Now that the glow of the reunion has worn off, it’s easier to get a more objective read on the latest – and first- incarnation of Dinosaur Jr. While the acrimony between J Mascis and Lou Barlow is reportedly a thing of the past, it was hard not to notice that there was no stage banter at all between the two (or with the crowd) during the entire hour and a half set, or even so much of an acknowledgement that they were standing on the same stage. Also of note was the placing of drummer Murph, squarely front and center, cutting the stage in half, with Mascis on the left and Barlow on the right. Mascis and Barlow may not have any hard feelings between them, but it sure doesn’t look like the acrimony has been replaced by fraternity and friendship.

Still, whatever issues still exist within the band, they in no way affected the music, and that’s really all that mattered. Initially, the excitement over the reunion was that Dinosaur Jr. would be playing songs off their first albums. Now, at the second of three sold out New York City shows, the setlist includes songs spanning every incarnation of the band, from early tunes like “Freak Scene” to the Barlow-less near-hits of the 90′s (“Get Me,” “Feel the Pain”), to songs from last year’s record Farm. And they all flowed pretty well together.

Also of note- I’ve been to a lot of shows, from tiny clubs to giant arenas. This may have been the loudest show I’ve ever seen in my life.

Opener Kurt Vile, who seems to be everywhere lately, played a short set with his band the Violators, and with the only head of hair in the venue to rival J Mascis’. Playing most of his set behind his voluminous mane, Vile’s face is as hard to pin down as his music, which has been described as some mix of freak-folk, psychedelic pop, and lo-fi grunge. All those seem to fit, and the genre-hopping explains his presence on so many different bills in the past year, from Built to Spill to Big Star to the Black Keys. After a few more shows with Dinosaur Jr., he’ll be back out on tour opening for Matador label-mates Fucked Up.

Dinosaur Jr.:

Kurt Vile:

Friday night at the Webster Hall in Manhattan saw the appearance of West London lads, White Lies and they did the old Blightly proud.

They chose a good opener, the title track of their album, ‘To Lose My Life…’ which roused the crowd into a suitably pumped mass from the beginning. There is certainly something powerful about lead singer Harry McVeigh’s voice and it echoed as though he were performing in a stadium arena. It can’t simply have been down to the sound system or the acoustics of the venue. His lungs must be disproportionate to the rest of his British frame…

Biology aside, the poppy rhythms of The Killers, combined with the melancholy drones and vocals of Interpol, were enough to get my tired feet tapping and my head nodding. The crowd, similarly, mirrored my movements in perfect harmony with the beat. Unfortunately, not much else happened crowd wise. Even during the crescendos of songs like ‘Death’, the crowd maintained this rhythm, never really straying to the realms of gig induced ecstasy.

Their biggest tune of the night, and most likely their catchiest song in the world outside the walls of the Webster Hall was ‘Farewell to the Fairground’. The mantra ‘keep on running, there’s no place like home’ sent the crowd crazy and was undoubtedly rotating on repeat in attendee’s heads for the rest of the evening.

Bassist Charles Cave demonstrated a knack for stage presence in ‘Nothing to Give’ where he left the stage for the build up and came back at a moment which highlighted how superb the baseline is in this song.

Usually among bands, a bold sound is complemented by an immense light show that rises and falls with the key moments of songs. However, White Lies, dressed in all black, were simply lit by minimal white lights. There was something quite haunting and hollow about it all.

There is nothing technically astonishing about this band. They play solid songs well. They are a crowd pleaser and like the band they are often compared to – The Editors – they have a bit more depth to them in comparison to the average indie pop band.

Twelve songs later they left the stage and I felt satisfied that they had delivered what I had expected. They played true to the album, not really doing anything out of their remit, but for those in the crowd looking for an unyielding performance, they wouldn’t have gone home unhappy. They are going in the right direction; they are confident and they have the talent. Once they find that little pinch of something extra, they will be right up there with the big boys.

Benjamin-Émile Le Hay: I’m a huge fan and this is my first time seeing you. You don’t come to New York that often. Why did you decide to come to Electric Zoo?

ATB: Well I think this will become one of the biggest US festivals in the future and so I know these guys [Made Events], they’re good friends, and they were asking me if maybe I was interested in playing and I said, “oh of course!” I’m sure I will have a great time here and I love New York, so why should I say no?

Amy: So what do you think of the crowd in NY compared to your hometown?

ATB: Well we will see what’s going on tonight… but I’m always playing here twice every year at Pacha New York, and I know these people are crazy and always in a really good mood. I don’t like to compare, I just know I love New York and I love the people here. There are amazing and really into their music, and this is what I love.

BL: Anything you’re going to sample tonight? You’ve got a lot of new projects lately, what about that?

ATB: Let me take a look– it’s always hard to talk about a set before because I never know what I’ll do. I try to give the best, to give everything and what I always try to put emotion and melodies into the set, so we’ll see!

BL: Fair enough, now you tour a lot, what’s the biggest difficulty for you when travelling so much?
ATB: The difficult thing is always waiting in the hotel… I really hate that! The thrilling thing is though that it’s not that bad. I’m really happy to have the opportunity to see so much of the planet. The time you land at the airport and get to the hotel to wait—I always hate this part of travelling. The rest is ok!

Amy: Do you go clubbing a lot yourself?

ATB: No. I’m touring so much that when I am at home, I really love to just be at home. Just going out with some friends, do the normal things. I am sometimes happier when I don’t see a club from the inside…

BL: I’ll agree with you on that one. Now when you’re trying to come up with new material and expand, do you find yourself struggling to find ways to recreate yourself or do you find that you’re in a quite comfortably creative moment right now in life?

ATB: Um, the first thing I always think about is not to think too much about where is everything coming from– You know? It’s just natural. I always just go into the studio and start to do something. If there is something happening that’s great, then it’s going on and if I notice, ok nothing is coming and I’m not feeling creative then I just stop it.

So I’m not a workaholic. It’s not that I always go into the studio and now I have to make a new hit or something like that. I don’t try to produce hits. I just want to get my own feelings into the music and create a track out of that… if I’m happy about that I don’t think is that a hit, is it right now good for the club, or is it good for the record company? I don’t care about these things. I just do what I want. I’m really happy that I have a record company that gives support for this type of working.

Amy: What do you listen to in your car?

ATB: Privately, I listen to a lot of ambience stuff – that is my favourite type. When you’re on the road and in the clubs you always have dance music. But on the other side I need to come-down and to relax and this is the reason why I really love this relaxing stuff.

BL: Where are you off to now?

ATB: I have another two weeks off next month and then I’m on an America tour: South America and then two weeks in the U.S.

Amy: And finally, if you had a dinner party and you could invite anyone dead or alive, who would you invite?

ATB: This is a really good question [long pause]… my friends.

Amy: Ahh if you could have ANYONE??

ATB: Really just a nice meal with my friends that I don’t get to see enough.

Amy: Well I’m sure we can arrange that. Thanks for your time!

International DJ Tiga photo at Electric Zoo Dance Festival

Benjamin-Émile Le Hay: Why have you chosen to perform at Electric Zoo this year?

Tiga: Well, I wanted to play in New York; I had a lot of friends that were play. I wanted a good show in the States, ‘cuz I don’t find to many… It seems like a good line up. I’m actually donating all my fees to charity.

BL: What did you decided to do that? Not a lot of performers do that…

Tiga: I’ve wanted to do that for a while and I’ve been kind of lazy about it. There’s a Jay Hayes, originally from Philadelphia and he lives in Berlin. I’ve never met him, but I have his record and he seems like a cool guy. Well, I got an email basically saying that he was trying to unite a bunch of people to give to efforts in the Congo. It was something that triggered me and I just wrote him an email right away telling him I wanted to help out. He was a catalyst for me, but I’ve been very interested in that part of the world and the positive and negative of not all of Africa, but of certain countries. I’m really happy to get the ball rolling. We’re really lucky as DJs to travel—it’s good money to do something we love. We travel globally you know and I even feel sometimes that it’s an easy thing to do to give something back. I think I would like to make it much more regular of a thing with me– and some of my friends, to give something back.

BL: Where do your musical influences come from?

Tiga: I feel most of my musical ideas are rooted in my personality, than in a musical background. I mean I grew up around music: my father always had records, I saw a lot of parties when I was young, I use to go to India and I saw a lot of things… It was a very liberal upbringing. So I guess I’m very open-minded to things, I’m not too much of a purist.

BL: Where are you off to next, what are you up to next?

Tiga: I’d like to take a break from everything, clear my head. I want to start something new—I feel like I’m at the end of a cycle. I just want to start something fresh. I’ve been doing some remixes lately… Ya so I have a bit more touring to do for the rest of the year, I don’t know another ten shows. I’ve been doing a tour of Australia. I want to make a new CD, work on my DJ set and start getting new ideas for the next album.

BL: Tell me about “Sexor?” What does it mean to you and what do you hope to communicate with it?

Tiga: I kind of forgot about that one now…

BL: Oh no!

Tiga: Ya I know thank you! I sort of forget about my stuff, I sort of have to…  Well you know hen I look back on the album now it seems sort of naïve, but in a nice way. I was having fun, I was so excited to even be able to make an album, let alone what it sounded like. It was a life long dream to make an album and be in that position, so I was really happy. Ya I like the album, I’m proud of it. I mean, what I’m most proud of with Sexor is that there are moments on the record that are so weird, I can’t even believe I released that to the world. Like that “Ballad of Sexor” song…

BL: That’s my favorite song!

Tiga: That’s amazing! So thank you! It’s interesting as an artist sometimes the things that you think are really flawed or really weird, end up touching people more. Sometimes we work on things for weeks and nobody cares about it. It works both ways. So that’s an important lesson for me to remember. So always be true to yourself and you like something—I mean I loved that song—so just put it out there! All my friends were like, “You can’t! You can’t!”

BL: What’s up for the rest of the weekend?

Tiga: Toronto and Montréal!

BL: Lastly, what is one thing that really irks you when you’re traveling? That really bothers you?

Tiga: When there is no room service menu in my hotel room! Then that freaks me out.. I hate people who were sandals on an airplane. I hate people with giant heads… I don’t see any around…I hate waiting for people.

BL: Do you consider yourself to be punctual?

Tiga: I do, ya I do in general…

International DJ Tiga photo at Electric Zoo Dance Festival