I was at this show, the one and only time I got to see the band. I remember maybe being 3-4 rows of people from the front. At some point during the set there was a big sweaty guy getting rough in the middle of the crowd near where I was standing. If memory serves, I recall Ian trying to get him to stop, briefly bending down or coming off the stage (could've been during Arpeggiator) to tell the guy in his ear to stop being an asshole, and don't you dare try to jump off this stage. Shortly thereafter the guy did just that -- but myself and others all took one big step to the side as he jumped and crashed straight to the floor.

Was at this show also, my arm in a sling with a broken collarbone trying not to get moshed. One thing people haven't mentioned is the reason the set was cut short. Fugazi was originally to play on a larger stage with no roof or awning, and unfortunately it started raining. In a scramble, the show was moved to a covered tent stage which was super packed due to less open standing room. They were limited to just over an hour to play because the stage was reserved for a "frat auction" or some shit at whatever time--like 5pm or something stupid-- and, as you'd expect, the frats gave no fucks about letting fugazi finish a full set.

One of the most blistering fugazi sets i have personally seen, so it's unique and fun in that regard. Fwiw, Dead Meadow opened the show, having maybe juuust released their first record, and were awesome. Also my roommate, who was studying to become a veterinarian, was given an infant squirrel that had fallen out of a tree on his walk home, and we raised and eventually released it back into the wild successfully.

This recording documents the last out of 7 times Fugazi would play Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and this one wraps up their “Four Corners” tour of the United States between April 5 and April 21, 2001, which kicked off the 2001 tour itinerary with 15 shows in as many as 10 states (Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana and Pennsylvania), their longest string of shows in 2001 and about half of their total amount of gigs that year (32 shows).

Like in 1998, this concert took place at Carnegie Mellon University, here as a free show under a tent in a parking lot. As per Sean Urban, who attended this show,

“not being from there, i was pretty clueless where to go to. i knew it was at cmu, but that’s about it. a good rule of thumb when looking for fugazi is follow the punk kids. that will usually work, but not in pittsburgh. everyone i saw was a punk kid, and they were all walking in different directions! well, we finally found the venue. it was at a carnival, complete with ferris wheel. the stage was under a tent, next to a whole bunch of frat displays. looking out i could see a cardboard castle like from the land of make believe [mr. rogers from tv], and a sign that said something like, ‘sigma delta’s neighborhood.’ yes, it was strange.”

With 1 hour and 10 minutes on the clock because of the band running late, a tight curfew, the obligatory Minor Threat request, someone appearing to have lost consciousness during Closed Captioned, and guitar issues seemingly marring a number of songs (cf. Reclamation, Nightshop, Arpeggiator), this is not the tightest of performances, but the recording of the show astonishingly does clock in at 1 hour and 14 minutes, having Ian and the band live up to their promise to “play as fast as humanly possible.”

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The band gets 20 live songs in, drawing from The Argument (4) (unreleased at the time), Furniture EP (1) (unreleased at the time), End Hits (4), Red Medicine (2), In on the Kill Taker (4), Steady Diet of Nothing (2), Repeater (1) and 7 Songs EP (2).

According to the aforementioned Sean Urban,

“a funny moment came about halfway through the show when ian asked if we had ridden on the ferris wheel or eaten the funnel cakes. this guy in the crowd then started passing out pretzels to everyone. he threw one to ian, prompting guy to say ‘great catch.’ guy got a pretzel thrown at him too, but pretended to miss and let it hit the stage. the crowd shouted at ian to ‘eat the pretzel!’ i think he just laughed off that suggestion.”

My highlight probably is the early live version of The Kill (at the time not yet released) that follows the pretzel episode (the guitar picking left and right is quite cool), in combination with a scarce 2001 live rendering of Give Me The Cure into Waiting Room during which Ian reiterates the pretzel schtick (“that pretzel was very greasy and my hands are now slippery”), as well as (another) solid take on Sweet and Low to close out the set.

The audio quality, particularly Brendan’s snare drum, is rather sharp on the ears during the first couple of songs, but pretty much balances out towards the end of Do You Like Me and can be chalked up as “very good” indeed.

Although this show might be memorable for its location, it will probably be less so for its performance within the overall context of the Fugazi live catalogue, unless of course you were actually there to experience it all in person.

Somewhere on the internet is an excellent series of photos from this show that I stumbled across years ago. I used to use them as backgrounds on my old computer desktop. This show happened ONE WEEK after I was introduced to Fugazi by t w o independently acting friends, and I was overwhelmingly fortunate to have been invited to go with one of them. Magnificent, bizarre circumstances, jam packed, and life changing.

i was at this performance and i will never forget watching them play reclamation live

I downloaded this show because I figured it would have been one that I would have went to had I been into fugazi at the time, instead of being into fifth grade. Ive listened to about 10 of these sets so far and this has got to be the best one... they start off saying that they're a little short on time so they are going to play as fast as they can, and they do a damn good job. excellent quality, excellent setlist, excellent city, excellent band.

Excellent. Sounds tremendous. Thank you all for this.