#fls1990

Fugazi live photos © by George Curran

McGonagles street image © Patrick Brocklebank

Fugazi, McGonagles, Dublin, Ireland 9/17/1990 (FLS #0259)

The time of the recording presented here is September 17, 1990, Guy’s birthday, which makes this the first one out of Guy’s three “birthday shows” (although no mention of it can be heard on the tape), the other ones in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1993 and in Bremen, Germany in 1999.

The place of the recording is McGonagles in Dublin, Ireland, a venue the band played three times early on but would not return to after this show in 1990. In an interesting article from September 2, 2018, titled “McGonagles, Dublin: An icon of a gloriously shabby golden age”, author NickCD chronicles quite a bit of the McGonagles history. 

According to the author, the venue “[...] held a special place in the hearts of Dublin music fans since the 1950’s. Originally named The Crystal Ballroom, throughout the ‘50’s and early ‘60’s the venue played host to the Jazz and Swing Orchestras and Showbands of the day. These bands provided the musical backdrop for a whole generation of young Dubliners who would show up week-in, week-out to dance to the latest hits.”

After hosting Johnny Cash in 1963, Thin Lizzy around 1970, the revered place “went on to play a central part in Dublin’s music scene” in the course of the next couple of decades, not only doing regular all ages shows on Saturday afternoons or Heavy Metal nights on Fridays, but overall “hosting bands and club nights that spanned the musical spectrum.” Furthermore, the location turned out to be “a particularly important venue for U2” as well, and “Ozzy Osbourne’s rehearsal gigs ahead of his world tour in 1991″ or “the indie fraternity Sonic Youth’s blistering show the same year” are still well-cherished memories by those who were fortunate enough to attend.

However, due to Ireland - “the run-down European backwater” - catching an economic windfall since the mid-nineties, “[t]he writing was on the wall for McGonagles. What chance could a worn out music venue situated a mere 30 second walk from Grafton Street, one of the most expensive retail rent locations in the world, ever have had against the shiny new future promised by the developers plans? Closure and demolition followed and McGonagles was no more.” And so it goes...

The beginning of the tape appears to catch Guy telling the audience they got “spared” this year, alluding to the band being on time for the gig coming off a show in Belfast, Northern Ireland on the previous night, instead of being hours late having missed the ferry from the mainland like on their first visit on November 29, 1988.

The recording documents a set of just 12 live songs, which is short even by 1990 standards. Interestingly though, no less than 8 of these are taken off of Repeater, with 3 off of the 7 Songs debut EP and just 1 song off of the Margin Walker EP.

While a slow rendering of Blueprint, still true to the studio version on the Repeater album, eases the listener into the set, it quickly becomes clear that the band found itself in front of a lively, boisterous Dublin crowd of some 800 patrons.

The result is the kind of performance where Ian and Guy really lay into it, at times getting frustrated because of stage-diving or because of some people blocking the view of others (“first off, get the fuck down, you, you, you, you... get the fuck down... we got a responsibility to all the people in the back here, why don’t you let them take a look at the show”) yet always feeding off of whatever comes their way and taking it in stride.

A case in point is a particularly snappy and engaging rendering of Bulldog Front (Guy not only references “Beautiful Child” by the Blow Monkeys but throws in some obscenities as well), as is the unexpected drawn-out bridge during Bad Mouth or a tumultuous rendering of Suggestion where the band have a woman come up on stage to join in on vocals.

So in spite of this being a brief set, in spite of the guitars sounding rather distant or indistinct and the low end frequencies a bit murky, and in spite of a couple of seconds of Reprovisional missing because of the tape being flipped, it’s definitely cool to be able to enjoy this recording, and to be able to listen close and to listen carefully - in the words of NickCD mentioned above - to “hear the voices of the ghosts of gigs past roaring their joyous songs.”

And a happy birthday to you, Guy! 

The set list:

Photos @ Patrick Fredriksson (Gävle, Sweden 10/1/1990)

Fugazi, Cafe Q, Gävle, Sweden 10/1/1990 (FLS #0271) & Fugazi, Rock Lamour, Linköping, Sweden 10/2/1990 (FLS #0272)

Having played both Denmark and Norway before as early as 1988, Fugazi added Sweden to their European tour itinerary in the fall of 1990, playing just two dates there, before traveling to Poland for a couple of shows (another first).

Their first show in Sweden played out in Gävle, which happens to be the very first Swedish city some 200 kilometers north of Stockholm I got to know a bit myself when visiting newly-made friends and band members of the phenomenal nineties hardcore punk band Serene a couple of years down the line.

Rewind to October 1, 1990, as some 60 people gathered at Café Q to see Fugazi play 17 songs live. No less than 9 songs off of the Repeater album made this set list, followed by 4 off of Steady Diet of Nothing (at the time still unreleased), and 2 songs each off of the Margin Walker EP and debut 7 Songs EP.

As mentioned, Fugazi played a second show the next day, in Linköping, another provincial city some 400 kilometers south of Gävle. About 110 people are reported to have attended at Rock Lamour where Fugazi played a slightly longer set of 20 songs, with 9 tracks taken off of Repeater (with the exception of Brendan #1, the album is actually played in its entirety between these two concerts), 5 off of Steady Diet, 4 off of Margin Walker and another 2 off of 7 Songs.

What distinguishes these shows in Gävle and (even more so the one in) Linköping is the sheer joy that emanates from the stage. Actually, with the exception of the Richmond show in Virginia on October 7, 1987, I’d be hard pressed to recall another show where the band is clearly having so much fun as they did playing these two dates in Sweden. 

Even though the Swedish audience appears still quite reticent with the exception of a couple of enthusiasts, the entire band continually tries to engage and tease its listeners with abundant banter and pleasantries, showing its appreciation for having a great time.

Case in point is the Latin Roots debut (”we’re gonna do a song we’ve never played before because we’re feeling so totally out of touch”). While the Steady Diet of Nothing album would not see its release until July 1991 and several of its future staples already had been played on a number of occasions and were shaping up nicely both musically and lyrically, the band clearly hadn’t figured out Latin Roots yet (“a song that’s not even really written yet”). Guy’s hallmark swirling opening guitar chords only cut in later here, and the band literally is open to suggestions on how to end the song. The lyrics are just three verses at this point, if that, and particularly striking is the different chorus towards the end of the song, as Ian appears to bellow “you greedy motherfucker” instead of “it’s time to meet your makers.”

Other highly enjoyable moments from the Gävle gig include Waiting Room (featuring a little singalong), Blueprint (“la-di-da, la-di-da-da”), the work in progress on Long Division (which features a bit of a bridge and different ending), or Reprovisional to close out the set.

The Linköping gig showcases some nice additional guitar licks going into Sieve-Fisted Find, a fun rendering of Waiting Room dubbed the “cooking room” (”cooking in the kitchen room, [tell me why] because they like to cook, come on and cook out!”), a truly unique version of Burning Too sung in Swedish by someone attending the show that goes by the name of Johanna Rosenqvist, a dude calling out for the band to play Promises or Waiting Room after the band already played these songs and Guy urging for him to “get with it”, a cool performance of Two Beats Off and another crushing Reprovisional run, a round of fuck yous leading into Runaway Return (with impromptu matching chorus), or expressions of love leading into Long Division (”hey, hey”).   

The only thing that might keep me from revisiting these recordings on a regular basis, is the sound quality. While the recording of the second night comes out on top and provides some more up front vocals, I find the overall mix on both recordings is still rather erratic and at times muddled, which chips away at the pleasure of listening.

However, this should not keep anyone from checking out such incredibly fun and cool shows, especially since these portray the band members as most humorous individuals and not as gloomy, dead serious, ascetic monks they are sometimes made out to be.

The set lists:

Gävle, Sweden 10/1/1990

1. Merchandise 2. Sieve-Fisted Find 3. Reclamation 4. Interlude 1 5. Turnover 6. Styrofoam 7. Latin Roots 8. Burning Too 9. Margin Walker 10. Bad Mouth 11. Waiting Room 12. Interlude 2 13. Blueprint 14. Interlude 3 15. Runaway Return 16. Interlude 4 17. Shut the Door 18. Encore 1 19. Two Beats Off 20. Long Division 21. Repeater 22. Reprovisional 23. Outro

Linköping, Sweden 10/2/1990

Photography © by Joey Lin

Fugazi, Cameo Theater, San Antonio, TX USA 5/07/90 (FLS #0206)

Stumbling upon these astonishing pictures taken by Joey Lin recently, posted through the Fugazi live archive Instagram feed, I had to visit this particular recording to find out it is up to par with the sheer force and energy emanating from these stills.

And it is.

This recording documents the last of 4 performances in the state of Texas in 1990, including the infamous Dallas warehouse or “outside” gig a couple of days prior. It is set in San Antonio, at the Cameo Theatre, and the band finds itself in front of a select, yet very lively and welcoming audience, or as Ian puts it “what the fuck, did they give you voice lessons down here or what man… noisy motherfuckers.”

The band appears to be in a very good mood, engaging the audience throughout most of the performance and taking whatever the patrons hurl at them in stride, all in good humour.

In this regard, note that Fugazi perform a little improv and ode to the “most beautiful sunset” the members got to share in San Antonio, and later on in the set even consider breaking up and settling down in San Antonio following the generous sharing of the water amongst the participants, apparently a novelty in the course of their extensive touring, “this is unbelievable, this is the first time ever that people have not grabbed the water and thrown it all over each other, this is amazing, this is truly a friendly  town, we’ve travelled the world wide, posing as a rock band just to try this test, we play a set and then we hand the water out to the crowd to see what kind of reaction we get and I’m telling you in every country throughout Europe they threw water all over each other, in every state throughout this great continent they just threw water all over each other, and San Antonio, why, you are truly… […] I think we can put our instruments down now, and settle here, we can finally stop being a band and just move in, does anyone know a good house for sale, would you all have us if we were to come to live here?” (triggering Brendan to “quit” the band though).

The guitars and bass are a bit low in the mix for the first couple of songs, whereas the vocals are clear and upfront, the audio quality being occasionally just slightly marred because of some hi-hat distortion.

The set list is Repeater era, and draws proportionately from the incredible early work, i.e. 7 Songs EP (5), Margin Walker EP (4), Repeater (8), 3 Songs seven-inch (1), and adding 1 song off the yet to be released (1991) Steady Diet of Nothing album.

Not considering a slight mishap during Blueprint (which is still the slow version at this point in time, true to the album version), the performance is pretty much spot-on and very enjoyable.

Highlights are plenty. Two Beats Off (Guy ingeniously references the “water sharing” and “settling down”), Repeater and Reprovisional make for a great sequence and the band throws in another two bangers, Suggestion and Give Me The Cure, as the “first encore [they’ve] done the whole tour” to close out the night.

Note Ian’s introduction to Repeater, “in Washington D.C. [...] we do have a lot of kids running around, selling crack, and shooting each other every day, everyone’s always talking about how they’re bringing into this, is to have a war on drugs, but really, it’s not really about a war on drugs, because in the end these kids are just selling it to make enough money to live, so we should be talking more about a war on poverty, we should talk about kids who need money and will resort to anything to get it [...].”

Great stuff.

The set list:

Netwerk, Aalst, Belgium 9/90 - Photo © Peter Decroene

Fugazi, De Bogaard, Geel, Belgium 9/22/90 (FLS #0263) & Fugazi, Netwerk, Aalst, Belgium 9/23/90 (FLS #0264)

In the fall of 1990, Fugazi toured Europe and the United Kingdom, performing an incredible number of 60 shows in just over 2 months.

This included two gigs the band played back to back in Belgium, i.e. in Geel (province of Antwerp) and Aalst (province of Oost-Vlaanderen) for a modest number (between 400 and 600) of fortunate fuckers. There’s a time and place for everything, time and place… It would be the second time Fugazi visited my home country, having played just one show here as early as 1988.

For some reason, I haven’t really been paying much attention to these 1990 shows, and have favorited the Fugazi recordings from their 1995 performances in the cities of Leuven and Gent, as well as the one from their 1999 concert in Brussels.

These 1990 recordings probably slipped under my radar because I was just 14 years old at the time and would only get to know their work later on, I think 1991 or 1992, finally getting to see the band play live on the 1995 Red Medicine tour and 1999 End Hits tour.

Now back to the 1990 recordings. Between these two shows, Fugazi played the 1990 Repeater album (released in April) as well as the Margin Walker EP in their entirety. Four different songs are taken off Steady Diet of Nothing (yet to be released in July 1991), and four different staples off the 7 Songs debut EP make the cut as well. The gig in Geel plays out a bit longer, offering 19 songs, whereas the one in Aalst showcases some 16 live tracks.

Both recordings sound really good overall to me, even though Joe’s bass is somewhat low in the mix for the most part. The interplay is powerful and engaging nevertheless, straight-forward, with few mistakes dotted around, which makes these performances stick. The band is in a good mood on both occasions, the audience appreciative yet tentative, not putting up much of a hassle.

Note the running gag on the first night in Geel, as Guy references the UFO Dictator song by Tampax, and the band appears to tag Runaway Return and Two Beats Off with a couple of lines and chords from this song, which was originally released as early as 1979 as part of a split 7″ with Hitler SS and which currently is listed to sell for $549 and up. Discogs offers some more details related to this obscure Italian band:

“Italian prime-mover punk band formed in 1978 in Pordenone by Ado and Willy Gibson, originally as BumPamBingTilt, changed to Tampax in Summer. They released the very first Italian punk 7" single, a split with their fellows Hitler SS, and were also among the founders of The Great Complotto, an independent record label and countercultural organization. 

Broke up in the Autumn 1979, back from London where they moved in August together with Hitler SS and where both bands played the 1st September the famous ‘Cartoon Concert’ under the Aklam bridge in Portobello Road. 

Atfer the split Ado and Gibson formed their own electronic/experimental projects, 001011011100…Cancer and Musique Mecanique, and were involved in the production of many local new wave and punk bands. 

Reformed in 1984, in 1988 Tampax released their first Album, “Sorry Not Tonight”, an LP featuring recordings between 1978-1986; during the 1990s, Tampax had a fan club that requested a photo of your genitals as compulsory subscription fee.”

The set lists:

Geel, Belgium 9/22/90

1. Intro 2. Reclamation 3. Sieve-Fisted Find 4. Greed 5. Turnover 6. Interlude 1 7. Styrofoam 8. Exit Only 9. Promises 10. Interlude 2 11. Lockdown 12. Bad Mouth 13. Margin Walker 14. Waiting Room 15. Long Division 16. Blueprint 17. Interlude 3 18. Runaway Return 19. Interlude 4 20. Shut the Door 21. And The Same 22. Encore 23. Two Beats Off 24. Repeater 25. Reprovisional 26. Outro

Aalst, Belgium 9/23/90

Photos © by Photographer Unknown

Fugazi, KGB, Barcelona, Spain 11/01/90 (FLS #0298)

This gig dates back to the European Fugazi tour in the Fall of 1990 and is set in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia. An amazing city I have come to know a little and appreciate a whole damn lot over the years.

It turns out to be the only Fugazi date in Spain at the time, or as Ian mentions, “I know some of you came very far, thank you very much, next time we’ll be sure to play many places, not just one, in Spain.” He then dedicates the set to “the mafia that runs the society of music publishing” before Brendan busts into the Brendan #1 instrumental.

The KGB venue turns out to be a one-off experience as well, a venue reportedly located in the basement of an old textile factory since 1984, in the Gracia district of Barcelona, which hosts alternative, rumba and DJ sessions.

What is particularly remarkable about this recording is that it not only features a complete live rendering of the debut full-length Repeater album, but throws in 2 out of 3 songs from the 3 Songs 7 inch (which have been released as bonus tracks on Repeater) to boot (Joe #1 is the only track missing here).

As such, this recording is pretty much unprecedented as far as I can tell at this point, even though the Repeater album in itself (the 11 tracks) has been performed in its entirety on a number of European occasions (see for instance the September 3, October 12, October 17, October 19 or November 4 shows this same tour).

The sound quality is arguably very good and enjoyable indeed. A number of tracks do suffer some sonic anomalies but nothing too disruptive or annoying, except maybe for Margin Walker (which leaves a rather fleeting impression altogether) or Bad Mouth.

The recording totals to no less than 23 live songs including, as mentioned, all 11 tracks from the Repeater album, 4 tracks off of (the 1991) Steady Diet of Nothing album, 4 songs from the Margin Walker EP, 2 songs from the 7 Songs debut EP and 2 songs from the 3 Songs 7 inch.

The band puts in an overall ardent and convincing performance, plus it is a pleasure to overhear Brendan from behind the drum kit on a number of occasions, urging his band members on, a relentless whip.

A couple of songs stand out in my opinion. These include Styrofoam (note the prolonged intro), Turnover, Waiting Room, the familiar combo (yet early at the time since Steady Diet had not been released) Long Division into Blueprint (delivered notably slower and more true to the studio version as compared to later live versions) or Shut the Door which provides yet another example of Joe’s soulful skills on bass.

To conclude, and considering that the origins of the Catalan independence movement or the Catalan separatist movement can be traced back a couple of centuries and yet another independence referendum has been held as recent as September 27, 2015, Guy’s interest in the region at the time appear as pertinent as ever, “we had a really fucking great day here in Barcelona today, walked around, checked it out, it’s kinda cool cause the whole tour we’ve been, the guys in the band, the crew, we’ve been reading this book, ‘Homage to Catalonia’ by George Orwell, it’s all about the Spanish Civil War and it had a lot about Barcelona in it, and it is very fucking cool to be here and checking it out.”

The set list:

Fugazi, Dallas, TX USA 5/04/90 (FLS #0203)

Photos © by Photographer Unknown

This recording features the first documented Fugazi performance in the city of Dallas, Texas and it is a memorable one. A couple of years down the line (see FLS #0521, FUGAZI, DALLAS, TX USA, 4/16/93), Ian would refer to this particular gig as "one of the coolest shows we’ve ever, ever played.“

Courtesy the Fugazi Live Series side-notes: “The good people of 2301 Canton, a former warehouse that had been turned into a art-studio living space, offered up their home so that we could play an all-ages gig in Dallas (the larger venues in that town were all 18/21+). Though there had been no real problems during the opening band’s set, the police arrived with the fire marshall and suspended the show until fire-lanes and exits were more clearly marked. The band and promoters worked to make the corrections while the crowd waited for nearly an hour. Finally after their demands were met, we were told that there would be no show and that we should inform the audience. We refused. After further negotiations, the authorities decided that the band could play, but that the audience would have to leave the building. This struck us as insane, but that’s what the police wanted to do. They closed down the street out front and the garage door was opened to let the sound spill out. We periodically put down the gear and went down to look out at the crowd to make sure that they weren’t being beaten, but as far as we were able to tell they were having a blast. Dancing in the street and stage-diving off of parked cars and dancing in the street. Check the last track in the download for a recording of what it sounded like outside in the crowd!" 

The scene documented outside of the venue included at the end of the recording is a lo-fi presentation of the first couple of songs. It most definitely captures the enthusiasm of the audience outside and is quite hilarious at times. Case in point, you get to overhear Joe Anonymous as he worries about his car keys while he gears up to dive off a car or truck.

My only gripe with this recording is that the mix is unevenly balanced and the audio (vocals especially) comes out notably louder in the left ear speakers. However, do not let this keep you from checking out one of the most bizarre or absurd live performances ever. If there ever was a Spinal Tap moment in the history of Fugazi, this is it.

Or, to quote Ian, as he concludes the set, “We missed you all tonight, thanks a lot for coming out.”

EDIT1: In his book, Our Band Could Be Your Life, Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981 - 1991, author Michael Azerrad mentions some more interesting details regarding this particular show or, more specifically, the events  that went down earlier that day, “Before the show a street fight between two rival skinhead gangs - a Nazi white power outfit and an anti-Nazi group who wore Star of David patches - threatened to spill over into the show. To cool things down, MacKaye went out and met with the leaders of the two groups. ‘One guy was wearing a Nazi uniform with a swagger stick,’ MacKaye recalls. ‘And I swear he was wearing a monocle.’ MacKaye brokered a peace agreement, pointing out that the warehouse punks had been nice enough to put on the show and it wasn’t right to make it into a battlefield.” 

EDIT2: Partial footage of the show has surfaced! Courtesy of FlexMyHead: “The first couple of minutes of this video is just random short clips of the band, promoters & cops hammering stuff out and various odds and ends, but I have included four full length songs, those being ‘Repeater’, ‘Reprovisional’, ‘Bad Mouth’ and ‘Glueman’.”

The set list:

This recording presents the second time Fugazi played the city of Gainesville (and the State of Florida for that matter), or more specifically, the second (and last) performance at the American Legion Hall venue.

Leading into Joe #1, Ian cites from the preamble to the Constitution of the American Legion: “To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; To maintain law and order; To foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism; To preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the Great Wars; To inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation; To combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; To make right the master of might; To promote peace and goodwill on earth; To safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy; To consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.”

Right after Merchandise, someone comes down with a bloody nose, which triggers Guy into talking about an occurrence on the previous night in Atlanta, Georgia, where “everyone seemed to be having a good time, people kept coming up and knocking the mic in my mouth, and finally, I lost a piece of my front tooth and that was a piece of calcium that my body had been working on for 24 years and in the matter of one second for this man’s kinda moment of ecstasy and fun he took out that calcium.”

It leads Guy to conclude that “the music is [not] that fucking good that it deserves to spill blood over it" and that it’s not "gonna be like any kind of permanent damage if you don’t get off a lot of male shit tonight.”

In spite of such happenings, the band still gets in a solid, dependable performance. My personal highlights of this particular recording include Turnover, And The Same, Long Division (note the extended outro), Blueprint and Suggestion.

As it happens, this gig would turn out to be one of the (physically) hottest experiences of the 1990 Spring US tour. Footage of the song Turnover can be found here. From these images, I can well imagine how confined and stifling it must have felt to have been there. Or, as Ian points out at one point, “I kinda feel like I’m on the moon, I feel like we’re all moving in slow-motion.”

Overall, I’d probably rate the sound quality as good, while I find the guitars are somewhat low in the mix at times. Note that alternate source material has been used during part of Burning Too due to some digital deterioration.

EDIT : footage of the entire gig surfaced recently! Watch it here.

The set list: