Philly, April 1995, the first two Fugazi gigs (see also FLS #0642) “outside of Washington, at least in the States in like […] a year and a half or almost two years.”

Actually, not counting their concerts in the state of Hawaii (cf. Honolulu) and the state of Maryland (cf. Silver Spring and Baltimore) in December 1993, November 1994 and March 1995 respectively, Fugazi hit Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on September 29, 1993, which might be referred to by Ian in the introductory remarks on the first evening.

The venue of choice, on both occasions, is the Trocadero Theatre which,

“[f]irst opened in 1870, offering musical comedies and traveling minstrel shows under the name Arch Street Opera House. Later, vaudeville and burlesque came to its stage with notable professional showgirls performing burlesque during the 1950’s. The Theatre was refurbished in the late 1970’s for use as an art house cinema and fine arts theatre. In the 1980’s, the Theatre was remodeled as a dance club and finally for its current use as a concert hall and live music venue.

Although the Theatre has undergone many notable changes, the utmost care has been taken to upkeep and modernize the facility while retaining its historical character. The Trocadero is the only 19th century Victorian theater still in operation in the United States. It is listed on the U.S. Register of Historic Places.”

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The good people at Dischord chalk up the sound quality of the first recording as “Excellent.” Even though this might be overstretching it, the vocals and guitars arguably do sound pretty much impeccable most of the time - well, perhaps not counting the sonic onslaught of Great Cop presented here, which leaves less room for subtleties.

However, I feel these strongpoints at the same time significantly eclipse the drums and bass during the up-tempo, noisy parts, hence curbing the full potential of the first recording.

Marking the audio quality of the second recording as “Very Good” might relate to the instrumentation and vocals sounding more distant or less in-your-face. Yet all things considered, I feel the overall mix might still have the margin over the “better sounding” recording of the fist night in my humble opinion, coming off more balanced or rich in detail once you crank up the volume.

But enough of that. From both of these recordings, it is clear that both the band and audience are having a good time. In-between song chatter and pleasantries are essentially easy-going and relaxed, relating inter alia to the Harmony restaurant over on 9th Street in the “city of brotherly love and freedom”, a flu going around, cherry blossom day, one-hit wonders, the 9th Street Markets, Fugazi (not) playing Lollapalooza, and the thousand-layer bread served at the Burmese Rangoon restaurant.

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The recording of the first night showcases a total of 21 live cuts. Most of these are taken off Red Medicine (9 tracks), with In On The Kill Taker (5) following suit, and the rest of their work only sparsely thrown in, cf. Steady Diet of Nothing (1), Repeater (2), 3 Songs 7 inch (1), Margin Walker EP (2) and 7 Songs debut EP (1).

Out of these, my personal picks include a number of highly effective, organically merging one-two punches, such as Facet Squared / Public Witness Program, Long Distance Runner (just listen to the eerie, resounding instrumentation once the lyrics hit, sound engineer Joey Picuri works his fucking magic once again) / Two Beats Off (note that it cuts out shortly in the beginning), Combination Lock (shorter than the studio take, clocking in at 2:20 minutes here) / Rend It, and some more incredible renderings of Promises / Sweet and Low.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the heavy, drill-like guitars tearing up Latest Disgrace, or the highly infectious rendition of Waiting Room (you can pick up on the audience singing along here as well as during a couple of other songs).

The recording of the second night offers another 19 songs. Again, most of these are taken off Red Medicine (8) and together with the set from the previous night this almost makes for the complete album (Version is the only song missing here). In On The Kill Taker (2), Steady Diet of Nothing (1), Repeater (5), and 7 Songs EP (3) further complete the listing. Turnover, Suggestion and Shut the Door probably are the songs that I enjoyed most.

Footage of the second night in its entirety is available through YouTube (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO-l5OsxMqU).