Dinosaur Jr's Charleston show didn't exactly begin with a bang. Other than a microphone lip-shock to frontman J Mascis, it hardly resembled the band's usual explosion into wall-to-wall sound. But as Mascis wandered around stage for the first 10 minutes of Wednesday night's show as roadies tried to deduce the source of the electrical problem (hmm, could it by any chance have been the crackling, fortress-like stack of Marshall amps Dino hauled out for its nearly two-hour set?), bassist Mike Johnson kept the audience amused with an anecdote.

\\"We ran into some trouble with the cops from North Carolina on the way down," Johnson said as he gazed over at a dazed-looking Mascis. "The cops took our weed! What's up with that?" No, it had not been a good day for Dinosaur Jr. And now, to top it off, J was getting involuntary shock treatment from the equipment.

\\When order was restored, it became obvious that Mascis was bent on wiping away -- make that blowing away -- all memories of the previous 24 hours. Mascis' determination to rid himself of those nasty events came during "Alone," the second song of the band's 17-song set, when he rode a lazy, lurching rhythm to an epic, apocalyptic guitar solo that was at once ferociously celebratory and crushingly sad. In fact, the crowd was reminded repeatedly what makes Mascis' music so compelling and confounding: the huge chasm between word and deed. Lyrically, Mascis' songs speak of paralyzing shyness and the inability to communicate. Meanwhile, his guitar unleashes maelstroms of pent-up fury. If anything, his instrument is his true voice -- and it speaks volumes.

\\There were some lighter moments too, though. The straightforward (even poppy) "Nothin's Goin' On" brought things back to earth briefly, even if scores of audience members continued their in-flight crowd surfing through it all. And "Puke + Cry" was given a delicate treatment before Mascis came to his senses and dive-bombed back into "Goin' Home."

\\The band closed with a three-song encore: a ripping version of The Cure's