Dinosaur Jr. @ The Art School, Glasgow, 10 Dec

To get to the front of the stage, the sheepishly endearing Spinning Coin have to navigate the labyrinthine Dinosaur Jr. set-up. Guitarist/vocalist Sean Armstrong hits his head on an overhanging mic as he squeezes between an amp and one of the two drum kits. Despite fighting for space on a stage with more than ten massive amps stacked on top of each other, they get through their ragged, jangle-indie with aplomb and set an appropriate tone for the night.

Dinosaur Jr. arrive on stage just after nine, to wild applause and quickly settle into Thumb, every note reverberating through the packed house at The Art School. The guitar is clean and crisp (and very loud), drawling or screeching depending on the song, while Murph's drumming is precise with not a beat out of place, allowing for a little more freedom with the bass.

Tonight is J Mascis' 52nd birthday, as repeated birthday wishes are yelled out between songs (the crowd eventually manages to sing Happy Birthday halfway through, despite the band's efforts to drown it out with their tune-ups). Mascis, however, pays no attention to the shouts, just going about his business of melting faces with seemingly no concern for whatever else is going on. His stoic demeanour and almost static presence is in sharp contrast to Lou Barlow, who is restless and animated all night, jumping and headbanging with his face almost always obscured by his curly moptop.

There's three tracks from their most recent album, Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, and the rest are from all over the place. Favourites like Watch the Corners, Freak Scene and Gargoyle get a predictably big reaction, but the show is mostly just a bunch of people watching in awe at the controlled fury that three people can produce when they're so perfectly in sync with one another.