songs “Little Furry Things”, “Feel the Pail” & “Gargoyle”.  A brilliant ending and it isn’t long before they are back to smash us even further with a blistering encore. “Freak Scene” is awesome before they close out with their cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”. It is a rawer, harder version than on record and suits the live environment perfectly.

A great gig, a proper gig of loud, guitar driven music that leaves a near full house on a Monday night very happy indeed.

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Dinosaur Jr @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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Check out Elise De Simoni’s (@elisedphoto) full gallery of this event HERE

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Follow DINOSAUR JR.
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Spotify

Follow STEPMOTHER
Bandcamp – Instagram – Youtube –Bandcamp

Follow OFFICE DOG
Youtube – Instagram – Facebook – Spotify

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Dinosaur Jr @ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide / Elise De Simoni Photography

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Press Release 25th January 2024 (below) HERE

DINOSAUR JR. (US)
add second headline Melbourne Show to
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND TOUR
due to overwhelming demand

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AMNPLIFY – DB