Dinosaur Jr - The Black Session - Live In Paris 1993 

For anyone unfamiliar, Black Sessions are live music performances recorded in front of an audience and broadcast on the C’est Lenoir show on the French radio station France Inter.  Initially recorded on March 2, 1993, this session from Dinosaur Jr has been remastered from the original tapes and released on coloured vinyl.  The session took place a little less than a month after the album Where You Been was released and featured original members, singer and guitarist J Mascis and drummer Murph, along with new bassist Mike Johnson.  While they only performed nine songs, they did a great job of covering all their releases to that point and also dug a little deeper at times instead of just sticking to their more popular songs.  The set opened with “Quest”, which starts like a slow dirge and has a noisy Neil Young vibe with a little Sonic Youth thrown in.  Their cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” is next and is an absolute kller track.  They give the song a great, ragged punk kick, while still maintaining all the hooks of the original.  After a long instrumental opening “Lung” kicks in with a manic pace and has a tenseness to it that almost takes your breath away, perfectly matching the lyrics.  “Freak Scene”, the super infectious single from Bug is up next and again Mascis lets loose with his guitar solo.  Side one closes out with the more melancholy “Get Me”.  The guitar on this track is a little mellower, but still plenty noisy, and really allows him to stretch out a little.  Sticking with the most recent album for another track, side B opens with the slow, somewhat pummeling sounds of “Drawerings” and another great solo from Mascis (hard to not sound redundant talking about his guitar solos when he kills it song after song). “Keep The Glove”, a bonus track from the album Bug, is actually a little more on the pop side of things and is about as bouncy and catchy as they come, but Mascis still absolutely lets loose at the end.  With Murph’s straight-ahead pounding leading the way, “Budge” is punk done the Dinosaur Jr way.  Closing out the nine-song set is “Thumb”, a gorgeous seven plus minute track that comes across like a ragged version of shoegaze with an extended guitar solo that is incredible.  The remastering on the album is outstanding and it’s easy to see why this has been a fan favorite for over thirty years.  (As the owner of a miniature horse I also have to give them bonus points for that great album cover).  

(Cherry Red Records)