The Pearl Jam guys mentioned in reviews were there in part because they loaned Fugazi the PA that day... With Fugazi's incredible increase in popularity, there were almost no venues available that could contain a crowd of their size in San Francisco that were'nt corporate rock venues controlled by the usual suspects expecting to make their huge cut of the proceeds. In order to keep the show a D.I.Y. event with door $5, the only suitable/affordable space that could contain some 5000 attendees was an old military pier. Getting access to that space was also no easy feat, and required negotiations, upfront deposit payments, utilizing our non-profit 501 C3 status, plus loans from friendly investors to secure a multi-million dollar insurance policy etc. Then looking into renting a capable sound system for the day that would have been at least $10,000k, so fortunately the members of Pearl Jam had one they weren't using, which aided things immensely. Were there too many knuckleheads , Yes, Did the sound suck in the room, yes, but does Joey's tape somehow sound great? YES! What I learned from this event and the scale of Fugazi's growing operation was as DIY punk rock had gotten so big, that it now required resources from corporate rock just to exist in a parallel universe...thus somewhat negating the whole spirit of the adventure. We needed a small army of unpaid volunteers to put on a $5 show now, and lawyers, and the economy of scale that made Gilman St, Komotion, Epicenter and other DIY music venues in our area seem feasible, was now going in a far different direction financially, logistically and culturally. It was peak 90's for sure...

I agree with you....the sound was horrible, bad acoustics....saw them at Russian Theater two years prior, much better show all-around

All around strong show.
It should be noted that Pearl Jam's music unwittingly contributed to the increase in numbskulls in the audience.

This show felt like a turning point. After years of seeing them at Gilman Street or the SF Women's Building or whatever, now here they were in an airplane hangar playing in front of what felt like thousands of people. The sound, as I recall, was band-in-a-garbage-can awful—what you'd expect from an airplane hangar. I was in college in San Jose, and we drove up for the show. We had fun, but it was a weird experience, unlike the Fugazi that had been a part of my life since high school, now with the well-documented calm-down direction from the stage and the legions of numbskulls in the audience.

If I remember, all of Pearl Jam showed up to this show as they were recording in Sausalito. You may not think much of their music.....but a couple of those dudes are just like you and me when it comes to Fugazi. 1138.