Basking In The Glow Of J. Mascis' Tube Amps

I’m still in somewhat of a Fender guitar afterglow from last week’s Dinosaur Jr. show and that’s translated into a full-fledge barrage of Dino Jr. tunage barking from my car stereo and other music transmitters. Often, my wife is the recipient of my endless blabber, to which she politely responds with an “Uh huh” or “Oh, I see.” The conversation usually starts with me playing a Dinosaur Jr. song, and then going “They played this one” or “They opened the show with this” and then it’s immediately followed with one of the aforementioned standard responses.
So I’ve come up with a list of a few songs that I was hoping would make their setlist but didn’t make the cut.
“The Lung”
The side one closer from You’re Living All Over Me and one of my favorite Dino Jr. tunes ever. The song’s sole lyric (“No way to collapse the lung/That breathes the doubt in everyone”) verges on brilliance in its simplicity.
“Tarpit”
Another favorite from Living. For the longest time, I always thought this song was about a chick leaving her man because he took too long in scoring dope. I know it has nothing to do with that now, but J. still sounds like he’s totally junked out while his guitar sounds totally rad.
“Mountain Man”
A favorite from the debut. I guess they played this slice o’ metal on a few dates, but Iowa City just wasn’t one of the lucky ones.
“Severed Lips”
Another gem from the debut. Mascis sounds heartbroken during the “I ain’t gonna fester no more” line and, if memory serves, Blake Babies did a pretty sweet version of this on one of their releases.
“No Bones”
Jesus, I love the distortion-overkill at the end of this Bug classic, and would have loved to hear this amp-killer live.
“Keep The Glove”
I’m not sure what this one is on, but I vaguely remember it was part of the Mascis/Barlow/Murph time period. Good tune.
“Thumb”
After the original line-up releases, but they did “The Wagon,” another great tune from Green Mind, so sue me for dreaming.
More than anything else, I wish I wouldn’t have left all my 7” singles in the attic of my parent’s house because, in that collection is an original Dinosaur (before they added the “Jr.” for legal reasons) single of “Repulsion.” I would have loved to have all the members sign if I’d planned ahead a little bit better than I did.
Oh well…

A complete account of the show is on Glorious Noise.