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 tours.

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.

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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.”