The instrumental solo has, sadly, long been one of rock music's most celebrated live gimmicks. It always kills me when the band clears out some space during a song for one of the members to literally mess around for a while or to play the same solo that's on the record and the person next to me geeks out like it's the most incredible thing ever.
Guitar solos are the worst. Granted I never got a chance to see Duane Allman or Jimi Hendrix, but the overwhelming bulk of live guitar solos I've seen have been little more than instrumental masturbation. Some guy (always a guy) desperately trying to cram a few licks he played last time you saw his band into 16 bars? SICK BRO!!! RAGE!!!
But, as has been true for almost 20 years, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Doug Martsch of Built to Spill (BTS) are different. Forming their bands about when groups like Mötley Crüe were at their clean-up-towel-necessitating peaks, Mascis and Martsch didn't buck the instrumental decadence of arena rock, they just made it more interesting — in totally different ways. The two guitarists may sound nothing alike, but they each put on top-tier guitar performances last weekend at the Orpheum.
Whether J Mascis could hear it is unclear; his guitar is incomparably louder than any instrument I have ever heard. How someone who stands in front of three Marshall stacks trying to "feel every note," (as he once said) hasn't blow up his own skull, much less has a 20-year career as a musician, defies biology. As a listener, though, I won't complain.
Since his instrument is so relentlessly loud, you get a chance to hear each intricate phrase separately: J Mascis' Marshall stack does not bleed notes. Instead, he makes a crisp sounding, albeit deafening haze, from which he pulls out some pretty sick-bro-rage shredding.
Mascis can do so many different things with his guitar that it's difficult to compare his solos. Do you like the crushing head bang of "Sludgefeast," or the colorful uplift of the Cure cover "Just like Heaven?" For my money, it doesn't get much better than the particularly melodic "Feel the Pain" amorphously spilling over rigid drums. There's a reason that song is on "Rock Band II" (2008): It's flawless.
You won't find any Built to Spill songs on "Rock Band." Unlike Mascis, Martsch is more interested in stimulating and soothing your mind than systematically disassembling your eardrums. Playing 1997's "Perfect From Now On" in its entirety, Martsch made his way through that album's whimsical, emotive compositions with the elegance of his songwriting.
He doesn't play with the head banging, devil horns-waving abandon that Mascis does, and he certainly doesn't want the audience to physically feel every note. The feeling Martsch seeks to evoke tugs at the heartstrings, and he succeeded. He made the manic desperation of "Made Up Dreams," absolutely palatable, alternately ripping and plucking at his guitar like he had just written the song.
All this isn't to say that BTS didn't rock. On stage, Martsch proves capable of stretching his instrument out. The psychedelic jam "Velvet Waltz," for example, had to have touched 10 minutes, each of them equally lovely and technically dexterous. It wasn't powerfully loud, but when you play as flawlessly and gorgeously as Martsch, you don't need volume to impress.
Better yet, ubiquitous solos notwithstanding, you don't have to attach a "NSFW" warning to any BTS or Dinosaur Jr. music videos. These two indie-rock and guitar icons prove that you don't need to sound like a pompous bastard hack to play a live guitar solo, and remind us all that the only place to masturbate is in the privacy of your own kitchen.
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Mikey Goralnik is a senior majoring in American studies. He can be reached at Michael.Goralnik@tufts.edu.
