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