J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. by Lauren Hernandez
Outside of the Paper Tiger, on the greasy ground in front a food truck, lies a humanoid creature. They are rubbing their belly, shaking their ass, and writhing around on the concrete. A guy on his homemade bicycle with four tangled dogs just stares.
The venue is packed. Wall to wall, all who could afford the steep ticket prices attended. It is already well worth it. J Mascis is beautiful. Every word he sings and note he plays is heaven-sent. The stage is an ocean and J is the big white cloud.
But J is reading lyrics taped to cardboard. Murph keeps dropping his sticks. I didn’t even want to be here.
“But when I told you Dinosaur Jr. was coming you freaked out,” said Hallah.
“Well, yeah,” I replied in my head. But I’m tired. Burnt-out. Anxious. It’s raining. My camera’s dead. My flash is dead. My dad can’t come. I don’t tell my partner any of that, though.
I just jump off the picnic table in the courtyard, right into the crowd. I slither through, slowly inching my way left, trying to capture one member at a time.
And it is astounding. Better than I ever could’ve imagined. The guitar guts me continuously, leaving me all over the beer-soaked, concrete floor.
Everyone is living all over me.
Dinosaur Jr. sounds like space. Snails. Camouflage. The voids between stars that are really just more stars we can’t see.
I’m texting my mom amongst the sweaty crowd, my camera resting against the back of the girl in front of me.
“How was bingo?”
“Didn’t win a thing.”
She could never understand what we in the crowd understand. That it’s rare to find such talent. The music is so heavy it’s suffocating. The guy next to me smells like literal pig shit. People from my past keep popping up in the pit to say “hi!”. The backdrop is an entire wall of amps. It’s magnificent.
I push my way back to Hallah.
“What is that?! Guitar?!” She shouts into my ear.
“ALIENS,” I reply as I push back in for Start Choppin’ and Just Like Heaven.
My dad calls me on my way home.
“What you been up to?”
“Well, today I hung out with some friends and skated at the park. I brought Hallah a coffee and lunch. I went to Doug’s birthday with mom and Kendall and then saw Dinosaur Jr. Hallah and I are just now heading back to hers for the night.”
“Wow, I’m jealous. You’re really living the Skyrizi life.”
Haha. I guess I am :)
