6 apr 2002. harrisonburg, va
jmu
holy smokes! has it really been a year? this show came just at the right time in my life, and i feel fortunate to have attended. thank you guys!
fugazi was the headliner for this year's mid-atlantic college radio conference [macrock], hosted by wxjm radio.
other bands in attendance throughout the weekend were dismemberment plan, q and not u, rainer maria, aloha, ted leo and the pharmacists, karate, avail, and onelinedrawing. most people went to the entire
gig, but fugazi alone cost $5 at the door if you didn't have a festival pass.
the venue was the school's basketball court. the athletic dept must have seen
instrument, because they were wise enough to raise the hoops beyond the reach of guy.
the band came on a little after midnight [so it's really the 7th now] and set up the lighting. [ian, paraphrased: "ok, we'll leave the houselights
off for the audience, but if it's not comfortable, we'll turn them back on."]
i guess they had to clear the room after avail for a few minutes in order to collect from the $5 people, and for that ian apologized. audience response was polite and
non-enthusiastic; i heard no complaints.
after that was settled, and the "have a good time" speech made it through, the double-drums kicked in and we were off with ex-spectator.
a beautiful ode to audience participation.
no surprises in the set. many songs from the argument era showed up. life and limb was
a treat. at this point, someone felt like throwing pages from a book onstage.
as jerry was sweeping the trash up, ian asked if there was a disgruntled librarian in the audience. he implored
the anonymous book-shredder to take better care of books. maybe that's what made him pick furniture next.
i feel like mentioning that strangelight grooved so much, unlike the recorded version i also know and love.
all in all, the show was great. it wasn't perfect by any means, but their mistakes were small and they recovered like pros.
overlong monologues [on ashcroft, bush, globalization, peace, housing, weather, music promoters] and bad puns ["macrock, not mcrock."] didn't help keep the pace.
a wise man once said, "at some point the work has to speak for itself."
epic problem was delivered
with as much force as ian could muster; the last words on the last night of the tour. time to head home--always a great feeling.
ex-spectator
sieve-fisted find
reclamation
nightshop
bed for the scraping
do you like me
closed captioned
life and limb
furniture
rend it
waiting room
margin walker
song #1
strangelight
by you
cashout
number 5
oh
promises
public witness program
epic problem
arpeggiator