Dinosaur Jr.

Move somewhere outside of Massachusetts and tell people you’re from Amherst and one of several outcomes occur:

• “But you don’t have an accent!”
• “Oh, I went to school at UMass”
• “Something something Emily Dickinson”
• “Hey, I saw Dinosaur Jr. play before they got big”

One of the bonu’s of growing up in Amherst has been the looming presence of Dinosaur Jr. Not in a forboding way in the slightest. But waiting for the moment a show is announced, and the scamble to secure tickets before everyone else rushes to see our local heroes.

My thoughts

My first real job was at a small graphic design shop in downtown Amherst. This was after the J, Lou and Murph parted ways. Todd, who was one of my coworkers (and who actually taught me so much about graphic design) was friends with Dinosaur’s new drummer, George Berz, and both he an J would stop by the office by randomly. My recollection was that Murph visited often as well, because when I met him years later, we both thought we’d met previously.

But I transgress. The point of this story was because of Todd’s connection to George, his name was always the guest list often him plus three or more, meaning many from us at work would go whereever they were playing locally. As a result, saw them an inordinate number of times during that period.