J Mascis’ show at The Sinclair on Saturday night brought out the quarter-life and midlife crises crowd. Having never seen J Mascis solo, I was expecting Marshall stacks all over the stage in order to create a room-filling sound that would bring us back to the salad days of Dinosaur Jr. Instead, we got an acoustic religious experience.

It was almost like a private living room gig, but we all know Mascis would never invite any of us to his house.

When Mascis walked out on stage, the crowd cheered for their deity. He paid no mind to the crowd of disciples before him and sat down on his purple throne behind his pedals, with a purple music stand to his left and two guitars to his right.

Without a full band (or much of anything), I was apprehensive about what was going to happen. He started strumming some new tunes from his new record, Tied to a Star, but then launched into some gems, like “Little Fury Things” from Dinosaur Jr’s 1987 album You’re Living All Over Me. I think some people were actually squealing with delight at this point. He made ample use of his fuzz pedal in this song and plenty more to come, which added such a rich dimension to the mellow show.

The weekend before I drove out to Amherst, Mass., and spent some time listening to Dinosaur Jr’s 1993 album Where You Been during the trip (I’d like to say this was a coincidence, but yes, it was a well-orchestrated yet dorky move, listening to some Dino Jr. on my way to the hometown of Dino Jr. Sorry… but not really?). This proved to be an excellent decision, since Mascis ended up playing quite a few songs from this record, including “Get Me” (which sounds exactly like “Drawerings” so I had to look it up to be sure), “Out There,” and “Goin’ Home.” “Goin’ Home” requires some true tenacity to listen to by choice. It’s the awkward falsetto that counts me out most times I hear it. But live, Mascis applied a nice delay-reverb effect to his falsetto, making the song easier to listen to and actually enjoyable.

So we’re about six songs into his set now, and still haven’t heard a word from Mascis besides the lyrics to his songs. Finally, he offers up a “Thanks a lot” to the audience, and goes on with the next song. So not really a man of the people, but what else do you expect from a guitar god with flowing white hair, illuminated on a darkened stage like an omnipotent supreme being? His banter isn’t for mere mortals, no sir.

But that made room for more songs, I guess. If you went into this show expecting the big hits, like “Freak Scene” and “Feel the Pain,” that was a dumb idea. Dinosaur Jr. wasn’t on the bill, so hearing any of the songs he’s released with that band was a blessing. Most of the crowd understood that, actually, which was cool. But I’d say it was ok to be a little disappointed not to hear more variety from their ten LPs.

For a guy who’s been releasing solid music for nearly 30 years, I was impressed by his endurance. Sure he was sitting down the whole time and had to drink his coconut water elixir from time to time, but his instrumentation was as sharp as ever, and I dare say he’s a better singer now than he was back then.

An encore was to be expected, but when he came back out and played “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure, it only reinforced the fact that he’s the shit and he knew he was the shit and it was whatever.

Amen.