How do you make an epic skate trip even more epic? You start it off by seeing your favorite band put on perhaps the best show you’ve ever seen them play! Everyone here knows I’m as big of a Dinosaur Jr fan as they come and when I found out that Dinosaur Jr would be playing in Boston the first night of my skate trip my excitement went through the roof. The first two days of Boston were rain, but it didn’t even matter, we saw Dinosaur Jr!

And did I tell you that Carleigh was in Boston for a day too! Awesome. Carleigh, Joe, Pat.

Carleigh took this photo of Joe, Pat, me and Charlie. And no, I wasn’t double fisting it.

Epic Bug shirt purchased.

OFF! opened and they killed it. OG Black Flag steez.

Did I mention I’m friends with the guitarist for OFF!? Dimitri rules.

The second part of the show was Henry Rollins interviewing Dinosaur Jr. We had made a joke that you would have to drink everytime J Mascis responded with a blunt one word answer. Not the case, he and the rest of the band were on point. I’m pretty sure there are multiple times where I freaked out and was like “This is the best thing ever!”

Someone recorded and posted the interview. Without a doubt between OFF! and the interview this was the best opening for a Dinosaur Jr show ever. Top it off with good friends, a good crowd, good beers, a good venue, a great setlist (Bug) and you get ..

Quite possibly my favorite concert ever. Words cant really describe how insanely awesome I thought this show was. They played In A Jar and The Wagon before starting Bug. Bug didn’t use to be my favorite, but I’ve always thought the 1-2-3 punch of They Always Come, Yeah We Know and Let It Ride was the best three song combo on any Dinosaur Jr album. It didn’t disappoint.

Instead of Lou screaming WHY DON’T YOU LIKE ME? over and over during Don’t two dudes got on stage and screamed their lungs out. It was amazing. Carleigh took this awesome photo. They played Don’t for almost 15 minutes of pure destruction. After a short break came an encore. Lou announced, “Wouldn’t it be awesome is we played a shit load of Black Flag songs?” Then they went on to play Out There and The Lung. Ha ha J Mascis is one hilarious dude. Indeed one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I haven’t stopped listening to Bug since.

After missing Bright Eyes due to uncontrollable circumstances a week before we decided to spend the $$ and see one of our favorites, Titus Andronicus. After a few poses in the alley this was the best I could come up with. Then we went to dinner.

Liz and I were cheapskates for dinner and shared a meal. We did got all out and get Pabst though.

The first “performer” was Julianna Barwick. She played the worst shit I have ever heard in my life. Literally, the worst “music” humanly possible. It was just her voice, dubbed over and over without words. Just ambient nothing horribleness. Whoever setup the show to have her open for a punk rock band is a moron.

So we wandered around and got a photo op with Mr Titus Andronicus himself, Patrick Stickles! He’s a really nice dude and a nerd! So we love him! We told him he better play loud after that Julianna crap. He said he’d try. Ha.

Titus Andronicus came on and did not disappoint. They played only songs form their latest album The Monitor. It was great.

The crowd up front was a weird one. Punk rock looking dudes with their ears plugged. Pretentious 20 year old hipsters that were annoyed with Titus fans yelling some of the words. It was easily the weirdest billing I’ve witnessed. Titus ruled it though.

The headliner was Okervil River. They were mediocre hipster rock. We left across the street for a drink and then fanned out with the Titus dudes some more. Fun night.