"I saw them seven years ago," said a dedicated fan standing in line outside of Edmonton's Starlite Room. "My ears were ringing for a week. It's the loudest show you will ever see."

Dinosaur Jr. have quite the reputation for being one of the loudest bands. With their ear-bursting roots stretching back to when the band was beginning, being banned from playing at many of the local venues in their home Amherst, Massachusetts, spreading to nowadays when the release of their latest studio album Farm was dubbed "too loud," and had to be re-released.

To this day, the band has stayed true to their humble beginnings, deafening crowd in the Starlite Room at the sold out show on Nov. 13.

With the vocals fuzzed to an inaudible extent, the drums blending together, and the bass sounding off somewhere in the background, one might think the man at the soundboard was asleep at the job. But if you're at a Dinosaur Jr. concert to hear the songs, you're there for the wrong reason.

The only sound that came through clear was singer/guitarist J Mascis' extensive solos.

Blasting through his Marshall stacks, layered with flange, distortion, delay and fuzz, the centrepiece of Dino's signature sound was nothing less than a spectacle.

The band remained relatively quiet throughout their set, with the only words spoken by bassist Lou Barlow, although his words were inaudible due to a mixture of poor mic levels and ringing ears from the music. Each time J approached the mic to impart some words of wisdom, the fans were only met with a strange, high pitched yelp.

His solos spoke for him, it would seem.

Mascis filled the time in between songs soloing and riffing, meticulously tuning his guitar as he moved the capo up and down the frets of his trusty Fender Jazzmasters, the only guitar fit to play a Dino song.

In spite of taking an unimpressive amount of time to return for their encore, no fan left disappointed, although they did leave deafened and enthralled. One fan standing at the merch booth, in his mid-thirties, exclaimed how glad he was to see them again. After all, the last time he saw them was when he was 15.

Another live victory for Dinosaur Jr., it would seem.

Dinosaur Jr. played:

Thumb
The Leper
Imagination Blind
Get Me
Pieces
Plans
Crumble
Feel the Pain
Over It
Little Fury Things
Forget the Swan
The Wagon
Freak Scene
I Don't Wanna go There
Encore:
The Lung
Mountain Men