{"id":3223,"date":"2024-10-08T23:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T04:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=3223"},"modified":"2024-11-02T11:55:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T16:55:47","slug":"i-went-with-some-friends-to-see-dinosaur-jr-the-flaming-lips-weezer-jon-lindsay-benji-hughes-and-soul-coughing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/i-went-with-some-friends-to-see-dinosaur-jr-the-flaming-lips-weezer-jon-lindsay-benji-hughes-and-soul-coughing\/","title":{"rendered":"I Went With Some Friends to See Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, Weezer, Jon Lindsay, Benji Hughes, and Soul Coughing…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

…and it might’ve been the greatest music weekend I’ve ever had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling a little underwhelmed by the 2024 ACL Fest lineup (no offense — I still went Friday), I accidentally built my own 3-city fester the weekend before when the stars magically aligned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Dinosaur<\/figure>
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How’d it come to be? Bought tickets to the epic Friday night Weezer Journey to the Blue Planet<\/em> gig when they went on sale months ago. Also had tix to James & Johnny Marr at Stubb’s on Sunday, but made the half difficult\/half no brainer call to skip it in favor of seeing the Soul Coughing reunion in Boston with my high school friends. Literally hours after I booked my flight, a rare Benji Hughes gig was announced on the day in between. Already headed in an easterly direction, on a whim I looked at adding a stop in Wilmington, NC and was pleasantly shocked to see it dropped the price of the plane ticket by ~$150. Clearly a sign to go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The craziest thing is how all of these artists have a deep connection to both my music fandom and my writing. Let’s take a whirlwind trip down memory lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinosaur Jr.<\/strong>
“Start Choppin<\/a>” is the defining song of the 90s for me. I know it’s implausible to just pick one track to represent an entire decade, but forced to do so it’s always been my pick. Melodic and discordant, soft and loud, singable and shreddable. It appears as one of the stolen future songs on Local Boy’s setlist in Timely Persuasion<\/em>, and resurfaces in Local Boy Done Gone <\/em>with two live performances as a folky girl\/boy duet (something I’ve literally dreamed about<\/a> hearing on and off for years) plus a chapter title nod. In early Done Gone <\/em>drafts J. Mascis was a listed member of the 27 Club, but I ended up replacing him with a musician we’ll get to in a bit. Loved hearing Choppin’ live for the first time, and was impressed J. can still hit the high notes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dinosaur Jr, plus a mysterious shadow in profile…<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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1971<\/em> excerpt from LBDG<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Flaming Lips<\/strong>
I first saw The Flaming Lips live on the 1993 Bar-B-Q Mitzvah tour<\/em> with Stone Temple Pilots and Butthole Surfers. (Epic show at a weird venue; perhaps a story for another day.1<\/a><\/sup>) They also have a song on the soundtrack of my second-favorite movie, 1994’s Love & a .45<\/a>.<\/em> The 10 year \/ 4 album run from Zaireeka <\/em>to At War With The Mystics<\/em> was a wonder to behold both on the recordings and live–and also includes a stint as Beck’s opening \/ backing band I sorely regret not attending. Over in JLC land, the Lips get a whole chapter<\/a> in L Extreme<\/em>. Unlike the Benji Hughes song set at a real gig<\/a>, the book version revolves around a DVD of documentary The Fearless Freaks<\/a><\/em>. In hindsight, it also highlights a specific scene where Wayne Coyne mows his lawn in the fall which is something Local Boy also does in both Timely Persuasion<\/em> & Local Boy Done Gone<\/em>. TP was written before I knew this lawn mowing movie scene existed; LBDG was later but I didn’t make the connection until now. This gig was the same spectacle as always, similar to the headlining Yoshimi set<\/a> I saw a few months back but slimmed down as an opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Weezer<\/strong>
Including this show, I’ve now (basically) seen Weezer perform The Blue Album<\/em> in full three times. Other two were on the Memories tour in 2010<\/a>, and way back in 1994<\/a> with Lush & Live where they basically played Blue<\/em> in order but moved Undone & Surf Wax to the end.2<\/a><\/sup> It’s one of my favorite records of all time, and the official soundtrack for late night driving. (“I can stay awake for another hour if we crank Blue<\/em> and sing along…”) “Only In Dreams” became a key allusion in the climax of Timely Persuasion<\/em>. An abandoned attempt to write a short story based on “My Name is Jonas” may have indirectly spurred me<\/a> to try the same with “The Mummy,” spawning L Extreme. <\/em>“Keep Fishin'” shows up as a chapter title (and stolen song from the future) in Local Boy Done Gone. <\/em>And can you take a guess at who took J. Mascis’s slot on the time traveler’s 27 Club List?<\/em>3<\/a><\/sup> I enjoyed the concert theme of “NASA sends Weezer to find a new blue planet” and the opening best of set, including an especially dope version of “Dope Nose.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Members<\/figure>
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Jon Lindsay<\/strong>
Mainly an artist I was always aware of from his Benji Hughes connection, I recall listening to his Escape from Plaza-Midwood<\/a> <\/em>record shortly after I discovered Benji and thinking it had a bit of a Minus 5 vibe. (I also always remembered the album title for some reason.) At the gig he covered “Wolves” by American Aquarium<\/a>, whose singer BJ Barham was briefly on the redhead’s 27 Club list in an older draft of Done Gone<\/em>. Jon Lindsay also might be the only Benji Hughes collaborator to not get a cameo in L Extreme<\/em>4<\/a><\/sup> — but the omission was unintentional. Originally he was there, but a beta reader commented it wasn’t realistic to have both a Jon & a Jonathan in a list of friends and I took the advice. (There’s plenty of other stuff requiring suspension of disbelief in LX, so it’s sort of funny this was a compromise I made…). No offense intended, other JL! Officially “Jonathan” is both you & Jonathan Wilson rolled into one composite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Benji Hughes<\/strong>
What’s left to be said about my favorite musician who pops up frequently on this blog<\/a> and inspired me to write a song by song novelization<\/a> of his debut double album? Only that his live show is still as magical as ever. The duo format suits the songs well, and there were a fair number of deep cuts (“Kenny,” “Country Love,” “Don’t Outlaw Plants”) alongside almost half of A Love Extreme<\/em>. Seeing LX on the merch table amongst t-shirts and albums was surreal, as was hearing someone mention they thought Jon Lindsay wrote the book due to the “JL” initials. This was the eighth time I’ve seen Benji live (not counting pandemic era livestreams<\/a>), but first since the book was released. Can’t hardly wait for the next one, whenever or wherever it might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Benji<\/a>
More Benji Hughes setlists<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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A post shared by JL Civi (@jlcivi)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>