#FLS1995

[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

#FLS1995 #fugazi #fugazi live series #dischord #kingersheim #france

[anothersievefistedfind]

Photo © by Andre Hernandez

Fugazi, Showcase Special Events, San Antonio, TX USA 11/18/1995 (FLS #761)

Even though I set my sights on the US leg of the 2002 tour for the time being, it is damn tempting to go wandering the Fugazi live archive and to indulge in the first interesting recording that comes your way (and there are plenty of those).

Having recently visited the (last) gig in San Antonio, Texas from 2002, and having revisited the (first) one from 1990, I downloaded the other two shows that took place there as well and listened to the one from the tail end of the USA / Canada tour in the fall of 1995 straight away.

The running time of this recording sits at 1 hour and 20 minutes which is nothing out of the ordinary. However, since it only offers a rather short selection of 16 live tracks, it tells the listener something about the turn of events on this particular occasion.

After polite introductory remarks and a bit of praise for a couple of local food joints and a bookstore, things pretty much go haywire fast as both Ian and Guy get into some altercations, calling out an “angry young man flipping the bird” for disrespecting the meet-and-greet and being a “sad sad square” as well as reiterating that they “come to play music and definitely not come to play soundtrack to stupid violent bullshit”, offering full refunds right off the bat for those in disagreement and apologizing in advance to those who come to listen to the music for “ending up to talk a lot to about five fucking people in the middle of the room”, imploring those of good will to have some patience.

Alas. As soon as set opener Cassavetes draws to an end, Ian addresses the “crowd-surfing nonsense” before further taunting his interlocutor. Merchandise follows suit yet while the last note still rings out, Guy urges the audience to “step the fuck back because this barrier is coming down” which takes some time to fix while the band addresses a couple of people in the audience, invites some of them to come on up to get their 5 dollars back and has them leave the venue.

The band then miraculously makes it through Target, Birthday Pony and Last Chance For A Slow Dance undisturbed, after which the confrontations and bad vibes further escalate.

Returning The Screw clocks in at 11+ minutes and is “definitely the longest version of that song [the band] ever played, congratulations.” By the time the songs ends, the show has been stopped no less than 2 more times, multiple people have been referred to the door after a refund, one guy gets called up to the microphone to publicly apologize for kicking a woman in the face, and even Joe steps in to confront some knuckleheads.

Bulldog Front (tagged “Beautiful Child” by The Blow Monkeys: “you’re such a beautiful child, you’re so young and so winsome, you drive me wild”) appropriately ensues since it mirrors the adversarial mood of the evening. It sounds great, but is cut short because the band throws out another idiot for fighting.

Going into Bed For The Scraping, Ian adds it’s an appropriate song, “it’s all about good dance steps you know, figure out how to move your body according to what you hear, it’s about putting your [inaudible] steps with a sort of movement and rhythm you know, here let me show you [some cheers].”

Cool versions of Two Beats Off (tagged “The Place I love” by The Jam)  and By You (during which another guy gets to go) follow.

Before concluding the main set with the combo Long Division into Blueprint, Ian elaborates, “you know, I just figured it out, we all woke up today and everybody was feeling really stiff and kind of in a bad mood, I think it’s the weather, because I can tell you one thing for damn sure, there are a lot of people in very bad moods out here tonight, […] so here’s a soothing number, so we can try to all figure out how we an all tolerate each other for another, say 20 or 30 minutes.”

After a little impromptu jam, Waiting Room ushers in a memorable encore (notice how Forensic Scene transitions smoothly into Long Distance Runner) which fortunately plays out uninterrupted and gets dedicated to “everybody here who has been so fucking patient with this nonsense.”

Looking over the set list, Red Medicine is the main go-to for the night (6), followed by Repeater (4), In on the Kill Taker (3), 7 Songs EP (2) and Steady Diet of Nothing (1). This includes the last out of just 6 performances of Last Chance For A Slow Dance on this leg of the 1995 tour, and rather rare 1995 renderings of Bulldog Front and Reprovisional (which includes some unknown song referencing).

A great sounding recording which will be particularly of interest to those who prefer their dose of Fugazi on the edgy side of things.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Cassavetes 3. Interlude 1 4. Merchandise 5. Interlude 2 6. Target 7. Interlude 3 8. Birthday Pony 9. Last Chance For A Slow Dance 10. Returning The Screw 11. Bulldog Front 12. Interlude 4 13. Bed For The Scraping 14. Two Beats Off 15. By You 16. Interlude 5 17. Long Division 18. Blueprint 19. Encore 20. Waiting Room 21. Interlude 6 22. Forensic Scene 23. Long Distance Runner 24. Interlude 7 25. Reprovisional

#FLS1995 #fugazi #fugazi live series #dischord #showcase special events #san antonio #texas

[anothersievefistedfind]

Photos © by Rikki V.

Fugazi, Trocadero Transfer, San Francisco, CA USA 11/5/1995 (FLS #750) & 11/6/1995 (FLS #0751)

Some two and a half years after having played the Fort Mason Pier in San Francisco on May 1, 1993 (listen as Ian references this event, location and its abominable acoustics during the night one introductory remarks), Fugazi would return to the city for a two-night run in the fall of 1995, more than halfway into their US/Canada tour.

The venue of choice turned out to be the Trocadero Transfer, “an after hours dance club in San Francisco from its opening in December 1977 to the late 1990s” which not only hosted numerous bands, but also provided a space for many DJs, Disco parties, Clubs or Nostalgia parties. Dance space features included “a narrow metal spiral staircase [also known as The Crystal Staircase] with clear plastic arms that went up from the dance floor to the balcony above where people could watch the dancers below” and “[h]anging from the ceiling at the center of the dance floor, there was the hypnotic mirror ball cluster—about a dozen mirror balls of various sizes which continually spun around and were the focus of the dance floor.”

While both of these Fugazi recordings do not offer anything really out of the ordinary in my opinion, they do make up a nice little collection and document solid, joyous performances delivered in very good audio quality that are fun to listen to, particularly since you get a good sense of the enthusiasm of the audience as well.

The recording of the first night showcases some 18 live cuts and draws mainly from Red Medicine (8) and In on the Kill Taker (6) with little of their earlier work mixed in, e.g. Repeater (3) and the 7 Songs debut EP (1). 

My highlights here include the whole midsection from Target up to Blueprint which features a bit of an alternate ending to Suggestion (“there’s your funky breakdown boy”) as well as the closing trio of songs which features another great version of Shut the Door (arguably tagged Phantom of the Opera).

The recording of the second night presents a mere 16 live songs, almost half of which off of Red Medicine (7) while the rest of the set list does bring some more variation as well as some early live staples. In on the Kill Taker (3), Repeater (2), the 3 Songs seven-inch (1) and Margin Walker EP (3) are the sources of choice here. 

This (second) recording is the one that I probably favor slightly given the general loose feel to the instrumental play and little improvs here and there. It provides a bit of a peculiar set list as well (dubbed “pogoish and backwards” by Ian for the occasion) with Long Distance Runner unusually yet successfully opening the show and transitioning smoothly into Turnover and another high-energy stretch of songs (much like the opening pace of the previous night).

My highlights include an incinerating version of Public Witness Program, followed by a great rendition of Song #1. Although Birthday Pony is not one of my favorites, it works well here, especially in combination with a notable performance of Rend It. Promises, again, is monumental, and a fierce rendering of Do You Like Me unexpectedly closes out the set with a BANG!

Note that the San Francisco Weekly published an interesting article titled “Margin Walkers” a couple of days prior to these shows, read it here.

The set lists:

November 5, 1995:

1. Intro 2. Smallpox Champion 3. Styrofoam 4. Do You Like Me 5. Interlude 1 6. Great Cop 7. Rend It 8. Interlude 2 9. Birthday Pony 10. Target 11. Suggestion 12. Interlude 3 13. Forensic Scene 14. By You 15. Instrument 16. Blueprint 17. Bed For The Scraping 18. Encore 1 19. Back to Base 20. Cassavetes 21. Shut the Door 22. Fell, Destroyed 23. Sweet and Low 24. Outro

November 6, 1995:

1. Intro 2. Long Distance Runner 3. Turnover 4. And The Same 5. Target 6. Repeater 7. Margin Walker 8. Bed For The Scraping 9. By You 10. Interlude 1 11. Forensic Scene 12. Returning the Screw 13. Interlude 2 14. Public Witness Program 15. Song #1 16. Encore 1 17. Birthday Pony 18. Rend It 19. Promises 20. Do You Like Me 21. Outro

#FLS1995 #fugazi #trocadero transfer #san francisco #CA

[anothersievefistedfind]

Photos © by Rene Vanes - flyer courtesy of Henrie van Valkengoed

Fugazi, Effenaar, Eindhoven, Netherlands 5/4/1995 (FLS #0655)

(Words below submitted by Antti Väärälä)

“First show of the 1995 summer European tour takes place in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The band start off in high spirits and bash out some classic punk rockers right off the bat.

The audio quality is pretty good, I personally wouldn't rate this as ‘excellent’. I think this may have been recorded with room mics only, but I may very well be wrong. As such, the band seems a bit distant and everything's kind of boomy with the low end. The sound to me lacks detail which make the quieter songs suffer, ie. Fell, Destroyed. On the other hand, the heavier songs are more like an onslaught. There's quite a bit of chatter coming through from the audience on the more somber moments which can get distracting.

A confident and heavy By You is a highlight for me here. There's some nice sing-along going on during Suggestion. Give Me The Cure has the intro cut.

A killer Killtaker duo of Returning The Screw and Smallpox Champion finish the main set in a fiery manner. Brendan #1 as an encore is quite a surprise for me here, because the overall feel of the show is more on the confrontational side. It rules nonetheless, so no complaints! Definitely a highlight. Sweet And Low merging into Repeater is awesome, although I'm pretty sure there is a small cut in the bridging jam moment. How Repeater explodes from the toned-down moment is just so beautifully intense.

If you want a show that has the feel of a very good audience recording and some angry performances, then grab this. The band is on fire here in a tumultuous period of MTV-instigated stage diving and moving to a much more dynamic style in their playing.”

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Turnover 3. Facet Squared 4. Public Witness Program 5. Reclamation 6. Interlude 1 7. Do You Like Me 8. Bed For The Scraping 9. Runaway Return 10. Long Division 11. Fell, Destroyed 12. Birthday Pony 13. Cassavetes 14. Interlude 2 15. By You 16. Suggestion 17. Give Me The Cure 18. Interlude 3 19. Styrofoam 20. Blueprint 21. Interlude 4 22. Back To Base 23. Target 24. Returning The Screw 25. Smallpox Champion 26. Encore 1 27. Brendan #1 28. Latest Disgrace 29. Long Distance Runner 30. Promises 31. Sweet And Low 32. Repeater 33. Outro

#FLS1995 #fugazi #fugazi live series #dischord #effenaar #eindhoven #netherlands #antti väärälä

[anothersievefistedfind]

“Today Like Yesterday Against Fascism with Every Means Necessary" 

Photo © Gary Freitas PhD

Fugazi, Centro Popolare Autogestito, Florence, ITALY 6/14/95 (FLS #0688)

This is pretty much the only Fugazi live recording I have been listening to these last couple of months. It documents events which played out more than twenty-five years ago in Firenze, Italy, yet it has not lost a shred of its relevance, importance and urgency since.

The year is 2020 right now, and as racism, fascism, authoritarianism and related -isms go full beast-mode, I find comfort, meaning, and hope in this recording, which, besides a great sounding and well-performed gig overall, features a very powerful and definitely uplifting rendering of Sweet and Low to close out this particular night in Firenze history. 

Imagine Guy and Ian hitting the opening notes on their guitars while Brendan plays a bit off the rim when all of a sudden the audience hijacks the instrumental, their voices growing louder and louder singing Bella Ciao in unison, a song that quite recently became popular (again) through the acclaimed Netflix series La Casa de Papel or The Money Heist, but dates back much further and particularly appears to have gained traction as an anthem of the anti-fascist partisans fighting the Nazi occupation during the Second World War (1939-1945).

In this context, Bella Ciao essentially tells the story of a partisan, saying goodbye to his beautiful woman or girlfriend in the morning and leaving to fight the invader, dying doing so and requesting his fellow combatants to bury him up in the mountains under the shadow of a beautiful flower, “the flower of the partisan who died for freedom.”

Once the Firenze audience concludes its lyrical voyage, Joe gently leads the band and listeners into the rest of Sweet and Low to end the set, after which Ian thanks everyone present “for the most beautiful thing all night”, as a token of the band’s profound appreciation. Some more words of praise are dedicated to the fabulous space itself (this show traces back to the first out of just two times Fugazi would play the city of Firenze with both shows taking place at the CPA), as well as to the state of the toilets (”toilets are our friends”).

Other things of note include the Red Medicine rarity Combination Lock as set opener here, which appears to have been played live just once in 1994 and merely 20 times in 1995 before being put on the shelf indefinitely (6 times on US soil, and 14 times in Europe), the debut EP consecutive quartet (Ian notably struggles with an out of tune guitar, but it does add to the authenticity of the moment) and a very strong encore altogether.

Presented are 22 songs total, taken off of Red Medicine (8), In on the Kill Taker (3), Steady Diet of Nothing (3), Repeater (3), the Margin Walker EP (1) and debut 7 Songs EP (4).

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Combination Lock 3. Reclamation 4. Sieve-Fisted Find 5. Interlude 1 6. Styrofoam 7. Target 8. Back To Base 9. Interlude 2 10. Blueprint 11. Interlude 3 12. Stacks 13. Exit Only 14. Interlude 4 15. Bed For The Scraping 16. Interlude 5 17. Fell, Destroyed 18. By You 19. Interlude 6 20. Bad Mouth 21. Interlude 7 22. Bulldog Front 23. Waiting Room 24. Give Me The Cure 25. Interlude 8 26. Returning The Screw 27. Smallpox Champion 28. Encore 29. Long Distance Runner 30. Forensic Scene 31. Promises 32. Sweet and Low 33. Outro

#FLS1995 #fugazi #dischord #italy #florence #firenze #highlight #CPA #bella ciao #antifa

[anothersievefistedfind]

Ticket Stub courtesy Peter Streck

Fugazi, Hallschlag JZ, Stuttgart, Germany 6/30/1995 (FLS #0702)

Germany has been a staple as far as the Fugazi tour chronology goes, having been a part of every European tour on the old continent with the exception of a short string of shows in the Fall of 2000 which only included Scandinavia in northern Europe.

The land of Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut, well, that and an established punk and hardcore scene, has hosted a number of great shows over the years, Munich and Berlin in 1992 come to mind, and I now can add this one, set at the Hallschlag Jugendzentrum in Stuttgart, “a weird multi-purpose hall in Stuttgart, in the middle of a working class area”. The second out of only two times Fugazi played this city in southern Germany.

“Lighting designers do not play music, they design light motherfucker!”, Ian shouts while the band configures the house lights. And thus starts the recording of a strong performance overall, with some great interplay and the band taking its time to build up to the songs, adding some nice flourishes here and there (Back to Base does feel a bit rushed though).

Presented here are 24 live cuts. Red Medicine makes a near complete appearance (10 tracks), followed by In on the Kill Taker (4), Repeater (3), Margin Walker EP (3) and 7 Songs debut EP (3) and Steady Diet of Nothing (just 1 song).

My personal highlights include Guy’s churning, swirling Rickenbacker on Sieve-Fisted Find, Target, Long Division transitioning smoothly into Give Me The Cure, the powerful quartet closing out the main set (By You into Instrument into Forensic Scene into Shut the Door), and no less than three encores (including the funky house music played over the public address) which not only showcase another great sequence of songs (Rend It into Sweet and Low into Fell, Destroyed) but also pack a number of early bangers to indulge the audience (even though Guy initially refers to a bus curfew and promises the band is “gonna do this fast”).

Worth mentioning as well are the Red Medicine rarities Combination Lock and Latest Disgrace, which have been shelved indefinitely once the 1995 tour concluded, yet work well here. Combination Lock as set opener makes sense as well, since the band mentions coming in late from Prague in the Czech Republic and the instrumental will have provided them with a chance to get a feel of the room and acoustics, and to figure out the mix.

But one of the things I enjoy most about this recording, is that sound engineer Joey Picuri appears to have been playing around with some reverb on the vocals, the guitars or kick drum during a number of songs, which renders these performances ever so ethereal and haunting, Sweet and Low particularly.

The audio quality of this recording is pretty much very good, although Brendan’s snare drum sounds a bit distant and packs less of a punch because of it.

Footage of the concert exists but is shot from the back of the room, occasionally zooming in, which makes it less engaging than the audio recording presented here in my opinion. The video and a written interview with Ian MacKaye (in German) can be found here.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Combination Lock 3. And The Same 4. Sieve-Fisted Find 5. Back To Base 6. Target 7. Long Division 8. Give Me The Cure 9. Bed For The Scraping 10. Interlude 1 11. Latest Disgrace 12. Interlude 2 13. Burning Too 14. Margin Walker 15. Interlude 3 16. By You 17. Instrument 18. Forensic Scene 19. Shut the Door 20. Encore 1 21. Smallpox Champion 22. Birthday Pony 23. Rend It 24. Sweet and Low 25. Fell, Destroyed 26. Encore 2 27. Blueprint 28. Bad Mouth 29. Encore 3 30. Waiting Room 31. Downed City 32. Outro

#FLS1995 #fugazi #fugazi live series #dischord #hallschlag jugendzentrum #stuttgart #germany

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Capitol Theater, Olympia, WA USA 10/29/95 (FLS #0746)

As I amply pointed out earlier, the city of Olympia in the state of Washington has always been a Fugazi favorite, the Capitol Theater a go-to venue with quite a bit of history. 

Or, as Guy discloses, “we’ve been coming here to Olympia for a long long time, and to say that the city is important to this group would be a huge understatement. When we first came here, to this town, I think we can safely say it was the one city in America that totally, fully blew our minds and it realized one of the biggest hopes that we had as a band, is that people would be able to like freak out without being attached to some kind of bogus, violent crap that had been around for far too long anyway, and when we came here and we saw people and the way they reacted to music here, it was incredibly moving to us as a band, and even beyond that, just this city in general, the amount of stuff that goes on here, things like this film festival, things like this theater, are few and far between, every time we’ve been here, the Capitol Theater has been incredibly cool with us, people here have been incredibly cool with us and even in our home town we don’t even have places as nice as this, so, appreciate it.”

Presented here is their third out of four live gigs at the theater (cf. 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1999) which played out as part of the Olympia Film Festival (see ticket stub above).

There are 22 live tracks total, most off of Red Medicine (9), followed by Repeater (5), In on the Kill Taker (4), Steady Diet (2), and just one track off of the debut 7 Songs EP and 3 Songs seveninch.

The instrumental Version opening the set is quite a treat, and even though the first part of the set is pretty much solid yet standard Fugazi fare (note that the recording skips during Cassavetes and that both Facet Squared and Bed For The Scraping suffer cuts merging incomplete versions of these songs), I feel the Long Division - Fell, Destroyed - By You sequence is what steps it up, pulling the listener in.

A number of straight-up bangers add to the awesomeness and make the performance, which fortunately sounds really good as well, a memorable one.

This version of Shut the Door is simply mind-bending and arguably the best one of the staple I have had the pleasure to listen to so far. The guitar play on Turnover is soaring, the timing flawless. Sound-man Joey Picuri works his subtle magic and beautifully catches some hall reverb on Sweet and Low, riding the ethereal and eerie. Also, as early as 1 minute 56 seconds into Glueman, Ian’s guitar cuts out unexpectedly, while Guy, Joe and Brendan jam on unperturbed, only to be joined again for the breakdown and full force apotheosis.

Note that Ian thunders “get up, if you want to, stand up!” a number of times, a clear reference to the opening segment of the live rendering of War Pigs by Black Sabbath on the Live at Last album, the beginning of which Ian describes as “one of the all-time, defining moments in recorded history”, and “in that ten-second piece they basically wiped out every punk band in the world.”

To conclude, it can be mentioned that a certain Lance Bangs skillfully recorded a good part of the show. Quality footage of these songs can be found here. A couple of these, i.e. Shut the Door and Song #1 are featured prominently as part of the impeccable Fugazi documentary Instrument by Jem Cohen.

The set list:

1. Version 2. Intro 3. Cassavetes 4. Reclamation 5. Do You Like Me 6. Facet Squared 7. Bed For The Scraping 8. Target 9. Long Division 10. Fell, Destroyed 11. By You 12. Interlude 1 13. Two Beats Off 14. Song #1 15. Interlude 2 16. Smallpox Champion 17. Shut the Door 18. Encore 1 19. Forensic Scene 20. Long Distance Runner 21. Turnover 22. Interlude 3 23. Birthday Pony 24. Sweet and Low 25. Glueman 26. Encore 2 27. Brendan #1 28. Repeater 29. Outdo

#FLS1995 #fugazi #dischord #WA #olympia #capitol theater #lance bangs #highlight

[anothersievefistedfind]

Photos © by Glen E. Friedman

Fugazi, Irving Plaza, New York City, NY USA 4/03/95 (FLS #0643) & 4/04/95 (FLS #0644) & 4/05/95 (FLS #0645)

Welcome to the “Fugazi Irving Plaza juggernaut.” About a year and a half after the staggering Roseland Ballroom gigs in September 1993, Fugazi returned to the city of New York in the spring of 1995, playing three consecutive sold-out nights at the historic Irving Plaza,

“Constructed over 150 years ago, the building at 17 Irving Place has existed in many different incarnations. Originally, the building was four separate brownstones, which were eventually combined into a hotel in the 1870s. In 1927, the building was gutted and turned into a ballroom-style theater and christened Irving Plaza. Over the next few decades Irving Plaza would serve as a union meeting house, a performance space for folk dance troupes, and a Polish Army Veteran community center, as well as a venue for the Peoples Songs Hootenannies with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

In 1978, Irving Plaza was converted into a rock music venue and has since hosted acts such as Talking Heads, the Ramones, U2, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, establishing its history as the premier music venue in New York City. Today, Irving Plaza continues to be a major stepping stone on the career paths of hundreds of artists every year.”

Between these three nights, the Red Medicine album (to be released some two months later) is on heavy rotation, as 12 out of 13 album tracks are presented (Version is the only song missing here). In On The Kill Taker provides 9 out of 12 album cuts. Steady Diet of Nothing and Repeater bring 4 out of 11 and 9 out of 11 songs to the table respectively, while the 3 Songs 7 inch, the Margin Walker EP and 7 Songs debut EP further complete the set lists with 2 out of 3 tracks, 3 out of 6 tracks and 6 out of 7 tracks each.

A quick search learns that a number of live recordings documenting Fugazi’s stopover at Irving Plaza have been circulating the internet for years (nights two and three in particular). Even though I haven’t verified all of these, it seems these registrations are in fact the exact same recordings which are available through the Fugazi Live Series catalogue brought to you by Dischord Records.

It appears that the Irving Plaza performances have achieved wide critical acclaim, having been mentioned on several internet forums as another series of incredible, memorable series of shows in Fugazi history as well as having been documented extensively by iconic photographer and friend of the band Glen E. Friedman (see, inter alia, the inserts above) in his phenomenal book Keep Your Eyes Open: The Fugazi Photographs.

However, while the actual band performances rightly demand attention and general praise, I feel that the recordings of the first and second night at the Irving Plaza insufficiently capture the heart and soul of these events and as such, unfortunately, fail to engage or deliver.

Indeed, both of these documents sound notably suppressed or muffled overall and, as a result, merely hint at the sheer force and energy with which the band steamrolled its audience in NYC. True, part of the first recording did get salvaged, but considering this includes just a handful of songs (Great Cop, Blueprint, By You, Forensic Scene and Promises) this offers rather little consolation.

Because of these issues, and given the vast amount of alternative, and better sounding, Fugazi performances available, I am guessing I will not revisit these recordings anytime soon.

I genuinely and repeatedly tried to connect with these recordings, but eventually simply failed to do so. In this light, I probably consider them of interest for the completists or the nostalgic lucky bastards actually having attended the concerts at the time (do note that some of the in-between song chatter, while scarce, is entertaining and worth mentioning, case in point, Guy’s English nurse reveries, something about “Mercury [being] in retrograde” or a cold front moving down from Canada).

Fortunately, the audio quality of the recording documenting Fugazi’s third and final night at the Irving Plaza comes out on top, sounding virtually impeccable and being mixed to near perfection. Joe comes in late on the set opener Blueprint but once those first bass chords hit, you are in for a treat.

Listening closely, I actually remember having downloaded this superb soundboard recording years and years ago. While the banter again is few and far between, Guy’s “bonobo rap” certainly triggers memories and puts a smile on my face, “[…] another string along the line of primates is this animal called the bonobo chimp, and instead of working out their problems with aggression, like let’s say they both wanna eat an orange, what they end up doing is they fuck and then they share, it’s an unbelievable society, not only do they fuck, they’re the only other primates besides human beings that fuck face to face, they’re the only primates that engage in crazy homosexual practices like penis fencing and genital rubbing, so we have a lot to learn from the bonobo chimp.” Ian then quips, “sounds like a club that anyone of us would like to join”, before dedicating Bed For The Scraping to “genital fencing.”

So, if anything, I suggest it is worth getting this recording to experience and relive at least one night with Fugazi at the Irving Plaza. And for those familiar with Jem Cohen’s Instrument, it can be mentioned that the Brendan #1 excerpt featured in the Fugazi documentary dates back to this particular moment in time.

The set lists:

April 3, 1995

1. Intro 2. Merchandise 3. Sieve-Fisted Find 4. Bed For The Scraping 5. Do You Like Me 6. Reclamation 7. Rend It 8. Combination Lock 9. Back to Base 10. Downed City 11. Returning the Screw 12. Smallpox Champion 13. Waiting Room 14. Break-In 15. Long Distance Runner 16. Cassavetes 17. Great Cop 18. Blueprint 19. Encore 1 20. By You 21. Forensic Scene 22. Promises 23. Outro

April 4, 1995

1. Intro 2. Turnover 3. Styrofoam 4. Public Witness Program 5. Birthday Pony 6. Exit Only 7. And The Same 8. Latest Disgrace 9. Interlude 1 10. By You 11. Long Division 12. Fell, Destroyed 13. Interlude 2 14. Suggestion 15. Burning 16. Interlude 3 17. Back To Base 18. Do You Like Me 19. Interlude 4 20. Instrument 21. Two Beats Off 22. Repeater 23. Encore 24. Joe #1 25. Bed For The Scraping 26. Forensic Scene 27. Sweet and Low 28. Shut the Door 29. Outro

April 5, 1995

1. Intro 2. Blueprint 3. Interlude 1 4. Brendan #1 5. Birthday Pony 6. Cassavetes 7. Facet Squared 8. Dear Justice Letter 9. Interlude 2 10. Bed For The Scraping 11. Target 12. Promises 13. Margin Walker 14. Bad Mouth 15. Give Me The Cure 16. Interlude 3 17. Returning The Screw 18. Smallpox Champion 19. Interlude 4 20. Back To Base 21. By You 22. Latest Disgrace 23. Interlude 5 24. Reclamation 25. Encore 26. Forensic Scene 27. Long Distance Runner 28. Glueman 29. Outro

#FLS1995 #fugazi #dischord #new york #new york city #NYC #irving plaza #glen e. friedman #jem cohen

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA USA 4/01/95 (#0641) & 4/02/95 (#0642)

Philly, April 1995, the first two Fugazi gigs “outside of Washington, at least in the States in like […] a year and a half or almost two years.”

Actually, not counting their concerts in the state of Hawaii (cf. Honolulu) and the state of Maryland (cf. Silver Spring and Baltimore) in December 1993, November 1994 and March 1995 respectively, Fugazi hit Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on September 29, 1993, which might be referred to by Ian in the introductory remarks on the first evening.

The venue of choice, on both occasions, is the Trocadero Theatre,

“[which] first opened in 1870, offering musical comedies and traveling minstrel shows under the name Arch Street Opera House. Later, vaudeville and burlesque came to its stage with notable professional showgirls performing burlesque during the 1950’s. The Theatre was refurbished in the late 1970’s for use as an art house cinema and fine arts theatre. In the 1980’s, the Theatre was remodeled as a dance club and finally for its current use as a concert hall and live music venue.

Although the Theatre has undergone many notable changes, the utmost care has been taken to upkeep and modernize the facility while retaining its historical character. The Trocadero is the only 19th century Victorian theater still in operation in the United States. It is listed on the U.S. Register of Historic Places.”

On April 4, two days after the sold-out gigs at the Trocadero, Dan DeLuca wrote a piece about the events, titled “D.c. Band Fugazi Plays Ferociously At The Sold-out Trocadero.”

The good people at Dischord chalk up the sound quality of the first recording as “Excellent.” Even though this might be overstretching it, the vocals and guitars arguably do sound pretty much impeccable most of the time - well, perhaps not counting the sonic onslaught of Great Cop presented here, which leaves less room for subtleties. 

However, I feel these strongpoints at the same time significantly eclipse the drums and bass during the up-tempo, noisy parts, hence curbing the full potential of the first recording.

Marking the audio quality of the second recording as “Very Good” might relate to the instrumentation and vocals sounding more distant or less in-your-face. Yet all things considered, I feel the overall mix might still have the margin over the “better sounding” recording of the fist night in my humble opinion, coming off more balanced or rich in detail once you crank up the volume.

But enough of that. From both of these recordings, it is clear that both the band and audience are having a good time. In-between song chatter and pleasantries are essentially easy-going and relaxed, relating inter alia to the Harmony restaurant over on 9th Street in the “city of brotherly love and freedom”, a flu going around, cherry blossom day, one-hit wonders, the 9th Street Markets, Fugazi (not) playing Lollapalooza, and the thousand-layer bread served at the Burmese Rangoon restaurant.

The recording of the first night showcases a total of 21 live cuts. Most of these are taken off Red Medicine (9 tracks), with In On The Kill Taker (5) following suit, and the rest of their work only sparsely thrown in, cf. Steady Diet of Nothing (1), Repeater (2), 3 Songs 7 inch (1), Margin Walker EP (2) and 7 Songs debut EP (1).

Out of these, my personal picks include a number of highly effective, organically merging one-two punches, such as Facet Squared / Public Witness Program, Long Distance Runner (just listen to the eerie, resounding instrumentation once the lyrics hit, sound engineer Joey Picuri works his fucking magic once again) / Two Beats Off (note that it cuts out shortly in the beginning), Combination Lock (shorter than the studio take, clocking in at 2:20 minutes here) / Rend It, and some more incredible renderings of Promises / Sweet and Low.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the heavy, drill-like guitars or bass (?) tearing up Latest Disgrace, or the highly infectious rendition of Waiting Room (you can pick up on the audience singing along here as well as during a couple of other songs).

The recording of the second night offers another 19 songs. Again, most of these are taken off Red Medicine (8) and together with the set from the previous night this almost makes for the complete album (Version is the only song missing here). In On The Kill Taker (2), Steady Diet of Nothing (1), Repeater (5), and 7 Songs EP (3) further complete the listing. Turnover, Suggestion and Shut the Door probably are the songs that I enjoyed most.

Footage of the second night in its entirety is available through YouTube (see insert below). Courtesy of the person responsible for posting it, 

“The audio from this has been synced from the Fugazi Live Sets series, with permission from Dischord Records, The video is from a show I found on youtube which was such a great performance from this amazing band I just had to sync the official audio when I found out it was available. The gig is from the Red Medecine era. Some bits go out of time but because it was tape, the audio had to be sped up in places and slowed down in others…Enjoy!!”

The set lists:

April 1, 1995

1. Intro 2. Bed For The Scraping 3. Do You Like Me 4. Reclamation 5. Interlude 1 6. Blueprint 7. Interlude 2 8. Facet Squared 9. Public Witness Program 10. Interlude 3 11. Birthday Pony 12. Latest Disgrace 13. Interlude 4 14. By You 15. Interlude 5 16. Song #1 17. Margin Walker 18. Waiting Room 19. Interlude 6 20. Forensic Scene 21. Long Distance Runner 22. Two Beats Off 23. Great Cop 24. Interlude 7 25. Downed City 26. Encore 27. Combination Lock 28. Rend It 29. Interlude 8 30. Promises 31. Sweet and Low 32. Outro

April 2, 1995

1. Intro 2. Brendan #1 3. Turnover 4. Back To Base 5. Interlude 1 6. Target 7. Instrument 8. Runaway Return 9. Interlude 2 10. By You 11. Latest Disgrace 12. Interlude 3 13. Suggestion 14. Give Me The Cure 15. Bad Mouth 16. Fell, Destroyed 17. Bed For The Scraping 18. Blueprint 19. Repeater 20. Encore 21. Do You Like Me 22. Birthday Pony 23. Smallpox Champion 24. Interlude 4 25. Shut the Door 26. Outro

#FLS1995 #fugazi #dischord #philadelphia #PA #trocadero