Continuing where Grandy left off, as I attended the show as well:

I’m not sure how often former guitarist Mat Brooke shows up at Band of Horses concerts these days, but he watched this one at the very edge of the stage, seemingly poised to hop up at any point to make an amazing guest appearance. Didn’t happen. Oh well. I liked BoH better as a five-piece (if you’re gonna go with three guitars, Drive-By Truckers the hell out of it, I say), but their set last night was still solid. In particular, new song “Lamb of the Lam” was a poppy dandy, as Ben Bridwell slapped a tambourine while crooning to some uncharacteristic folk-jangle with pretty, plinking piano behind him. Seems like a much better pick for single to me, as “Is There A Ghost” is such a lyrically and constructively barren song compared to the high-octane material from the last LP; as a bonus, “Lamb” appears to take a dig at us music critic-ey types: “What the wri-ee-iters say / it means shit to me now.” Fans love that anti-press stuff, right?

Dino Jr’s set was an interesting balance of old and new; considering that their previous “comeback” tour was devoted entirely to the band’s first three records, it seems fair that they dedicated about half of last night’s setlist to Beyond. Sadly, Mascis suffered from at least one busted stack, as a Neumo’s soundguy was shining a flashlight on the band’s rig for the entire first third of the show. When this was fixed, they still stumbled, most evidently on the bummer of a guitar solo ending in “Pick Me Up”—you go to a Dino Jr show for Mascis’ masterful solos, and this one from the new record was the one I was most anxious to hear live, so its sloppiness was a pretty big setback.

But other badass moments made up for it, like the killer version of “Back To Your Heart” and the minutes-long ass-whipper of a solo that closed the band’s first set. Unlike your Malmsteens and Stevie Rays, Mascis gets the importance of the riff within the solo, fusing the best of both classic rock and metal guitar heroism. Shame they didn’t have someone up at the front of the stage to blow a fan at Mascis’ flowing, grey locks during said solo, but, hey…can’t win them all.

Shame about the show’s anti-camera policy, as I would’ve loved to film the dumbass who decided to try a stage-dive at the outset of the Dino encore. Again, can’t win ‘em all.

(If you’re intrigued by the Band of Horses cover song Grandy mentioned earlier, you’d be wise to point your browser this-a-ways for a free listen to the original song. BoH’s take on it was pretty awesome, but you just can’t be those Eccentric Soul compilations.)