#fls1994

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:

Fugazi, Belo Horizonte Independent Music Festival, Brazil 8/94 - Photo © by Nino Andres

1994 Brazil tour

With Brendan spending months and months away from home in 1994, Fugazi did not tour much that year, focusing on writing new music instead and playing just a handful of local shows. In between, the band did manage a short string of 8 dates in Brazil, an experience which appears to have left a lasting impression.

In an interview with Thicker Magazine, Ian elaborates, 

“[the 1994 Brazilian tour] was cool, it was like the model Fugazi experience.  We did this one huge festival that was 4000 people, it was the first ever Brazilian music festival. It was sponsored by the city, the city paid for everything. It was a free show in the plaza, and thousands of people just came out to check it out. Then we did a couple of gigs in Sao Paulo, which was two nights at a rock club, with a thousand people each night, and everybody knew all the songs. Then we did a show in this village where no foreign band had ever played, 4 or 500 village kids were just totally going crazy, just because they were so pumped up on the music period, they hadn’t really heard of us. Then we did a gig at this sort of punk club with a lot of Sid Vicious guys screaming, “Fuck you” and starting fights, and we did three nights at this little basement club, one night was like 50 people, and we played for two hours. It was great, we did eight shows and every show was so different, and such a perfect analogy of our experience.“

In a 1995 interview by Tunde Oyewole, Guy notes,

”Man, I tell you, it was different every night. Some nights we were playing in tiny villages, like one-generator towns, and then other nights we played in big cities. So it was incredibly different every night. But the kids there-I mean the whole situation down there was just incredibly strange. Just really, really strange. I would say Brazil was a serious mind fuck. It’s the most extreme place I’ve ever been, on every level. You go there and you’ll see the most intense natural beauty and the most intense pollution of nature that you’ve ever seen in your life. You’ll see the most incredible rich communities, and you’ll see the most unbelievably fucked up poverty. It’s really strange down there. And so the shows were kind of the same way. It was just very weird.“

Find below a rundown of some personal thoughts and observations related to this particular tour:

Belo Horizonte Independent Music Festival, Belo Horizonte, August 15, 1994 (FLS #0628)

First ever Fugazi gig in Brazil, set at the Belo Horizonte Independent Music Festival in the presence of some 3000 attendees.

While the band appears appreciative of such a unique event and the performance is overall tight, little is left to chance. In fact, most of the set list pretty much gets sorted in-between songs, as the band members audibly suggest and discuss what to play next, which is quite a departure from the organic, spontaneous modus operandi.

Even though the volume levels are a bit low, the mix is quite evenly balanced and enjoyable (note that the sound is pretty much reduced to mono during Rend It and Great Cop). 

The set includes the live debut of both Birthday Pony and Target (two songs featured on the 1995 Red Medicine studio album release). Other highlights in my book include Nice New Outfit, Turnover, Waiting Room, Margin Walker, Give Me The Cure, Target and definitely Promises. 

To top things off, it can be noted that this is Joey Picuri’s (soundman) birthday show!

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Brendan #1 3. Facet Squared 4. Public Witness Program 5. Interlude 1 6. Reclamation 7. Interlude 2 8. Nice New Outfit 9. Interlude 3 10. Birthday Pony 11. Turnover 12. Interlude 4 13. Waiting Room 14. Margin Walker 15. Song #1 16. Interlude 5 17. Give Me The Cure 18. Interlude 6 19. By You 20. Instrument 21. Rend It 22. Interlude 7 23. Great Cop 24. Interlude 8 25. Target 26. Interlude 9 27. Promises 28. Outro

Circo Voador, Rio De Janeiro,  August 18, 1994 (FLS #0629)

One of my favourite recordings from this particular tour, considering it is one of the better sounding ones (maybe a bit rough around the edges) but also because the event played out at a smaller venue, the Circo Voador in Rio De Janeiro in front of a rowdy crowd.

The result is a more tumultuous gig and lively event, which gets interrupted repeatedly because of people stage-diving and the security issues arising from this. Listen close as even Joe loses his temper at one point.

You can pick up on quite a bit of Portuguese as well, as some of the locals step up to translate for the band and mediate.

The recording includes 16 songs total. Steady Diet of Nothing provides most tracks (5), with the 7 Songs or S/T EP (3), Red Medicine (2), In on the Kill Taker (2), Repeater (2), Margin Walker EP (1) and the 3 Songs 7 inch (1) following suit.

Personal highlights include Stacks, And The Same, Waiting Room, Give Me The Cure, Exit Only and Shut the Door.

The set list:

1. Opening Remarks 2. Joe #1 3. Merchandise 4. Interlude 1 5. Walken’s Syndrome (aborted) 6. Interlude 2 7. Reclamation 8. Runaway Return 9. Interlude 3 10. Stacks 11. Smallpox Champion 12. Interlude 4 13. And The Same 14. Interlude 5 15. Bulldog Front 16. Waiting Room 17. Give Me The Cure 18. Long Division 19. Target 20. Birthday Pony 21. Interlude 6 22. Exit Only 23. Shut the Door 24. Outro

Col. Leao XIII Hall, Itaborai,  August 19, 1994 (FLS #0630)

This one sounds like an average audience recording at best. This is unfortunate, since it hints at a phenomenal, intense performance, and because the set list includes one-off live renderings (this tour) of both the Steady Diet instrumental and KYEO.

Forensic Scene, taken from the Red Medicine album, makes its live debut after Guy notes that ”you’re probably gonna hate this song, but we’re gonna play it anyway.“

In-between song chatter features more praise for the Brazilian journey, and Guy taking pleasure in getting his hair cut at a local spot that day.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Steady Diet 3. Exit Only 4. Greed 5. Interlude 1 6. Turnover 7. Interlude 2 8. KYEO 9. Forensic Scene 10. By You 11. Interlude 3 12. Repeater 13. Two Beats Off (w/ Summertime / The Place I Love tags) 14. Interlude 4 15. Bad Mouth 16. Bulldog Front 17. Waiting Room 18. Interlude 5 19. Blueprint 20. Interlude 6 21. Instrument 22. Public Witness Program 23. Sweet and Low 24. Outro

Aeroanta, Sao Paulo,  August 20, 1994 (FLS #0631)

This concert showcases tour exclusive live renderings of Latin Roots and Sieve-Fisted Find. Fell, Destroyed, another cut taken from the (then) upcoming Red Medicine album is added to the live repertoire in instrumental form.

The mix takes the opening song to settle, but once it does, the sound quality of the recording is quite good and balanced. Note however, that the audience is rather low in the mix, that Guy’s guitar cuts out occasionally, and that there is a bit of distortion (buzz) crosscutting some of the quieter parts.

An enjoyable performance overall, featuring 21 tracks total, favouring the Repeater album (6), followed by Red Medicine (4), Steady Diet (3), Kill Taker (3), the S/T EP (2), Margin Walker EP (2), and 3 Songs 7 inch (1).

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Styrofoam 3. Latin Roots 4. Facet Squared 5. Sieve-Fisted Find 6. Reclamation 7. Interlude 1 8. Two Beats Off (w/ Summertime / The Place I Love tags) 9. Interlude 2 10. Birthday Pony 11. By You 12. Margin Walker 13. Bad Mouth 14. Break-In 15. Waiting Room 16. Interlude 3 17. Smallpox Champion 18. Interlude 4 19. Instrument 20. Blueprint 21. Interlude 5 22. Long Division 23. Target 24. Repeater 25. Encore 26. Fell, Destroyed Instrumental 27. Promises 28. Reprovisional

Aeroanta, Sao Paulo,  August 21, 1994 (FLS #0632)

Second night at the Aeroante, Sao Paolo, according to Guy “an amazing city you live in, this is like 37 Manhattans all put together, it’s totally crazy.” This is arguably the best sounding recording from this particular tour, even though somewhat high on treble (note that Joe’s bass, ironically, is low in the mix on Joe #1).

The set list features a number of strongpoints in my opinion, e.a. a vibrant version of Exit Only, Long Division (which appropriately addresses a fight that broke up moments before), Returning The Screw, and the powerhouse combo Shut the Door into Glueman to close out the night, yet my absolute highlight is Runaway Return, i.e. specifically Ian’s guitar playing out against Joe’s bass which catches some eerie reverb on the go.

The recording captures an outstanding performance, even though Guy’s vocals sound a tad fatigued, and adds up to 18 live tracks, drawn from In on the Kill Taker (5), S/T EP (4), Repeater (3), Steady Diet (3), Red Medicine (2), and the 3 Songs 7 inch (1) respectively.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Joe #1 3. Exit Only 4. Interlude 1 5. Merchandise 6. Interlude 2 7. Cassavetes 8. Repeater 9. Interlude 3 10. Rend It 11. Interlude 4 12. Long Division 13. Runaway Return 14. Interlude 5 15. Waiting Room 16. Give Me The Cure 17. Suggestion 18. Interlude 6 19. Forensic Scene (“a slow, slow, sad song so you might look to your neighbour and do a nice slow evil Lambada”) 20. Returning The Screw 21. Smallpox Champion 22. Interlude 7 23. By You 24. Interlude 8 25. Great Cop 26. Encore 27. Shut the Door 28. Glueman

92 Graus, Curitiba,  August 25, 1994 (FLS #0633)

First out of three consecutive concerts at the 92 Graus, a small underground bar in Curitiba. The instrumentation, the drums particularly, are rather low in the mix, the overall sound coming off suppressed or muffled. As such, it pretty much fails to engage in my opinion.

Note the tour exclusive live performance of Dear Justice Letter and a solid take on Shut the Door.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Joe #1 3. And The Same 4. Interlude 1 5. Cassavetes 6. Merchandise 7. Public Witness Program 8. Interlude 2 9. Instrument 10. Walken’s Syndrome 11. Interlude 3 12. Birthday Pony 13. Dear Justice Letter 14. Interlude 4 15. Suggestion 16. Give Me The Cure 17. Waiting Room 18. Interlude 5 19. Forensic Scene 20. By You 21. Interlude 6 22. Stacks 23. Runaway Return 24. Shut the Door 25. Outro

92 Graus, Curitiba,  August 26, 1994 (FLS #0635)

Previously released as part of the original hardcopy Live Series (volume 11), this here is a recording I’ve always enjoyed listening to.

Admittedly Guy’s Rickenbacker partially drowns out the rest of the guitar play or instrumentation, yet otherwise it’s deliciously right up there in your face, as are the vocals. Add in some altercations or puta musings, and you have a recording which demands attention and favours repeated listening.

Personal picks include Exit Only (a couple of people address the audience in Portuguese at the beginning of the song), Two Beats Off (w/ subtle The Place I Love / Summertime hints), Blueprint, Reprovisional (w/ Roadrunner tag) and - pretty much as per usual - Promises to close out the set (Ian plays a handful of introductory notes to Sweet and Low right before ending the gig).

Returning the Screw, on the other hand, surprisingly falls flat here in my opinion, as the band doesn’t seem to get the pacing quite right.

The Repeater album provides most tracks (6), followed by the Kill Taker (5), Steady Diet (3), Red Medicine (2), Margin Walker EP (2) and the 7 Songs debut EP (1), adding up to a total of 19 live cuts.

Footage of this concert (mistakenly dated August 25) can be found here.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Brendan #1 3. Facet Squared 4. Rend It 5. Great Cop 6. Exit Only 7. Greed 8. Turnover 9. Reclamation 10. Two Beats Off 11. By You 12. Waiting Room 13. Margin Walker 14. Long Division 15. Blueprint 16. Birthday Pony 17. Reprovisional 18. Returning the Screw 19. Smallpox Champion 20. Promises

92 Graus, Curitiba,  August 27, 1994 (FLS #0636)

On paper, hands down my favourite set list from this particular tour. The Red Medicine instrumental Version makes its live debut and is served as set opener to boot (note that the song did not make another appearance until the October 8, 1995 gig in St. Louis, Missouri).

It has been mentioned that the quality of the recording is subpar due to the sound cutting in and out. And while this is true, fortunately only the first couple of songs are affected by this. As soon as Merchandise, everything pretty much balances out, and leaves us with the bulk of the recording to enjoy even though the overall sound remains a bit thin or shrill, atleast up to Two Beats Off. The cassette gets turned after this and once Song #1 kicks in, the sound quality improves some more (technical hindrances do persist).

Probably the longest show of this tour, with 21 songs total (note that Glueman is cut short before the final breakdown or finale), slightly favouring the Repeater album (6), followed by Steady Diet (4), 7 Songs or S/T debut EP (3), Red Medicine (3), Kill Taker (3), and the 3 Songs seven-inch (2).

The second half of the show, i.e. the whole Bulldog Front into Glueman streak is pure bliss, and includes the only live rendering of Last Chance for a Slow Dance from this Brazilian string of shows. Plus, Interlude 3 essentially is a rough cut of Lusty Scripps as featured through the 1999 Fugazi documentary and subsequent soundtrack Instrument.

The set list:

Fugazi, Pirate House, Washington, DC USA 6/03/94 (FLS #0626)

In between the taxing 1993 and 1995 tours (adding up to 134 and 123 gigs respectively), 1994 provided Fugazi some respite and a chance to focus on writing new material.

As such, the first Fugazi live performance took place as late as June 3, 1994 at the famed Pirate House which, according to Guy,

“[…] was a group house located in the Mount Pleasant area of Washington DC that started in March of 1989. At that time Mount Pleasant was beginning to be the location of choice for a bunch of group houses involving musicians in the DC scene. Alot of the houses became pretty infamous like for example the Embassy (home to members of Slant 6, Nation of Ulysses and others) which hosted alot of important shows and happenings. At a certain point, Fugazi decided to store some studio equipment in the Pirate House basement (part of which also happened to be my bedroom). We had a 16 channel board and an 8 track Tascam deck, a small collection of mics and a "snake” extension which enabled us to record bands in rooms all over the house. Alot of bands in town wanted to make recordings but couldn’t really afford an expensive studio so we just started doing tapes at Pirate House. It was a very low key, unprofessional set up but we did make alot of tapes that were released including stuff by Slant 6, the Make Up, Meltdown, the Metamatics, Blonde Redhead, Cranium, All Scars, Black Light Panthers etc. After about 9 years of living at Pirate House, I moved out and basically left the studio concept in the hands of Juan Carrera. He had been living at the house for a couple of years prior to that and had invested in better recording equipment including a 16 track deck. Gradually, he kind of assumed responsibility for the house and the studio after I left. A couple of years later, as the neighborhood became more and more gentrified and most of the group houses had been broken up by escalating rents and the sale of some of the houses, Pirate House itself went up for sale. Luckily, in the case of this house, it was purchased by a friend and remains in the fold, so to speak, though the studio no longer exists.“