Is it just me or is there a track missing? I seem to recall the drummer from the Ex playing along on Ex-Spectator?
In keeping with the 1999 West Coast tour, this recording relates to the 6th out of 7 times Fugazi would hit the city of San Francisco, and the only time the band played the 3000 cap Maritime Hall in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood that operated from 1995 through 2001 as a popular music venue and nightclub where Maritime Hall Productions, later dubbed 2be1 Productions, set up shows.
Maritime Hall allegedly (http://www.2b1records.com/assets/History.html) had difficulty with bookings, advertising, and ticket sales, which it attributed to unfair competition from the City’s premier music promoter, Bill Graham Presents. According to that same source, “[i]n response, 2b1 opened its own network of 24 service charge-free outlets, with a homemade bar code printing system considered the first for a venue. Artists and talent agents who dealt with the club found themselves blacklisted from other venues.”
After a fair share of run-ins with the police orchestrating efforts to shut down all of the major nightclubs and performance venues in the area due to residents moving into new upscale lofts, the club “[u]ltimately […] succumbed to rising real estate prices during the dot-com bubble. It lost its lease in 2001 when the building owner raised the rent in expectation of renting the space out for business use.”
While song selection and set list are always up for debate, and while this particular performance is far from tight, even cluttered or clearly off the mark at times (cf. Bed For The Scraping, Break-In), it can be discerned from the recording that the band appears eager to steamroll its audience. The band is freewheeling, juggling the old and the new, I mean, Recap Modotti into Margin Walker, come on!
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Add an eager and at times frenzied audience which probably culminates around Waiting Room (“Get up, get up, get the fuck!”) and you can easily imagine the place was lit for the occasion. In this regard, the cool build build-up on Five Corporations as both Ian and Guy urge for the house lights to get turned up can be mentioned as well.
And while I do enjoy listening to the recording for all of the above reasons, there are some king-size drawbacks to be noted as well, which eventually just might keep me from revisiting it anytime soon. Most of it has to do with the vocals coming off separated or mono in the mix, Ian in the left ear channel, Guy right, which I find damn well annoying to be honest. Plus, for the most part, the guitars are rather low in the mix, and the DAT recording appears to be off since there is a beat missing here and there.
Banter is few and far between, yet does include the “duck rant”, as Guy elaborates, “you know, in the history of the band I’ve been hit with a lot of things, I’ve been hit with wine bottles, I’ve been hit with Coke bottles, I’ve been hit with books, I’ve been hit with stones, it’s the fist time I ever got hit in the neck with a duck.”
The main set and no less than two encores add up to 26 live tracks, no doubt a treat for those fortunate enough to attend, and draw on the 2001 Furniture EP (2), as well as on all other available recordings at the time: End Hits (9), Red Medicine (3), In on the Kill Taker (3), Steady Diet of Nothing (3), Repeater (3), 3 Songs seven-inch (1), Margin Walker EP (1) and debut 7 Songs EP (1).
Note that the set includes the first out of only three times Latin Roots was performed on this leg of the 1999 tour, as well as the first out of a mere handful times the band played the breakneck tune Break-In in 1999.
Was lucky to see Watsonville, Palo Alto and SF on this tour. All shows were excellent. I remember the Maritime Hall show as particularly great, and one of the best shows I ever saw. Hope this one gets released.
Can't wait for this one! I remember this show fondly...and Guy's rant about the duck!
Waiting for this awesome show. :-)
I saw Fugazi four times and, while they were always great, this was by far the best show I saw them put on. Amazing energy and a great crowd. I'd love to hear it again.
Fantastic show. Hope that it will be added to the series soon.
1. | Intro | |
2. | Birthday Pony | |
3. | Place Position | |
4. | Facet Squared | |
5. | Latin Roots | |
6. | Styrofoam | |
7. | Recap Modotti | |
8. | Margin Walker | |
9. | Furniture | |
10. | Two Beats Off | |
11. | Break | |
12. | FD | |
13. | Closed Captioned | |
14. | Interlude 1 | |
15. | Arpeggiator | |
16. | Public Witness Program | |
17. | Bed For The Scraping | |
18. | Floating Boy | |
19. | Encore 1 | |
20. | Long Division | |
21. | Blueprint | |
22. | Waiting Room | |
23. | Break-In | |
24. | Reclamation | |
25. | Interlude 2 | |
26. | No Surprise | |
27. | Number 5 | |
28. | Encore 2 | |
29. | Smallpox Champion | |
30. | Five Corporations | |
31. | Version | |
32. | 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.
Age plays a funny thing on memory, but if memory serves the members of Bratmobile were hanging out / dancing side stage but don't think they played as someone mentioned w/r/t the Ex.