This benefit concert, together with the one on the previous night at the Sanctuary Theater in D.C. (see FLS #0421) completes Fugazi’s Rock for Choice hat-trick, in the wake of the memorable January 24 gig at the Hollywood Palladium, CA a couple of months earlier.

As to the backdrop of these events, I pointed out earlier in detail that these performances revolved “around a period in time when the U.S. Supreme Court was about to consider the constitutionality of a 1982 Pennsylvania state law that limited access to abortions, an event which caused abortion rights advocates to fear that the high court, because of its conservative majority, might endorse the Pennsylvania law or even overturn the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal.”

Also, these concerts “played out against the upcoming November [1992] presidential elections as well, eventually [reaching] a pinnacle on the fifth of April that same year, as several hundred thousand protesters marched on Washington D.C.”

The recording of the first night drops the listener smack dab into the introductory remarks, during which a handful of speakers address the activities and mission of the organizations actually benefitting from all of this, i.e. the Washington Free Clinic, Planned Parenthood Justice Fund, or the Feminist Majority Foundation.

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Right after, Guy and Ian strike up opening chords and engage in guitar reverb, suggesting a number of possible set openers. From the guitar cues, Exit Only, Repeater of even Glueman come to mind, yet considering the pro-choice theme of this particular occasion in time, Reclamation logically follows suit,

“These are our demands:
We want control of our bodies.
Decisions will now be ours.
You can carry out your noble actions,
We will carry our noble scars.
Reclamation.”

The sound quality of the recording of the first night is remarkable and marvelous, the mix balanced to near perfection. The instrumentation and vocals are clear, crisp, up front, lush and full. Everything you could wish for really.

Take a moment to absorb the crushing, grinding, chugging guitars, Joe laying it out thick on bass, and Brendan’s full use of his kit - you even get a clear feel of the hi-hat and kick drum which adds some more texture and depth to the experience. Ian’s vocals are fierce and thunderous as per usual, whereas Guy is all over the goddamn place, running wild with it, growling and snarling, tapping into some primal urges.

There is a bit of hiss in the left channel during the quieter parts, as well as some slight traces of distortion leading into Merchandise, but all things considered, this is negligible.

Sound engineer on the regular, Joey Picuri, worked his magic behind the sound board while recording the gig, throwing in some eerie echoes and handful of repeats, effectively accentuating yet never overdoing it.

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A couple of things worth underlining include The Place I Love (by The Jam) tags on Two Beats Off, as well as some early live versions of In On The Kill Taker tracks, i.e. Facet Squared (third time played live, Ian is still honing his lines and pacing, but the song is shaping up musically), Last Chance For A Slow Dance (having debuted live as early as the summer of 1991, this pretty much is a definitive version), and Instrument (third time played live, and coming along nicely).

Guy introduces Break-In as the first he ever wrote with the band, adding it’s "a song about fucking actually", and "sex is not a sin, and biology is not a punishment, and women do not lose jurisdiction over their bodies the minute they become pregnant."

The staple Suggestion is cut slightly short but features Amy Pickering from Fire Party on guest vocals while Guy (and exceptionally not Ian) takes care of the rest of the lines. Before launching into an impromptu jam leading into Brendan #1, Guy takes some time to recommend the work of New Orleans based Soul Queen Irma Thomas, whose autograph he admittedly once owned before it got stolen. Plus, for the encore, the band breaks out fucking killer renderings of both Waiting Room and Glueman ("Riot Riot!") to bring the house down.

The recording of the first night at the Sanctuary Theater presents a total of 16 songs. As mentioned, 3 of these are taken from In On The Kill Taker, 3 from Steady Diet of Nothing, 5 off of Repeater, 1 off the Margin Walker EP, 1 off the 3 Songs 7" and another 3 from the self-titled or 7 Songs debut EP.

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Regarding this recording of the second night at the Sanctuary Theater, I find that it sits a little less well with me overall, mainly because the flow of the set list feels slightly jumbled with less of a freight train effect or momentum (maybe because of tiredness or a number of technical issues which appear to have befallen the band on this particular night), even though several very pleasing, enjoyable moments and tracks do occur, cf. KYEO (a song “about fighting, about being lulled into a false sense of security”, of which footage exists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20jyvNn-6qI), Long Division, Reprovisional or set closer Suggestion, once again featuring a guest appearance by D.C. affiliate Amy Pickering.

Plus, the listener gets treated to some early live versions of a handful of Kill Taker cuts, cf. Great Cop (third documented live play), Rend It (third documented live performance, introduced as Render My Body Politic, the lyrics are still a work in progress at this point) and Instrument (fourth documented live rendering, “a song about what exactly the consequences could possibly be and how much they weigh when they effect you and not them” referring to the numerous young men shooting each other every day in Washington D.C.).

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The sound quality of this recording might be slightly less convincing than the recording from the previous night mentioned above, but is still really good. The only drawbacks being that the mix takes some time to settle during Styrofoam (Ian’s voice sounds notably distorted at the beginning) and that both Instrument and Turnover are incomplete - the fade out / fade in arguably hints at the cassette (source) being turned at this point.

To conclude, it can be mentioned that this recording features a total of 17 live tracks, including 3 In On The Kill Taker songs, 6 Steady Diet of Nothing songs (5 of these are played successively early on in the set), 3 off of Repeater, 1 off the 3 Songs 7", 1 from the Margin Walker EP and another 3 off the debut 7 Songs EP.

Cool! I was in DC that weekend for the first time and actually went to this show!

The first two photographs provided here can not possibly be taken at the same show. Unless Joe actually changed clothes and got a haircut during the show.