Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho kicked off Wednesday and I had the pleasure of taking in Dinosaur, Jr. The band entertained the crowd with humor as well as their rockin’ riffs. Their sound felt like KISS and the Suicidal Tendencies got into a back-ally brawl and those who survived intrepidly dragged their battered remains on stage. They weren’t as glamorous as KISS or as rough as Suicidal Tendencies, but the influence from both bands seemed to cast musical shadows across the Julia Davis expanse. Their sound bounced back and forth between fun and frivolous to raucous and mischievous.
The crowd was an eclectic mix of youth and AARP subscribers. The younger members of the crowd formed a semi-mosh pit in front of the stage where they banged their heads to the aggressive rhythms, but there was little slam dancing. There was a short-lived attempt at crowd surfing that ended with a likely dent in the ground and a black and blue souvenir for the adventurous participant.
After four decades of playing together, it feels like the band could lose the Jr, but that might reduce their identity and make them harder to find. They ended their session with a hard version of the Cure’s Just Like Heaven which left the crowd wanting more…which they provided. Even they were confused as to whether this was an encore or if they had just mismanaged their playlist, but they belted out another jam for the music-thirsty crowd.
All-in-all, this is a band of pros who know what they are doing and did it. And the crowd swayed and bounced in approval.
By Jerry Mooney
Co-founder