J Mascis, gig review: An 'other worldly' performance at the Scala, London

The audience were enthralled by J Mascis's stripped-down set

Dinosaur Jr - J Mascis (Rex Features)

Face framed by a halo of silver hair, voice pitching out the high notes while a bright green eyeball stares at the crowd from the front of his T-shirt; there’s an other-worldly quality to both the man and the music of J Mascis.

Engrossed by a stripped-down set, even J’s fiercest shredding is done with a nonchalance that has people in the crowd uttering small shrieks of delight as he draws it out, wondering how long he can go before his guitar starts smoking.

‘Me Again’ trips along without climaxing at any particular point: instead it unravels gradually from a sundrenched tangle of guitar-picking at the opener, while ‘Every Morning’ misleads with its upbeat hook before dropping wry, down-on-your-luck lyrics.

“Every morning makes it hard on me/then I wake to who I'll never be/Then it hits me it's the life I lead," J sings. Filled with slurs and mumbles, his is a voice that never sounds weary despite its apparent groan.

Just as his latest solo work Tied to a Star moves at its own unhurried pace, J does the same in Scala’s potent gloom. For the encore, he masters The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’, wanders off-stage and leaves it at that.

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