Fugazi in Pittsburgh, PA, during the first part of the fall 1993 US tour, coming from a pair of shows in Trenton, NJ, and a really cool show in Mechanicsburg. The band gigged in Pittsburgh generously over the years, and played three out of the seven times in the Metropol. Ian cools down the very enthusiastic and stage-rushing crowd with his friendly opening remarks, and speaks highly of the Pittsburgh show two years earlier. Pretty soon the music rolls on with the ominous guitar noises of Smallpox Champion.

The sound is a bit lackluster to my ears, as the rhythm section of Brendan and Joe feels a tad distant and thin. On the other hand, the guitars are prominent, and the vocals cut through nicely most of the time. The rating "good" is just right for this in my book, and there are stronger sounding recordings from this era. The most positive thing about this tape is how well the room's atmosphere is felt, and the band's amazingly unified playing.

The initial flow is denied as the band has to stop a couple of times at the start of the show. Smallpox Champion barely makes it to the end as crowd surfing has to be addressed. Latin Roots stops abruptly at the start to Joey Picuri's alarm calls, as people keep pushing against the soundboard. After some still friendly pleas from the band the show is allowed to properly continue but poor Latin Roots never picks up. What we get instead is a crushing rendition of Reclamation and a fiery, Brendan-led Turnover.
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Burning is a fine addition to the set, and this is the first of only three times the song got played during the whole fall 1993 tour. Another delightful rarity comes back to back with Burning as the band hits Song #1 with force. The band push onwards to play new songs with passion, and throw in classic tracks for good measure.

The encore banter is quite funny here, as there's a lot of enthusiastic requesting from the crowd, including one for Blueprint which was played just minutes before. In hindsight it's easy to say in the requester's defence that the performance was in fact a bit sloppy occasionally. Luckily it's all friendly fun in the end, and Ian proceeds to dedicate Great Cop to himself after having further explained the band's attitude towards stage diving. Said song gets a properly raging treatment as is usual with Fugazi encores. Promises is another highlight with a fantastic, noisy jam in the middle.

Sound-wise this entry left me a bit cold, but there are a lot of good things to balance it out. The banter and other shenanigans are entertaining and it's interesting to hear the band perform at the early stages of the tour, having the fresh In On The Killtaker album out to promote. There are some slips and whoopsies in the playing but the amazing energy easily makes up for it.

This was my first Fugazi show. Please release this.