21 apr 2001. pittsburgh, pa
cmu
you never know what you're going to get at a free show. still, i was not prepared for the scene that awaited me in pittsburgh last saturday.
not being from there, i was pretty clueless where to go to. i knew it was at cmu, but that's about it. a good rule of thumb when looking for fugazi is follow the punk kids. that will usually work, but not in pittsburgh. everyone i saw was a punk kid, and they were all walking in different directions!
well, we finally found the venue. it was at a carnival, complete with ferris wheel. the stage was under a tent, next to a whole bunch of frat displays. looking out i could see a cardboard castle like from the land of make believe [mr. rogers from tv], and a sign that said something like, "sigma delta's neighborhood." yes, it was strange.
a big crowd turned out for dead meadow. they played about 5 songs, and were abruptly pulled offstage. when fugazi took the stage a half hour later, we found out why [sort of].
ian said they had 70 minutes to play before we had to leave, so it was going to be fast and efficient. as he was imploring us to behave to that end, a man yelled, "minor threat!"
ian: minor threat's not playing tonight. [crowd cheers.] how old are you?
dude: 25
ian: 25? you were 8 when minor threat broke up. [crowd laughs.] today is a much more important day.
it was for me. these new songs are so so incredible. this band gets better with every year. this is the third time i've heard oh live, and each time they step it up a notch. last time it was joe who brought new parts to the song. this time it was brendan, throwing in fills that seemed to feel right at home with the groove that's been there all along. when this song gets released, it will be an instant hit.
guy's new song [night shop] had a line about "rain inside the brain," i think.
ian sang a song about evictions [cashout]. he introduced it with, "when everything is too expensive, where are we supposed to live?" the refrain went something like, "everyone wants to pay the rent."
joe sang a new song in his best lou reed voice. ian sang backup.
a funny moment came about halfway through the show when ian asked if we had ridden on the ferris wheel or eaten the funnel cakes. this guy in the crowd then started passing out pretzels to everyone. he threw one to ian, prompting guy to say "great catch." guy got a pretzel thrown at him too, but pretended to miss and let it hit the stage. the crowd shouted at ian to "eat the pretzel!" i think he just laughed off that suggestion. during the pause in waiting room, he mentioned something about his buttery hands.
i didn't see to much of jerry from where i was. i will credit him with setting up the stage quickly. they definitely had to follow that curfew.
two sayings come to mind when i think about this show, one slightly more optimistic than the other: the best things in life are free. good things come in small packages.
number 5
facet squared
do you like me
reclamation
oh
closed captioned
night shop
cash out
rend it
bed for the scraping
the kill
give me the cure
waiting room
arpeggiator
smallpox champion
break
f/d
long division
blueprint
sweet and low