Dinosaur Jr. - Live at the Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI (9-15-87) 1 2I discovered Dinosaur Jr. before they belittled themselves with the name change. I bought a cassette copy of the first album at either Rose or Paradise Records after reading a review in either Forced Exposure or Option or something else. Time is really starting to mess with my memory. Either this or that or the other thing...it's all a blur.
What I can remember clearly is the first time I listened to it. I went to my friend Dan's house, which was lakeside (Lake Mendota - Madison has four of these watery holes and Mendota is my personal favorite) to hang out but all were gone. The place was deserted; a rarity.
Being a hot summer day and me not working (I had every Friday off for years, a truly sweet day of the week not to work especially if you also have Saturday off and don't have to work until noon on Sunday) I grabbed an innertube and threw myself in the lake for a long lounge, popping my new music into a small boombox I used to carry around in my car back then.
Out on the body-temp warm waters of Lake Mendota I lazed and paddled and slowly burned myself raw, only coming back in to dry land to flip the cassette again and again and again. Everytime I hear those opening notes from "Forget the Swan" I can feel that almost hot lake water on my back and the way the sound gently waffled as I drifted in and out of hearing range. It was a perfect day.
I tried to tell all this in about thirty seconds to J. Mascis a few years ago, when he was touring with Cobra Verde and I caught them playing over at the UW-Memorial Union Terrace, right on the shore of that same lake. I don't think he understood me and I probably sounded like a crazy fool. That's okay. I thought all night that echoes of that day might still be bouncing around the shore and influencing his guitar but it was probably just mosquitos.
Enjoy! Buy shit!
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