DINOSAUR Jr are often named as one of the most influential bands in American rock history and Birkenhead music venue Future Yard are presenting the perfect opportunity to find out why this weekend.
In partnership with Doc n ‘Roll, a female-led film agency that platforms and champions marginal voices in the music industry, the venue is showing a special screening of ‘FREAKSCENE: The story of Dinosaur Jr’ followed by a Q&A with the band’s frontman J Mascis and a post-event DJ session.
The film is an homage to the band who formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984 and went on to become one of the formative influences on American alternative rock, inspiring Nirvana and Sonic Youth and spearheading the ‘Grunge’ movement which was at its peak in the early ‘90s.
The documentary movingly tells the story of the eloquent and eccentric guitarist and bandleader Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph, as they graduate from cult underground heroes to arena-filling success both in the US and the UK where the likes of debut single Freak Scene and their cover of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven become indie disco staples for a whole generation.
Creative tension in the band led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, with his replacement Mike Johnson joining as Dinosaur Jr’s success peaked in the early ‘90s with hit albums like Green Mind and Where You Been and the single Start Choppin’, which reached the UK top 20 in 1993.
Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band’s albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original line-up reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter and the film charts the often painful rebuilding of the trio’s dysfunctional relationships.
The movie captures the band’s first-hand accounts of their rollercoaster 37-year career, with the film also featuring archival live footage as well as new interviews with some of their peers and famous fans including Kim Gordon, Henry Rollins, Bob Mould and Thurston Moore.
The film is showing at Future Yard, Argyle Street, Birkenhead from 6pm on Saturday, January 22.
n Tickets available from futureyard.org
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