I just stumbled onto this Live Series after watching Ian do the Library of Congress talk. Excellent by the way. I was at this show in Madison at the Neighborhood House in 1990 and it was the first time I had seen Fugazi play. I remember how hot it was in the basement and the constructed stage just for the show. A local band called Inspector 12 opened up which I was friends with and skateboarded with a couple of them. I was 16 at the time and still clearly remember waiting outside to get in. Good memories.
This recording documents the third out of three Fugazi concerts in the state of Wisconsin on the 1990 Spring / Summer US tour. It is set in the state capital and City of Four Lakes Madison, at the Neighbourhood House, allegedly a gymnasium or full-sized basketball court in a community center where the promoter constructed a 3-foot high stage at one end for the occasion.
There are some serious volume shifts and other sonic discrepancies to be noted during the introductory remarks and at the beginning of Turnover, but once the mix settles (a little over a minute into the song) and the sound balances out, this recording sounds pretty good. Although the guitars, bass or drums are a bit low in the mix at times, Brendan’s kick drum and the voices of both Ian and Guy especially come out very clear, which is a pleasure.
Admittedly, there is not much going on in terms of stage banter (this concert does appear to have gone down in the books as one of the hottest - literally - shows of the tour together with the one in Gainesville, Florida), which might render the overall experience a tad low-key.
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Still, I think the performance is enjoyable nonetheless and well-worth checking out. Even though occasionally somewhat cluttered (case in point, Runaway Return falls notably short because of some guitar issues), Fugazi treats its audience to a solid gig, in spite of the heat.
Highlights in my opinion include an instrumental version of Reclamation (the guitars are less distorted compared to the studio take and later live recordings), Song #1, Shut the Door (notice the seemingly wacky bass guitar sound effects), or Waiting Room.
To conclude, I’d like to point out that it is interesting to compare the rendering of Blueprint here, which is performed rather slow (even slightly slower than the studio version on the Repeater album which had been released some two months before), and to compare it with the distinctly faster live versions later on.
there are some serious volume shifts at the beginning of Turnover, but once the sound balances out, this recording sounds great. although the bass and drums are a bit low in the mix, the guitars and voices especially of both Ian and Guy come out very clear. the instrumental version of Reclamation is also noteworthy, as well as the quirky bass guitar sound effects (?) used during Shut the Door...
1. | Intro | |
2. | Turnover | |
3. | Reclamation | |
4. | And The Same | |
5. | Sieve-Fisted Find | |
6. | Interlude 1 | |
7. | Burning Too | |
8. | Interlude 2 | |
9. | Lockdown | |
10. | Song #1 | |
11. | Interlude 3 | |
12. | Blueprint | |
13. | Interlude 4 | |
14. | Shut the Door | |
15. | Interlude 5 | |
16. | Runaway Return | |
17. | Interlude 6 | |
18. | Suggestion | |
19. | Give Me The Cure | |
20. | Waiting Room | |
21. | Outro |
Please Note: Available recordings have been mastered to correct for volume shifts, drop outs, etc. but some sonic anomalies will still exist, especially early in the set when the mix is being settled. The band has rated each show for sound quality and set the general price of a download at $5 per show. If you have a different price in mind feel free to utilize the alternative pricing option.
Correction: Inspector 12 did not play at this show. My mistake...