This one is great, it sort of drew me in and it felt like I was there. Highly recommended.

Also my very first Fugazi show ever! There's so much I remember from this night. Joe Lally was watching Shudder To Think play and I nervously went up to him and said, "Are you Joe Lally from Fugazi" like I was Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney on SNL. He shook my hand and I ran off excitedly. I remember seeing all 4 members of Fugazi walking from the back of the arena, right through the crowd, probably to get to an area behind the stage. Seeing them in real life absolutely blew my mind. And this is the truly unfortunate part....during the 'Opening remarks' I am the person who yells, "take your shirt off buddy". Yikes. I sincerely apologize for that. I was 16 years old, obviously quite obnoxious and immature. I have no idea why I yelled that to my favorite band. When Ian said, "what the fuck is your problem, sir" I remember I turned beet red, completely embarrassed. I do remember thinking it was a tiny bit funny because I got called 'sir' and I was only 16 years old. And lastly, I remember Guy falling off the stage, and that was super scary. I'm so lucky I got to see Fugazi many times after that, but this show will always be the most memorable.

This recording dates back to Guy’s birthday, September 17, as Fugazi toured the United States and Canada in the fall of 1993 (the band performed on Guy’s birthday on only two other occasions, in 1990 and 1999 respectively).

As it happens, this is the only Fugazi appearance in the State of Massachusetts in 1993, seemingly because the band had been having a hard time negotiating an all ages location. As a result, we find ourselves at another odd venue (a hockey rink) the band played over the years, i.e. The George R. Wallace Jr. Civic Center or Wallace Civic Center in Fitchburg, a structure that once housed two separate ice rinks and a planetarium.

Although the Civic Center reportedly fell into disrepair over the course of the decades, the planetarium had to be closed, and concerts fell into disfavour, the 3,200 cap venue did welcome a number of acclaimed bands during the 1990s, including Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, Jane’s Addiction, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Rage Against the Machine.

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As to the Fugazi performance at hand, I find the first couple of songs do not do much for me because the sound quality pretty much reflects the off key acoustics of the venue (the vocals especially suffer from this).

Still, I think it pays off waiting this one out for a bit, because once the mix settles, you are in for a beautiful version of Turnover (still one of my favorites) which basically marks the beginning of an excellent recording with plenty of highlights such as Instrument, Rend It or the seamless transition of Suggestion (there are some slight sonic glitches here) into Give Me The Cure (during the outro of Suggestion, Ian gradually yet brilliantly introduces the opening guitar notes of Give Me The Cure).

Also, it is well worth checking out the early mesmerizing instrumental take on Fell, Destroyed and I encourage the listener to listen closely as the guitars go into the familiar yet chilling sonic meltdown for more than a minute before the band finally bursts into Glueman (another one of my favorites).

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Presented here are 19 live tracks in total, and the band draws from most of their work at the time, and then some: Red Medicine (1), In on the Kill Taker (8), Steady Diet of Nothing (2), Repeater (3), Margin Walker EP (1) and 7 Songs debut EP (4).

Even though I haven’t been able to pick up on the incident from this recording, it can be noted that Guy is reported to have fallen off the stage at some point during the gig. A picture of him sitting down backstage, wearing a red shirt and dark trousers covered in dirt (see photo insert) has also been included in the Red Medicine album photo booklet.

To conclude, I’d like to refer to an interesting article about the band, which was written and published a couple of days prior to the performance at the Civic Center. It can be found via https://ohhzion.omeka.net/items/show/2.

And a happy birthday to you, Guy!

What stands out in my mind when I think of this show is the 5th interlude where Ian tells a heckler that he would jam a fork in his eye before telling him he's never invited to dinner at the MacKaye household.

I won tickets on WAMH and drove all the way from Springfield to Fitchburg Rock City to see the Fugazzz. Had a roughed up Maximum RocknRoll in my possession to read during the downtime. Shudder was pretty great, if not well received by the locals, Craig was in remarkable voice if I recall. oh youth

The one and only time I saw Fugazi, on the drive up my buddy that was driving got pulled over and his car impounded for not having its current registration sticker on it and having to hitchhike to the show.

Also my first fugazi show. I remember at one time being on the second level of the hockey arena and getting a bird's eye view directly above Fugazi and watching the entire place jump up and down. I am not entirely sure I have been at any other show with as much energy as this one.

At the 1997 UNH show, Ian told us the Guy story M Fournier is mentioning above.

my first fugazi show too. I wouldn't have thought it was that long ago..

My first Fugazi show. I was so excited, I bought a ticket from Ticketmaster(!) A group of friends drove there from UMass-Amherst. It was in a giant hockey-type arena (I had no idea those Red Medicine pics were from there). The first song was "Reclamation". As soon as the first notes started playing I lost control of my body in a moving sea of people. I turned to my friend and said "here we go" and I've been going ever since.

Guy's birthday -- he fell off the stage. There's photos of his steaming after this show inside of 'Red Medicine.'