Watch Dinosaur Jr air two new songs at socially distanced show
The band have completed a new album during the coronavirus lockdown
by Rhian DalyDinosaur Jr aired two new songs as they played two socially distanced shows this weekend.
The band performed at South Farms in Morris, Connecticut on Friday (September 11) before heading to Cheshire County Fairgrounds in Swanzey, New Hampshire last night (12).
- Read more: “Each car felt like a small venue”: how it feels to play a socially distanced drive-in gig
At both shows, they played the new tracks – titled ‘Garden’ and ‘Long Time’ – early on in their sets. The songs will both feature on the band’s upcoming new album, which was completed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We finished an album somehow during Covid times,” J Mascis said before ‘Long Time’ at the Swanzey show, where fans were watching from their cars. “I guess it won’t come out for a little while, but we’re gonna play a couple songs.”
“This seems weirdly normal to me somehow,” Lou Barlow added of the nature of the show before ‘Garden’. “This seems like this should have happened a long time ago.”
The gigs were the band’s first since November 2019. Watch footage of Dinosaur Jr performing the new songs above, via Stereogum.
The group last released an album in 2016’s ‘Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not’. In a three-star review, NME said: “‘Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not’ is Dinosaur Jr’s fourth reunion album, 11th in all, and finds the band returning to its amp-buzzing basics, following the mix of piano and keyboard on 2012 predecessor ‘I Bet On Sky’.
“Rich organ chords add colour to the gentle choruses of ‘Be A Part’ but a crackling power trio sound dominates, with Barlow’s melodic, thick basslines holding their own against Mascis’s blistering guitar.”