W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Dinosaur Jr., Snail Mail & Easy Action Live at The Lena Horne Bandshell (2025-07-17)

I’ll be the first to admit that when I heard that J. Mascis, Lou Barlow and Patrick (Murph) Murphy were taking Dinosaur Jr. out on the road for a summer tour I was thrilled.  Then when I heard that they were going to be doing the tour with Lindsey Jordan and Snail Mail, my first thought was “what a strange pairing”.  To make the pairing even stranger was the addition of third band, Detroit’s proto hardcore act, Easy Action.  Now I know that the touring landscape in this age sometimes requires booking agents to pair up groups with differing fan bases to garner a large cross section of interest but still, this trio of bands at first sight seemed a bit strange.  

The tour itself kicked off a couple of days ago at my favorite brewery, Tree House Brewing over in Mascis’s home region of western Massachusetts. Like that show, Dinosaur Jr. took the stage at The Lena Horne Bandshell with very little fan fare and after a quick “HELLO” from J. jumped right into a song which the band debuted 40 years ago at Boston’s fabled Rat, “Severed Lips” off of their debut LP, Dinosaur.  Interestingly enough, the band would end up playing a set heavily weighted towards the first two albums, Dinosaur & You’re Living All Over Me, with 6 of the 14 original numbers played coming from these two discs.

Despite J’s patented wall of Marshall amps laid out behind him, I was actually surprised (rather pleasantly I might add) that the expected ear splitting volume that is traditionally part of any Dino Jr. show was somewhat subdued on Thursday night.  That’s not to say that the set was devoid of loud screeching guitar, and pounding bass & drums, au contrair.  As a matter of fact, after the slow burning opener, Mascis et al kicked right into another oldie but goodie,  “In A Jar” from the sophomore LP, You’re Living All Over Me and believe you me, any concerns that J. was going to go all soft on us were immediately dispelled as he, Barlow and Murph tore through the song with a cacophonous onslaught that we have come to know and love from the three shamen of melodious noise.  The third song of the set was a newer song, relatively speaking,, from 2021’s Sweep Into Space, “Garden” to which

Lou Barlow offered up an almost Eddie Vedder kind of vocal performance before handing off the reins to Mascis for an extended guitar driven diatribe.  And speaking of Barlow, It would be derelict of me if I didn’t at the very least mention what a pair of beasts he and Murph are in their providing the rhythm and, might I add, backbone for Dino Jr.’s gut wrenching sound.  Murph, behind the skins, is an absolute monster, with his omnipresent pounding of the drums in perfect time. 

And Lou?  Well at one point I had wandered into a specific spot where Barlow’s bass came across more prominent in the mix and I was able to focus on it specifically and it was an absolute marvel to hear the runs and melodious riffs he pulled out of his four stringed bass guitar.  And even more amazing is the fact that he does all of this while careening around the stage like a well tuned dirvish.

And so the evening went, slower more melodious lyric driven songs intermingled with chest pounding guitar mania.  The fact that the volume was dialed from their normal 11 setting down to a more manageable setting, probably around 9, ha ha, didn’t preclude the driving, feedback and special effects onslaught of sound coming from these three men.  

All in all, what a great set from the boys!  Was it the best I’ve ever seen from them, probably not, but I certainly left the show quite happy, and very sated as far as my periodic dose of Dinosaur Jr. goes.  The evening would conclude with the band doing two covers, after J. announced to the overflow crowd that they had to end things soon due to curfew regulations (Prospect Park has a 10 PM curfew).  Murph would then start the kick drum intro to “Just Like Heaven” with J. soon following with his scorching feedback laced guitar intro.  I’m not going to say that Dino Jr’s version of JLH is better than The Cure’s but I do have to say that Mascis, Barlow and Murph definitely have commandeered the song into being a great Dino tune…especially with the demonic screaming of the chorus and abrupt mid chorus ending.  Following this one, the band brought out John Brannon from Easy Action for a screeching rendition of The Stooges’s “TV Eye”.

Speaking of Easy Action, as I said earlier, they opened things up and while their brand of hardcore punk isn’t necessarily a style of music which I gravitate towards, their set was certainly alive and kicking.  Brannon is without a doubt a tour de force on stage with his venomous scowl and shamonic like scream.  Furthermore, Harold Richardson on (very noisy) guitar, Ron Sokowski on his driving bass and Jon LeMay on the ever percussive drums provided an onslaught of fist pumping heart palpitating punk rock.

Of course, following Easy Action on stage was none other than Snail Mail, the nom du plum of Maryland native Lindsey Jordan. Lindsey has experienced quite a bit of “life” within the relatively few years she’s spent on this troubled earth.  At the age of 16 she released her first album, an EP called Habit which was lauded with quite a bit of critical acclaim.  After extensive touring throughout both the States as well as worldwide (in addition to finishing high school), Snail Mail released their first full length LP, Lush on Matador Records.  In 2021, a second LP was released and suffice it to say, Valentine has cemented Lindsey and Snail Mail right smack in the middle of the female fronted indie rock pantheon.

Snail Mail opened their set up with “Headlock” off of the Valentine album, followed by another Valentine song, the dream-like “Glory”.  After Easy Actions’ onslaught of noise, the mellower and more introspective songs of Snail Mail took some adjustment from the non Snail Mail fans in the crowd but things certainly changed dramatically when the band kicked into “Pristine” off of the Lush album.  It was this song that truly got the Snail Mail party going.  The true fans of the band in the crowd took over as they shouted every single word as Lindsey sang from the stage.  Furthermore there was for the first time, noticeable movement within the crowded pit as the crowd began to jump up and down to the grooves of “Pristine”.

About mid set, the band tackled “Two Legs”, a song originally written and recorded by indie artist This Is Lorelei which was recently released as a collaborative single along with Snail Mail.  Following this we were treated to a rather rocking version of “Thinning” from the Habit EP which really got the crowd going.  It was around now that Lindsey said that they were going to try out a couple of new ones as the band ripped through two, as yet un-released tunes, “Dead End” and “Nowhere” which both exhibited signs that Jordan’s songwriting has indeed matured both in subject matter as well as style.  

The set would conclude with the quite appropriate tune, “Heatwave” considering the stifling temperature and humidity throughout the show, something which even the setting of the sun didn’t appear to be abating.  Nonetheless, “Heatwave” proved to be a nice way to end things for Snail Mail, it’s a quiet rocker with very singable lyrics and a profusion of hooks which had the crowd jumping up and down for joy.

All in all, Thursday, July 17th in Prospect Park proved to be a really fun evening of music.  As I said earlier in the piece, the pairing of Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail with Easy Action added as a cherry on top is a combination that is odd.  To a large extent I do think it worked.  With Easy Action’s screamo hardcore, the crowd was certainly shoved right into the fire.  Snail Mail’s introspective heartfelt set then provided a sprinkling of refreshingly cool water to ease us through the evening.  And then Dinosaur Jr. came on and turned things back up to a scorching hot temperature.  So in this respect, the night proved to be a wonderful trip of ups, downs, over and abouts.  But that being said, if the purpose of this tour was the possible winning over of the other bands’s fans into the other’s camp, I’m not sure if the gray haired Gen X’ers who were there to have their ears pierced by Dinosaur Jr. are going to be rushing out to buy Snail Mail’s next release.  And visa versa, the Gen Z, largely LGBTQ+ crowd who adore Smail Mail’s earnest, gut wrenching songs are probably not going to start collecting stacks of Marshall cabinets for their next bedroom recording. But truth be told, I for one left Prospect Park last night totally satisfied and happy.

Dinosaur Jr.

Snail Mail

Easy Action