Dinosaur Jr. at Brooklyn Steel on February 11th and 12th

Dinosaur Jr. embarks on a spring tour across America in support of their new album, There Near, arriving in Brooklyn Steel on February 11th and 12th. The opener for the night one is yet to be announced and Starcrawler will be opening on night two. 

Formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984 by high school friends and Deep Wound bandmates J Mascis (vocals, guitar) and Lou Barlow (bass, vocals) and drummer Patrick Murphy aka Murph, Dinosaur Jr. (originally Dinosaur) released their debut album, Dinosaur, in 1985, which debuted the band’s chaotic, yet controlled, sound filled to the brim with quiet-loud dynamics, intense guitar solos, and wall-of-noise distortion, all contributing to its raucous energy from start to finish. In 1987, the band continued to refine their sound as what Mascis then referred to as “ear-bleeding country” on their followup, You’re Living All Over Me, which is now considered to be one of the most influential albums in the development of alternative rock, laying the groundwork for genres like shoegaze, noise rock, grunge, and more. Dinosaur Jr. then broke out overseas with 1988’s Bug, which spent 38 weeks at No. 1 on the UK Independent Albums chart and included the Top 5 single “Freak Scene.” 

Due to a band full of big personalities and creative differences, Barlow left the group ahead of their major label debut in 1991, Green Mind, on Sire Records, with whom the band released their following four albums. With Murph’s role in the band declining exponentially as Mascis took more creative control over their music, the band’s original lineup fell apart after 1993’s Where You Been, around the same time as the band was starting to gain more traction in the U.S. with songs like “Start Choppin” during the rise of grunge. Despite finding even more success with 1994’s Without A Sound’s, whose opening track “Feel the Pain” became their highest charting single in America at No. 4 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, Mascis retired the Dinosaur Jr. name after their following album in 1997. 

The original lineup thankfully reunited in 2005 with a performance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and a subsequent tour, before releasing their first album as a trio in 16 years, Beyond. Signing with legendary independent label Jagjaguwar, Dinosaur Jr. toned down the bludgeoning attack of their earlier releases on 2012’s I Bet On Sky, which added more tonal colors including piano, gentler guitar jangle, quasi-funk bass, and more prominent vocals, without sacrificing the explosive energy and massive guitar solos that have come to define their iconic sound. Continuing to release albums throughout the 2010s and 2020s, they released their most recent record, There Near, last week, on which the band returned to their messier sonic roots. Recorded on the same vintage amplifier as their chaotic debut, There Near is the biggest and loudest Dinosaur Jr. has sounded in years with its driving, fuzzed out sound and almost every track featuring a screeching solo as Mascis ventures higher up his guitar’s neck to convey intense emotion. “No Friends” ascends ever upward over its four-minute run time, nearly hiding the existential anxiety buried in the lyrics, “Take Me With You” sees keyboard contributions from Ken Mauri paired with its fast-paced punch, and Barlow takes over vocal duties on tripped-out “Blowing Up” and groovy closer “No One’s Ready,” demonstrating the band’s propensity for creating incredibly tight, yet nearly off-the-rails music. Idolized for their raw emotion and primal, instinct-driven playing, Dinosaur Jr. brings all the mayhem of their studio recordings to their live shows with their massive wall of amps, pummeling drums, wailing vocals, face-melting solos, dense low-end, and no-frills, music-first stage presence. 

Don’t miss one of the most influential rock bands of the last forty years play hits from There Near and much more at Brooklyn Steel on February 11th and 12th!

How To Get Dinosaur Jr. at Brooklyn Steel Tickets

Tickets are available here for February 11th and here for February 12th

Location: Brooklyn Steel

Address: 319 Frost Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Show Time:  8 p.m.

Doors Open: 7 p.m. 

Ticket Price: $54-$124

Ages: 16+