Live music review: Dinosaur Jr, Vicar Street, Dublin

Grunge was rock’s last truly significant musical movement (rap metal doesn’t count and shame on you for suggesting). And few bands have stayed more loyal to the scene’s manifesto of sweet riffs paired with self-pitying lyrics than Dinosaur Jr, who came to Dublin touring a new album that suggested, in the best way, a mild variation on previous records.

Quality control has never been an issue for the Amherst Massachusetts three piece, fronted by the wizardly J Mascis and with Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow now permanently reinstated as bass player (a falling out with the lead singer had seen Barlow controversially depart in 1988, shortly before the release of their break-through, Bug). As demonstrated by eleventh long-player Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not, Dinosaur Jr are happiest cleaving to a successful blueprint, with songs that once again surf waves of early adulthood melancholia against a blitzkrieg of guitars,

Though hugely influential, the group never threatened a Nirvana-scale breakthrough. The reasons are obvious, with Mascis’ lyrics buried beneath a tumult of riffs, so that while there’s much to lose yourself in, you are left with little to grab on to. Yet it’s a formula that delighted a room of overwhelmingly middle-aged men, who happily chugged beers as the trio swerved from newer tracks such as ‘Goin’ Down’ and ‘Tiny’ to catalogue stalwarts ‘Start Choppin’ and ‘Tarpit’ (there was no space, alas, for ‘Freakscene’, inspiration for the legendary Cork indie club of the same name).

Twenty five years ago, it would doubtless have horrified Mascis and co to be regarded as a nostalgia act. But here they seemed entirely at ease communing with a fanbase content to be swept back to an era when rock ’n roll was still regarded as faintly subversive and could impact on the wider culture in a meaningful way. How far away those days now feel.