Playing for a livestream is like pushing a rock up a hill trying to recreate the vibe of a real show. The isolation of the last year had made me nervous about performing again, especially in the context of Dinosaur Jr. where I typically rely on the energy of our crowd. Playing to an invisible audience and a realtime sparsely populated room of people doing their jobs (running lights, sound, and staring at screens) was something different and, again, weird.
Despite all my lockdown doubts once we started playing things clicked. My mind didn’t highjack me and it quickly began to feel like a real show. Having a few decent gigs on the Sinclair stage before, it began to feel familiar and, for lack of a better word, friendly. It will be much more of a relief to get back on tour but, this Sinclair show was a good band-aid, so to speak.
https://pitchfork.com/news/listen-to-dinosaur-jr-new-live-album-emptiness-at-the-sinclair
