This recording documents the last out of eight times Fugazi performed in Athens, Georgia, which played out at the 40 Watt Club as it did every single time since their first show in Athens on June 3, 1988.

As per Ian, “until recently, I think there were two cities in the country that we had played like numerous shows but always at the same place, one was in Austin, Texas at the Liberty Lunch, and the other one is right here at the 40 Watt, and we’ve gotten word that the Liberty Lunch has been shut down or it’s all over […] but the 40 Watt is still here so, here’s one, I guess we just wanna say thanks to the 40 Watt for having us some many times over the years.”

Clocking in at 1 hour and 55 minutes, this recording surely preserves one of the longest, perhaps even the longest performance in the live history of the band.

During the introductory remarks, Ian addresses someone in the crowd, asking if he is “the guy that played the 3 hours of Fugazi today”, adding: “Well, thanks. I am surprised you’re here actually, I’d think you’d be fucking sick of us by now…” while towards the end of the show, Ian reiterates that “it just occurred to me, if you played Fugazi songs for 3 hours today, you’re working on your fifth fucking hour of us” and grants him a request by way of “reward” which results in Great Cop. It appears that the “DJ” in question is John Farrar, current co-host of the Live On 4 Legs podcast which pays tribute to the Pearl Jam live repertoire.

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While the recording sounds excellent overall, as noted (see the submission by Antti V below), I find that a good part of the set is a bit of a hodgepodge and it is not until Break that it really starts grabbing my attention. But those last nine songs are pretty much perfect and elevate the overall performance.

It certainly offers really good live versions of a number of songs, yet absolute highlights in my book include KYEO, a song “particularly appropriate given the fact that people in Seattle try to make us think about a somewhat dubious World Trade Organization, so-called civilized American police force shot them with rubber bullets, and a so-called truthful American media portrayed it as a bunch of fucking thugs breaking windows but the thugs are on the other side of the badge, so just when you though it was safe… the troops are quiet tonight, but it’s not alright cause they are planning something…”, as well as an early live rendering of Ex-Spectator and a standout performance of Sweet and Low which features various nice additional yet subtle touches and embellishments on guitars and drums (accentuated by sound-man Nick Pellicciotto) and unusually ends with some drawn-out guitar feedback.

While the set list draws from all available work at the time (or even unreleased at the time), note that it includes just one song off of Margin Walker EP and 7 Songs debut EP each, as well as just two songs off of Repeater.

I gotta say, this is definitely one of the best sounding FLS offerings I've had the pleasure to listen to so far. There's some mix settling going on during Number 5, but after that it's a breeze. So I would easily rate this as "excellent". The mix breathes, the stereo field is fully utilized and every instrument and vocal is clear. The drum sound is as good as it gets. The added effects are not over-used, but instead add some very nice color and atmosphere.

Be prepared that there is some minimal digital crackling here and there. It didn't really bother me though, as it's only a few times.

The band start off with some amusingly casual chatting. A pretty classic show structure follows at first in the form of flowing rockers with Place Position being a personal highlight. As a sidenote, I'm pretty sure you can hear Brendan yelling in delight behind the kit on a lot of songs which is a lot of fun.

Stacks is a perfect addition to the set and after that it's all a highlight for me, as the band practically flies through awesome performances one after another. A psychedelic Floating Boy merging seamlessly into a superbly dynamic Argument is just pure Fugazi bliss for me. Another really cool seamless merge is from Oh to Closed Captioned. More of these merges follow but I don't want to spoil them all.

The band play a really long set, representing basically their whole repertoire. A lot of tight rockers are balanced with some sweet moments. The final encore shows this especially well with punk fury, rocking wit and tenderness all thrown into play. Ex-Spectator is starting to be very confident albeit still instrumental here. Sweet And Low is definitely one of the coolest versions I've ever heard.

I gotta give a special mention to how amazingly Fugazi utilize dynamics in their performance at this point. A recording of this caliber really shows that off.

A highly recommended mammoth of a show!

Just purchased the download and starting to listen. Brings back memories of that night and the sound quality is fantastic. Thanks!

Maybe the best show I ever saw, not just because I got to request "Great Cop"