Fugazi amidst a long trek across the US, supporting the excellent album Steady Diet Of Nothing, released a few months earlier. A funky track from the PA leads us to Ian's short introduction, and off we go with the always bombastic Brendan #1. Joe has a tuning issue at first, but luckily he's able to fix it during the song.

Just a little mix tweaking goes on before we have a powerful and quite balanced recording typical of it's era - a bit thin, a bit lacking in detail, but emphasizing the band's strong unified sound. Tapes such as this are really good for rocking out in your car or living room. As is usually my gripe, I could use more of Joe's bass, but otherwise everything is quite clear.

The band rocks out with high energy tracks. Latin Roots is a highlight, as are all the Steady Diet tracks here. During Interlude 1 you can sink into the feel of the room as there's a lot of semi-audible banter between the band and the audience.

Promises grinds to a complete halt as Ian addresses crowd surfers. It's highly annoying when songs cut off like this, but such were the times. It makes for interesting listening in a way for sure, if only to hear the band pick up where they left off. We get a very cool segue from Promises to Two Beats Off. Brendan's on fire here, as I'm pretty sure you can hear him yell his supportive "hey's" etc. behind the kit.

Repeater has a great singalong. I think most of the house was enthusiastically enjoying the show, and the crowd surfers understood the message from before, as the band throws in energetic and tight performances. Runaway Return is a highlight with it's groovy and snappy drive. The surprisingly detailed drum mix here is a blessing for fans of Brendan's playing.

The evening closes with nice encore choises, each a rocking track in it's own right. And that's another plus for this recording besides the strong sound and high energy level.

No Waiting Room?