Fugazi Rises Reaching
When we have nothing left to lose
You will have nothing left to use
On May 24, 1990, Fugazi played a packed Burro Room (Chico, California). Repeater had been out for about a month and everyone at KCSC, the Chico State radio station where I was a DJ, was chomping at the bit. I feel like this was the show that changed everything for me. I’d previously seen Mudhoney and the Flaming Lips, but I was such a newbie I didn’t fully appreciate their sets. I also saw the Angry Samoans, Primus (at least twice), Nomeansno, and Thin White Rope. About a month earlier I saw All down in Sacramento. Each of those shows was chipping away at this idea of rock music as something that had already peaked and we were settling for the rancid leftovers. Fugazi was an atomic bomb to the soft bigotry of market privilege, middle class conformity, and boomer/counterculture-centricity. This was my music. Our music.
Joe Lally’s bass swung the bottom end with authority (“Waiting Room!”), while Brendan Canty’s drums rode the groove on top, with lots of accents, fills, and emphatic punctuation. Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto traded guitar riffs, leads, and vocals on top of the rhythm section, though truth be told, Fugazi’s guitars were really an extension of the rhythm section. The most memorable moment of the evening was when I was standing second row and the guy in front of me got kicked in the face by a stage driver. Blood flew out of his nose and MacKaye did that thing where he stopped the show and urged the audience to not hurt each other. That, of course, deepened the connection I felt with the band and my fellow audience members. It was shared experience at its best.
If I do have a self-critique, I was so into Fugazi that I had zero time for Beat Happening. Sorry Calvin Johnson. If it makes you feel better, I eventually came around to your way of thinking like a redhead walking. Just not that night.
This set at Gilman Street in Berkeley was the show Fugazi played right before playing Chico. If you weren’t able to experience shirtless MacKaye in real time, here’s your chance. And actually, if you wanna hear the Chico show, the band released it as part of the Fugazi Live Series. Everybody wins.
