by Daniel Colussi | So this is going to be a cool show: Dinosaur Jr. is playing the entirety of their 1988 scorcher of an album, Bug, at The Commodore on December 18th. Bug was their third album and the last to feature the original line up of J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph. It’s also my personal favourite Dino album; the one where all three players had honed their chops to laser sharpness. And it won’t hurt that the whole set will kick off with Freak Scene, which best achieves the Platonic ideal of a rock song (see the video above). But what’s going to really make this show especially cool is that Henry Rollins is along for the tour and will be conducting a Q&A session with the band…

Dinosaur Jr.’s dynamics have been documented in excruciating detail, most notably in Michael Azzerad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life. Basically, by ’88, Dinosaur Jr. was not a happy camp, so seeing the three original members hash it out in real time in front of a packed Commodore and then watching them play the album that effectively ended their original line up? I dunno. How do you feel about staring at a car accident? Though the thought of it makes me squirm a bit, I know that it’s going to be a good time. To get a better sense of what to expect on the 18th and to get up to date on Henry Rollin’s latest endeavours, read on…

These shows you’re doing with Dinosaur Jr. are an intriguing proposition — you conduct a Q&A with the band and then they play a set. Where did this idea come from? How did you get involved? The idea was the band’s. They came to me with it. I am one of the many XXXL sized Dinosaur Jr. fans out there, so I said yes. That’s the long and short of it as far as I am aware.

There were some of these Rollins Q&A/Dinosaur Jr. shows this past June. How did they go? What’s been the audience’s vibe? Has the content of the Q&A changed much from show to show? The most important part of the show is, of course, the music. The band played great on those shows. They really nailed it. Great sets. Great encores. The questions change up every night in an effort to keep the lads interested. The audience is into about twelve to fifteen minutes of this and then they want to rock.

The first Dinosaur Jr. album that SST put out came out in 1987, a year after Black Flag ended. Had Black Flag played any shows with Dinosaur Jr. prior to that first SST album coming out? Where you familiar with Dinosaur Jr. back in the time of their first couple of albums? To my memory, Black Flag never played with them. The first time I saw them was in 1986 and I’ve stayed a fan of the band and their albums.

J Mascis has a reputation as being a pensive interview subject, a slow talker. How do you get J talking? J is responsive and informative. He’s not a big talker. None of them seem to be in the Q&A mode, but they are not blowing this off and the thing has been really interesting.

I recently read A Preferred Blur, a fair chunk of which chronicles your time in the Middle East. Your next book is Occupants — photos and essays concerning your travel to different militarily occupied areas around the globe. Can you tell me a bit of your learning process of becoming a photographer? Was there a certain photographic style that you wanted to achieve? Were there any photographers whose work you felt drawn to? What I tried to do with a camera was to get proficient enough with it to basically forget I have one in my hand while using it. I know that sounds a little out there but I want to get an immediate relationship with the person I am photographing. It will be brief and close and the last thing I want to do is be messing around with f-stop and speed settings. One of the ways I got better, well, hopefully better, was to get out into the world and take photographs day after day in different settings. Hundreds of photos I take in an attempt to get emotion out of the machine that is the camera. James Nachtwey is a photographer I admire. He is able to be objective and personal at the same time. I am a rank amateur, but an enthusiastic one.

How do you define the writing of your books? Are you a travel writer? A political commentator? A memoirist? I put out what is interesting at the time to write about. Many years ago, I was writing shorter stuff, more poetic. I don’t do that now, I am in a more journalistic mode these days. I come back with the story as clearly as I can. That’s what I am into these days. I am, for the most part, self published. I am going for it as I find it. I don’t worry about the form of it. I just try to make it as clear as I can. I never figure I have a career or future in any of this, so I go without fear.

I know that you’re a serious music hound. What have you been listening to in recent days/weeks during the various plane rides, long drives, office and hotel room hours that fill your days? I have been listening to Hototogisu, Vibracathedral Orchestra and Ashtray Navigations a lot. These are great hotel listens.

See Henry Rollins and Dinosaur Jr at the Commodore, Dec 18th.

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Zulu Records veteran and tunage aficionado Daniel Colussi is the Music Editor of Scout Magazine.