Another Sieve-Fisted Find

"Come on and get up. Get on up!" - a walk through the Fugazi live repertoire

[anothersievefistedfind]

Ffs.

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Die Fabrik, Hamburg, Germany 9/18/1999 (FLS #0926)

September 18, 1999. 3 p.m., Hamburg, Germany. Fugazi walks on stage at DIE FABRIK. No stage lights, no mystery, just raw daylight blasting through the tall windows of this old machine hall-turned-cultural bunker in Hamburg-Altona. A matinee show. Their last one here. Fourth and final.

The venue matters. DIE FABRIK isn’t your average spot. Built in 1899 as a machine factory. Burned down in 1977, rebuilt two years later by idealists. Big timber beams, wraparound balconies, hard echoes. You probably feel the weight of the place when you walk in. And DIE FABRIK is still around today. It hosts concerts, theater, performances, readings, and public discussions, remaining a vibrant hub for culture and creativity.

The band’s firing on all cylinders from the jump. Ian’s voice is hoarse, but they don’t hold back. Nearly two hours, 30 songs—it might even be their longest show ever. And they don’t coast. Every track has teeth. Every turn is tight. A powerplay.

The set leans hard on End Hits—ten songs deep. The rest is a scatter of deep cuts, early burners, and tracks that hadn’t even seen release yet. Well, a good chunk of it, anyway. There’s three tracks off the 7 Songs debut EP, two from Margin Walker (Promises is mistakenly listed as Shut the Door in the set list), just one from the Repeater album, nothing off the 3 Songs seven-inch. Steady Diet of Nothing get three in. In On The Kill Taker gets four (Great Cop crashing in right after Public Witness Program is not mentioned in the set list). Three songs from Red Medicine, as well as three tracks from The Argument album, and one song from the Furniture EP, both of which would only see their release more than 2 years down the line (October 2001). Interestingly, The Argument title track already sounds locked in. Ex-Spectator is just an instrumental here, and Guy’s still riffing loose lyrics on Nightshop.

The beginning of the recording is marred by some technical issues. Early on, Ian’s vocals are buried, sometimes even trapped in the right audio channel—most noticeably through Break, And The Same, Merchandise, and into Closed Captioned. But then, the mix shifts during the line: “the imperfections are here to find if your position is so unkind everything is not alright and since we live in present tense the only hope of making sense all depends on the source of light.” Balance returns. Poetic, if you care about that sort of thing. Or just plain lucky. 

Sound tech Nick Pellicciotto gets ambitious with the reverb though. Sometimes it hits—No Surprise, Long Division, or even Version—it gives the room space to breathe. Other times it’s too much. Reverb on the hi-hat, that’s pushing it in my book.

A then there’s that ending. Nothing short of a one-shot deal. A known high-quality video of the show floats around YouTube (see insert above), but it cuts off the final two tracks, which is absolutely gutting because those last minutes are pure magic. Fugazi closes with Glueman into Version. As far as I can tell, this is the only recorded instance of that pairing, in that particular order. The ultimate drift.

Earlier in the set, Ian elaborates on the beauty of matinees—catch the show, still have the night to yourself. Then, as the final note fades and the room exhales, he drops the closer: “Don’t forget the night.” Not a warning. A reminder.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Break 3. Place Position 4. And The Same 5. Latin Roots 6. Merchandise 7. Interlude 18. Caustic Acrostic 9. Closed Captioned 10. Last Chance for a Slow Dance 11. Recap Modotti 12. Argument 13. Burning 14. Bad Mouth 15. Arpeggiator 16. Target 17. Reclamation 18. FD 19. Back to Base 20. Encore 1 21. Ex-Spectator 22. Number 5 23. Promises 24. Encore 2 25. Nightshop 26. Five Corporations 27. Public Witness Program (into Great Cop) 28. No Surprise 29. Encore 3 30. Long Division 31. Walken's Syndrome 32. Pink Frosty 33. Glueman 34. Version

[anothersievefistedfind]

“Don’t forget the night”, Ian MacKaye concluding the fantastic matinee gig at the Fabrik in Hamburg, Germany on September 18, 1999 🔥 🙏🏻

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi @ 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C. USA 11/27/1994 - ticket stub courtesy Jimmy Askew - photography © by Glen. E. Friedman

Fugazi, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C. USA 11/27/1994 (FLS #0638) & Black Cat, Washington, D.C. USA 11/29/1994 (FLS #0639)

With Brendan spending months and months away out west in Seattle for personal reasons in 1994, Fugazi did not tour much that year, focusing on writing new music instead, and playing just 5 local shows with a short run of 8 dates in Brazil wedged in between (which appears to have been a memorable experience in itself, or so the story goes).

Capping off the 1994 tour, Fugazi played three shows in November of 1994, the first one out in Joe’s place of birth Silver Spring, Maryland followed by two consecutive shows in Washington, D.C., benefitting the Washington Free Clinic. This includes the last time Fugazi played the original 9:30 Club located at 930 F St, in Washington, D.C. (for an interesting history of the 9:30 Club, go here).

Essentially, these three November 1994 recordings can be considered a triptych since the band used these shows to do some road-testing of Red Medicine songs, in between the Guilford demos for that record (done in April of 1994) and the Inner Ear recording session (in January of 1995).

The two D.C. recordings annotated here present no less than 11 different tracks off of the upcoming Red Medicine album, including early live renditions of Do You Like Me, Bed For The Scraping, and Latest Disgrace, as well as the live debuts (and only 1994 live performances) of Combination Lock and Long Distance Runner.

And while quite a few of these Red Medicine tracks come in pretty much definite form both lyrically and musically at this point (e.g. Do You Like Me, Birthday Pony, By You, Forensic Scene or Target), others do not (e.g. Bed For The Scraping, Downed City, Combination Lock, Long Distance Runner). Downed City, more specifically, is still an instrumental, and the lyrics to Long Distance Runner are just a few lines.

The recording of the 11/27/1994 show at the (original) 9:30 Club starts off with Parliament’s Flashlight blasting over the public address, a most suitable appetizer while the band tunes up and gets ready. The mix of the recording settles early on and once it does, this is a great sounding and balanced tape, and the better sounding one out of these two successive D.C. shows.

Highlights include Facet Squared, a cool little guitar improv leading into By You, Public Witness Program, or Long Distance Runner transitioning perfectly into Two Beats Off (tagged The Place I Love). Reclamation provides an appropriate set closer, considering the theme of the benefit concert. Guy dedicates Do You Like Me to “the late and great Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith” who passed away a couple of weeks before.

This recording offers 22 live cuts in total, and draws from Red Medicine (10 tracks, counting the Downed City instrumental which is tacked onto Target yet unmentioned in the set list), In on the Kill Taker (6), Steady Diet of Nothing (1), Repeater (4), and the Margin Walker EP (1).

The recording of Fugazi’s last performance of 1994, just two days later on 11/29/1994 at the Black Cat in D.C. (a rather new venue that opened its doors in September 1993), kicks off with another soulful tune pumping through the house speakers, one that appears to be Bobby Byrd’s Never Get Enough. A harbinger of more good stuff to come.

While the audio quality of this recording is a bit muddled and rough around the edges, it is still enjoyable and has a delicious nastiness to it. However, note that the vocals pretty much get buried for the first couple of songs, up until the Back to Base breakdown. And there are more technical mishaps, e.g. Guy’s guitar cutting out for most of By You (after which Guy apologizes, admitting he has “been in the business a long time but [hasn’t] mastered the concept of actually having a pedal on stage”).

It is especially worth highlighting that by way of introduction to the song Back to Base, Ian mentions that “this is a song that has a title, but then we realized it’s already used for another song so it’ll have to go untitled at the moment, you have to pick it up from the words, good luck…" 

This had me wondering about that original song title, and going back to the aforementioned 11/20/1994 show in Silver Spring, Maryland a couple of days prior, I noticed that the band closes that show with the same early version of Back to Base, and that Ian introduces it using the original title. But other than the first word “Runaway”, I was not able to make out the rest of it.

Moreover, trying to decipher the original lyrics to this song on both occasions, it appears that the final verse in particular is different compared to the Inner Ear studio version and sounds something like “they want complete control, don’t you know that (…), bringing you bringing you bringing you what they want”, which is interesting and seems to tie in more clearly with the message and intent of the song, at least in the way Ian talks about this some more some two years later, at the 11/6/1996 show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: “(…) we did about three interviews today, and each one of the interviewers always asks us about what do we think about all the major label stuff, what do we think about all these punk rock bands that are signed to major labels, all this sort of thing, they are very interested in what we have to say because we’ve always just did it on our own, by ourselves, and uh, we have a lot of friends that have gone on and signed to major labels, and tried to do what they thought was right for them, and too often too many of them come back to just check out the situation, trying to figure out what was right and what was wrong as far as those decisions, a lot of them go back to the very beginning and think about it and they realize whoops, I was right all along, this is a song called Back to Base.”

Curious, I reached out to Ian MacKaye about the original song title and theme of Back to Base, and he has been generous and kind enough to unveil some more backstory:

“‘back to base’ had the working title ‘runaway train’. this was inspired by a movie with the same name that we watched while working on the red medicine demos up in guilford in 1994.

here’s a link to the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOgYzEV-XFQ

the lyrics of the song have nothing to do with runaway trains (the working title was used for the instrumental version of the song), but i probably would have kept it had it not been brought to our attention that soul asylum had a minor hit with the same title. i’ve never listened to their music, but they were a popular band at the time and i wasn’t particularly married to the title.

‘back to base’ is more in keeping with the theme of the lyrics, so we went with that.

regarding the meaning of the lyrics, it seems to me that the spiel you found from our malaysia gig speaks to that. my impression at the time was that people who had started in the underground and then went on to get involved with majors usually regretted losing the community and ethic that they traded in for the deal. not always, but mostly.”

Further, it can be mentioned that Ian dedicates Bed For The Scraping to “1995, the year of the return of the dance” and that Guy interjects some “alright, alright, alright, alright, alright” during the bass intro of the song which actually works well. The rap leading into Great Cop is some of the funniest stuff I have heard, and Target features some revealing banter about the theme and spirit of this song as well. A no holds barred performance KYEO transitions smoothly into Glueman to close out the set. 

Interestingly, Glueman is the only song (and “one-guitar” track) off of the 7 Songs debut EP that was played in the course of these three “Red Medicine shows” in November, 1994. Considering that the version captured here is a memorable one, and one that features some harrowing screams by Guy as well as the signature “crosscut saw” and at times even eerie guitar play by Ian, I find it quite gutting and damn well unfortunate to hear it’s incomplete.

This recording showcases 23 songs, taken off of Red Medicine (9), In on the Kill Taker (4), Steady Diet of Nothing (5), Repeater (4), and the 7 Songs debut EP (1).

While I would venture to say that these recordings might not appeal to those who are looking for performances that flow like a river and hit like a freight train, I do think that these will have the serious collectors or avid nerds interested in hearing the band honing their craft and shaping their Red Medicine to come, sit up and take notice.

Another two in the books.

The set lists:

November 27, 1994:

1. Intro 2. Bed For The Scraping 3. Walken’s Syndrome 4. Facet Squared 5. Interlude 1 6. Latest Disgrace 7. Interlude 2 8. Styrofoam 9. Rend It 10. Repeater 11. Interlude 4 12. Do You Like Me 13. Interlude 5 14. Birthday Pony 15. Interlude 6 16. Smallpox Champion 17. Returning The Screw 18. Interlude 7 19. By You 20. Interlude 8 21. Forensic Scene 22. Merchandise 23. Public Witness Program 24. Promises 25. Interlude 9 26. Target 27. Encore 28. Combination Lock 29. Long Distance Runner 30. Two Beats Off 31. Reclamation 32. Outro

November 29, 1994:

1. Interlude 1 2. Turnover 3. Brendan #1 4. Intro 5. Back to Base 6. Do You Like Me 7. Interlude 2 8. Reclamation 9. Interlude 3 10. Runaway Return 11. Interlude 4 12. Bed For The Scraping 13. Interlude 5 14. Forensic Scene 15. Long Division 16. Cassavetes 17. Interlude 6 18. Birthday Pony 19. Interlude 7 20. Latest Disgrace 21. By You 22. Interlude 8 23. Blueprint 24. Interlude 9 25. Great Cop 26. Public Witness Program 27. Interlude 10 28. Downed City 29. Reprovisional 30. Encore 1 31. Target 32. Instrument 33. Exit Only 34. Interlude 11 35. KYEO 36. Glueman

[anothersievefistedfind]

In honor of 30 years of Red Medicine today, let us go back to base 🙏🏻

[anothersievefistedfind]

Anyone so inclined can dig into my earlier write-up for the show at the Tempodrom in Berlin here, and the two-night stint at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC here. Enjoy, g-

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Blue Note, Columbia, MO USA 8/27/1993 (FLS #0570)

Fugazi’s 1993 tour arguably captures the band at its absolute prime. The band was locked in, fierce, and still carrying some of that underground bite. This August 27th show at the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri, is a case in point. Just glance at the first eight songs, and it’s clear they hit the stage with force, seizing the crowd by the throat and charging through the set with relentless energy.

The performance is raw, intense, and unapologetic. While the recording is a little rough around the edges, that only adds to the power of the show, feeding off the confrontational vibe of the night. The vocals start off low in the mix, especially in the first couple of songs, but balance out as the gig gains momentum.

The recording documents a strong performance overall. Memorable highlights include a bone-crushing rendering of Reprovisional to open the set, the one-two punch of Instrument into Sieve-Fisted Find, the dual guitar interplay and jam on Promises, and a drawn-out build-up and extended outro of Sweet and Low that stretches into the night on the subtle rim clicks of Brendan’s snare drum.

The setlist packs 20 songs, with In On The Kill Taker front and center with no less than nine tracks. Five tracks come from Repeater, three from Steady Diet of Nothing, two from the 7 Songs EP, and just one from the Margin Walker EP. This show is pure Fugazi intensity at its best.

For some more information, check-out Antti's elaborate write-up of this gig in the comments section via the show hyperlink above.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Reprovisional 3. Facet Squared 4. Interlude 1 5. Dear Justice Letter 6. Greed 7. Interlude 2 8. Walken's Syndrome 9. Interlude 3 10. Instrument 11. Sieve-Fisted Find 12. Reclamation 13. Rend It 14. Promises 15. Interlude 4 16. Give Me The Cure 17. Waiting Room 18. Interlude 5 19. Smallpox Champion 20. Returning The Screw 21. Blueprint 22. Interlude 6 23. Great Cop 24. Encore 25. Stacks 26. Cassavetes 27. Interlude 7 28. Repeater 29. Sweet and Low 30. Outro

[alexmitrani]

Fugazi played 39 shows in 63 days on the 1988 Fall European Tour, between 14 October and 16 December. If you watch the video, you will notice that there is a pause of about a week in London before the final show of the tour in Eindhoven. That will have been when they recorded the Margin Walker EP. If you feel like listening to a show from this tour, this is a fun one:

https://www.dischord.com/fugazi_live_series/linz-austria-111088

[alexmitrani]

This is a good one, sounds clear and balanced with some interesting and unusual renditions, for instance Recap Modotti and Version. There are a few curious false starts, where the music seems to change direction unexpectedly at the beginning. It sounds to me like they might have been using musical signals to communicate / decide the next song, like a dialogue, with it sometimes being a shared decision what to play. An initial note or rhythm would limit the options and subsequent responses would narrow it down to a single song. For instance, high-pitched sustained note on guitar = "Repeater?" Bass-line response = "Waiting Room."

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Salle des Fêtes, Kingersheim, France 6/10/1995 (FLS #0685)

This one was brought to my attention by @alexmitrani who earmarked it as a personal favorite. Having listened to the recording repeatedly for the last couple of days, I certainly found plenty of strongpoints to enjoy.

The tape documents a one-off performance in Kingersheim, a small commune in northeastern France. It was the last out of ten shows Fugazi played on French soil in 1995 (it appears Ian MacKaye was unusually mistaken when expressing his praise and gratitude for the country during the show, mentioning a total of 12 gigs in France in 1995). 

Fugazi performed no less than 28 songs on this particular night. And considering the running time of the recording clocks in at around 1 h 44 mins, this will surely be one of the longer shows the band ever played.

The opening of the set is a scorcher and the band comes out swinging, going balls out. The performance is pretty much on point and ardent throughout, yet particular highlights in my book include the wild Turnover breakdown, Joe’s bass driving songs such as Bed For The Scraping, Long Division and Long Distance Runner, and a phenomenal encore 2.

The set list includes a high dosage of Red Medicine tracks (10) and most of their earlier work is thrown in the mix in equal measure: In on the Kill Taker (4), Steady Diet of Nothing (4), Repeater (5), 7 Songs debut EP (4) and the 3 Songs seven-inch (1). The Margin Walker EP is the apparent absentee here. 

Note that this show features the only (!) live version of Greed in 1995, and includes rare 1995 sightings of Break-In, KYEO and Glueman as well (here even with Combination Lock - which actually appears to be encore 3 by itself - to close out the performance).

Banter is scarce yet portrays the band in an upbeat mood, not considering the occasional rebuke drawn by the local lighting tech. Note that Guy addresses the patrons in French most of the time, reminiscent of, entre autres, the phenomenal Fugazi show in Bordeaux 1992.

The only thing that takes my enjoyment of this recording and show down a notch is that the audio, particularly of the instrumentation, is stretched a bit thin and trebly, hinting at the audience source of the recording.

Video footage of this concert is available, and can be accessed through the following archival link: https://archive.org/details/fugazi1995-06-10 

Much obliged @alexmitrani.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Merchandise 3. Public Witness Program 4. Greed 5. Do You Like Me 6. Interlude 1 7. Bed For The Scraping 8. Walken's Syndrome 9. Reclamation 10. Interlude 2 11. Turnover 12. Interlude 3 13. Back To Base 14. Downed City 15. Shut the Door 16. Waiting Room 17. Break-In 18. Bad Mouth 19. Give Me The Cure 20. Interlude 4 21. By You 22. Interlude 5 23. Forensic Scene 24. Long Division 25. Runaway Return 26. Interlude 6 27. Long Distance Runner 28. Encore 1 29. Fell, Destroyed 30. Great Cop 31. Blueprint 32. Encore 2 33. KYEO 34. Target 35. Sweet and Low 36. Glueman 37. Combination Lock 38. Outro

[anothersievefistedfind]

Hi there I've just discovered your incredible site and just wondered if you could list me your top 10 or so all time favorite Fugazi live shows you've heard so far? Cheers

Hey, thanks for reaching out. Actually, I do not have such a list of shows at the ready, certainly not one I use to rank shows. However, you can trace some of my favorite live Fugazi recordings via the blog. Using a desktop or laptop, you can click on the little bars on the left side of the homepage. This will open an overview with a handful of subpages, including "Highlights." Click on this, then click on "G picks." This will present you with a selection of some of my favorites. Come to think of it, you can get to these directly as well using this hyperlink. Enjoy, take care, gunter

[anothersievefistedfind]

Lance Bangs on Instagram: "20 years after their last public performance, there will be a screening of live Fugazi footage at @afisilvertheat

Lance Bangs shared a post on Instagram: "20 years after their last public performance, there will be a screening of live Fugazi footage at @

[anothersievefistedfind]

Rare Fugazi Footage to Screen in Washington, D.C. for 20th Anniversary of Last Show

We Are Fugazi From Washington, DC includes crowd-sourced, fan-recorded live shows and rare archival footage

[alexmitrani]

Listening to the Fugazi Live Series, I got increasingly curious about the venues that were played at repeatedly and spent a bit of time looking into it.

Fugazi played at 733 venues but played at 79.4% of them only once, twice at 12.7% of venues, 3 shows at 3.4% of venues, and 4 shows at 2.3% of venues. Only 2.2% of venues had 5 or more shows.

Repeatr

The top 10 venues are all in the USA, with the top two both in Washington DC - Fort Reno and the 9:30 club are the only 2 venues with more than 10 shows. In the case of Fort Reno, Fugazi played there 12 times between 1988 and 2002, only missing 3 years (1990, 1992 and 1995).

Overseas, the venues with most Fugazi shows were Forte Prenestino in Italy and Paradiso in the Netherlands both with 5 shows. There were 9 other overseas venues with 4 shows. Proud to see that the number 1 Fugazi venue in the UK was the Newcastle Riverside, in my home town, which was where I saw them play in 1990!

There is a browsable table of the venues in the Fugazi Live Series here:

[alexmitrani]

This one deserves repeated listens. Great rendition of Glueman, which includes what sounds like a snippet of something else, played on guitar at 10:48 - 11:04. It sounds familiar but I have been unable to identify it. If anyone knows what it is, please tell.

[anothersievefistedfind]

Anyone up for solving this puzzle?

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Rote Fabrik, Zürich, Switzerland 6/18/1992 (FLS #0470)

Out of the five times Fugazi played in the city of Zürich, Switzerland (1988, 1990, 1992, 1995 and 1999), the venue of choice turned out to be the Rote Fabrik no less than four times, and for good reason, or so it seems:

“The Rote Fabrik, which enjoys a beautiful location overlooking Lake Zurich, is the alternative counterpart to the classic cultural institutions in the city center.

The well-known cultural center unites concerts, art interventions, movie screenings, and theater performances on social and cultural themes under one roof.

Also located on the Rote Fabrik site are the Shedhalle, an institution for contemporary and critical art, and the restaurant, Ziegel oh Lac.

(...)

The Rote Fabrik was a silk-weaving mill until 1940. After it was shut down, many of the rooms stood empty or were used for storage. In the 1970s and 80s, the Zurich youth movement protested against this. They wanted their own, independent cultural center and thought that the factory site would be the ideal place for this.

However, initially the youth movement was not taken very seriously. Only after numerous demonstrations and even riots was the factory site rented out to the ‘Interessengemeinschaft Rote Fabrik’ on a trial basis (incidentally, this interest group still exists today). Soon bands such as Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bad Religion, and Manu Chao were playing legendary concerts here, long before they became known in Europe. Günter Grass and Alice Schwarzer held readings in the club room, while performances and discussion evenings with an interested young public took place in the factory theater.

The temporary arrangement finally became a permanent enterprise in 1987, and the concept of the Rote Fabrik is still functioning to this day.”

Banter is rather easygoing from the get-go, as Ian lets the audience in on some of the events that made up their day, concluding “(...) that’s what we do for a living, we dry shoes to hairdryers… meanwhile we’re Fugazi from Washington D.C., have a nice time...”

Still, make no mistake about it, since a lot of the songs that are about to follow, e.g. Dear Justice Letter and Reclamation, were as much of an indictment of the state of affairs in the United States then as they are now, unfortunately.

The audience behaves rather disciplined throughout the evening, yet Styrofoam does feature a bit of an interruption towards the ending of the song while Ian intervenes to keep someone from stage-diving (you can catch it via the link to the video footage below).

More importantly, note the different tag and Beatles reference on Two Beats Off. It is one that I haven’t heard before if I am not mistaken. Guy Picciotto has been so kind and generous to provide some more backstory, painting a clearer picture: “It does seem like in the first verse of the song I am doing a conflation of the lyric from the Beatles’ song GLASS ONION with their other song FIXING A HOLE. I took the line about ‘fixing a hole in the ocean’ from GLASS ONION and ‘where the rain comes in’ is from FIXING A HOLE which in fact GLASS ONION is referencing so the whole thing is a bit circular.  The rest of the song I am making shit up and none of them are from any cover songs.  There is a part where I sing something like ‘I like to paint by numbers / cos I can’t keep in the lines / I like to paint by numbers / to waste (my) time’ and later there is a part about wanting to reach for the moon. I think I was in a free-associating frame of mind because I have no good explanation for why that is what I came up with except that I was improvising and that is what came out.”

The recording offers 21 live songs in total, which is slightly above the crop for this particular tour. These cuts are taken off of In on the Kill Taker (2), Steady Diet of Nothing (6), Repeater (8), Margin Walker EP (3) and the self-titled or 7 Songs EP (2) respectively.

This includes a rather rare 1992 live rendering of Burning Too, as well as standout versions of Repeater and, most definitely, Reprovisional which showcases a lengthy, drawn-out build-up and sounds colossal. 

Basically, this one is a show that grows on me as it unfolds, one that culminates in a strong finale with two impeccable encores which includes an unusually late slot for Turnover that has Brendan pounding the snare.

The recording sounds quite good overall. Do note that the volume drops slightly towards the end of Merchandise, and that the vocals or even instrumentation appear slightly louder in the right channel for a good part of the recording, at least after Two Beats Off.

Partial footage of this show (Rend It intro, Merchandise, Dear Justice Letter, Styrofoam, Reclamation) was included in a video on the hardcore scene in Switzerland in 1992 and has been uploaded by the Swiss National TV (SRF) in the course of the digitization process of their archive. It can be accessed via here. These clips certainly portray the band going at it with fervor.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Brendan #1 3. Merchandise 4. Dear Justice Letter 5. Styrofoam 6. Rend It 7. Reclamation 8. Two Beats Off 9. Great Cop 10. Exit Only  11. Interlude 1 12. Burning Too 13. Margin Walker 14. Waiting Room 15. Give Me The Cure 16. Interlude 2 17. Long Division 18. Runaway Return 19. Interlude 3 20. Stacks 21. Blueprint 22. Encore 1 23. Repeater 24. Reprovisional 25. Encore 2 26. Turnover 27. Promises 28. Outro

[anothersievefistedfind]

Video footage courtesy Eyesore Video Channel

Fugazi, Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA USA 5/8/1993 (FLS #0540)

I had high hopes for this one, as several pieces appeared to fall into place, leading me to believe that this just might be a recording and show for the ages, one to cherish and to enjoy again and again. 

Set at the Capitol Theater venue in Olympia, Washington, a band-favorite where Fugazi would play certainly one of their most iconic gigs some two years later, this May 8, 1993 recording simply sounds great and features a promising set list that even includes a guest appearance by Stan The Man entertaining the audience with a bit of a House of the Rising Sun (The Animals) & (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding) improv to kick things off in rather remarkable fashion.

Ian’s familiar, comforting drawn-out guitar chords heralding Turnover follow suit and once this song hits, the band is off to an upbeat, high gear start with the next couple of songs. However, soon after, both Public Witness Program and Two Beats Off get cut short due to some lengthy altercations with a group of neonazi’s (or “Romans”) Sieg Heiling the band and generally disrupting the show. 

There’s still an attempt to salvage and salve the situation at hand, yet Ian’s words leading into Long Division are quite foreboding, “this is a song called Long Division, and it’s about separation, a lot of people thought it was about math but it’s really not, it’s about separation, because sometimes in the world there are people that you do need to separate from, and there’s nothing wrong with that, because otherwise they just drag you down, and so forth.”

The poor company, or “Roman Emperors” are shown the door right after, which causes another lenghty interruption. Interestingly though, the following selection of songs (Blueprint into Facet Squared into Rend It) fits the turn of events quite well and most appropriately appears to convey the mood and position of the band on a number of related topics.

As such, this recording is an interesting entry and addition to the series, showcasing a solid performance once it finally does get going (23 Beats Off transitioning smoothly into Exit Only is a treat, as is the little “polka” improv into Repeater), yet probably not one I will revisit frequently because of the overly disruptive nature of the show.

Further note that a lyrical flub pretty much spoils Last Chance for a Slow Dance, and that the audio recording presented here is incomplete as can be concluded from the video footage (with generally poor audio) of the complete show that surprisingly exists (see insert above). Listening to this bootleg, it peters out eventually, and as such lacks the memorable jam and breakdown of Promises as well as set closer Sweet and Low in its entirety. Alas.

The recording documents 21 songs (Promises being incomplete as mentioned), taken off of In on the Kill Taker (7) which was slated for release by the end of June 1993, equally drawing from the Steady Diet of Nothing (5) and Repeater (5) album, as well as - to a lesser extent - from the 3 Songs seven-inch (1), Margin Walker EP (1) and 7 Songs debut EP (2).

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Turnover 3. Greed 4. Public Witness Program 5. Interlude 1 6. Two Beats Off 7. Interlude 2 8. Long Division 9. Interlude 3 10. Blueprint 11. Facet Squared 12. Rend It 13. Reclamation 14. Latin Roots 15. 23 Beats Off 16. Exit Only 17. Waiting Room 18. Bulldog Front 19. Song #1 20. Smallpox Champion 21. Returning The Screw 22. Runaway Return 23. Encore 1 24. Repeater 25. Last Chance for a Slow Dance 26. Promises

[anothersievefistedfind]

Photo © Wikipedia

Fugazi, Schlachthof, Bremen, Germany 7/3/1992 (FLS #0483)

This tape documents the last date Fugazi played on German soil at the tail end of the 2 1/2 month European tour in 1992, just before wrapping up with three shows in Scandinavia and one in the Netherlands.

Venue of choice in Bremen was, as it has been on all four occasions the band hit this city over the years, the Schlachthof, “located on the site of the former municipal slaughterhouse [...], near the main train station, and [...] the largest cultural center in Bremen.”

Let me get out of the way that the sound quality of this recording is easily really good, well balanced, clear and highly enjoyable.

The performance is sprinkled with plenty of treats, and starts off nicely with a version of Joe #1 (tagged Phantom of the Opera) that includes some mesmerizing reverb on the guitars, sounding great. Last Chance for a Slow Dance catches some more cool reverb, this time on Guy’s vocals, rendering his lines “Flare fakes a flower, A burnt-out shower, No one can see” hauntingly beautiful. 

Last Chance transitions smoothly into an early slotted Promises, followed by great versions of Turnover and Suggestion, during which Ian even addresses the audience in the German language and invites anyone interested to make use of the mic. Margin Walker makes for another seamless combination, even though a segment of the song is missing due to an unfortunate cassette flip. 

Give Me The Cure is a bit of a turning point for this show, with Ian’s guitar being slightly out of tune and, mostly, because of some animosity emerging between the band and some of the patrons after the song. While the reasons for this are rather unclear from the recording, it appears it might have had something to do with a handful of people persistently insulting the band and trying to tell them what to play.

Frustration gradually builds, yet if anything, the band take it into stride and up the ante, turning an already strong performance into a genuine powerplay, busting out a string of songs to address the situation and taunts at hand in a most appropriate fashion. 

Listen closely as Ian steps away from the mic while singing Long Division, “the quietest song ever played”, and Brendan merely plays off of his infamous bell. Ian, Guy and even Brendan (behind the drum kit) then team up on the “crack, crack, crack” spiel which heralds another fantastic version of Blueprint to close out the main set. And the band do not let up, adding some more self-deprecating banter and a forceful combination of songs, Great Cop into Rend It into Repeater, to the musical downpour.

You get some cool snare hits and guitar play leading into Two Beats Off, and a drawn-out yet overall restrained version of Shut the Door to finish the set strong, clocking in at 9 1/2 minutes, and closing out with ominous guitar feedback.

The tape features a complete set of 20 live tracks, making up one of the longer performances of this tour, and drawing quite evenly from the (at the time) upcoming In on the Kill Taker album (4), Steady Diet of Nothing (4), Repeater (5), 3 Songs seven-inch (1), Margin Walker EP (3) as well as the 7 Songs debut EP (3).

Surely another entry in the series to take notice of. “Vielen Dank.”

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Joe #1 3. And The Same 4. Dear Justice Letter 5. Reclamation 6. Nice New Outfit 7. Facet Squared 8. Interlude 1 9. Last Chance for a Slow Dance 10. Promises 11. Turnover 12. Interlude 2 13. Suggestion 14. Margin Walker 15. Waiting Room 16. Give Me The Cure 17. Interlude 3 18. Long Division 19. Blueprint 20. Encore 1 21. Great Cop 22. Rend It 23. Repeater 24. Encore 2 25. Two Beats Off 26. Shut the Door 27. Outro