Continuing the string of shows in California in 1999, Fugazi put Sacramento on the map one last time, playing the Crest Theatre, another remarkable venue they visited once before, in 1993. According to its website,

“[t]he Crest Theatre is a historic theater located in downtown Sacramento, California, just blocks from the State Capital, the Sacramento Convention Center, and the new Sacramento Kings basketball arena (under construction). It was originally opened in 1912 as the Empress Theatre, a vaudeville palace. It later operated as the Hippodrome theatre. On September 14, 1946, the Hippodrome’s marquee suddenly fell to the pavement below, killing a bystander. Shortly after the tragedy, in 1949, the building was completely remodeled and revamped to its current form as the art deco Crest Theatre. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was one of the premier first-run movie palaces in the Sacramento area. In the 1970s, it was reduced to mostly sub-run fare and eventually closed in the early 1980s.

Several attempts were made to revive the theatre, ultimately succeeding in 1986. A fire in a neighboring building consumed a portion of the property in 1993, causing smoke damage but sparing the theatre. The fire insurance settlement, combined with redevelopment grants provided by the City of Sacramento, allowed for most of the restoration of the historic theatre and construction of two basement screening rooms.”

The beautiful scenery certainly was not waisted on the band, as Guy discloses, “this is quite a beautiful room isn’t it, the two things I like best about this room are the ceiling and the urinals in the men’s room which are, they’re like small donkeys, they’re like this big, they’re like small donkeys and they’re almost saddle-shaped.”

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Banter is scarce, yet includes an exchange between Ian and some heckler slinging insults at his mother. Ian handles it in a considerate but firm manner: “My mother is a nice person, and I don’t know you Sir, I don’t know you at all, I highly suggest you don’t say anything bad about my mother”, before dedicating set opener Birthday Pony to their sound man Nick [Pellicciotto].

Note the only live version of Returning The Screw on this West Coast leg of the tour. This song appears to have been performed live only once more, at the O13 in Tilburg, The Netherlands, later that year before being shelved indefinitely.

Other than this, I particularly enjoyed Burning into Closed Captioned (with additional percussion provided by multi-instrumentalist and Fugazi roadie since April 1995 Jerry Busher), the latter which includes an extended cool outro before the whirling, hacking guitar play of Sieve-Fisted Find takes off. Reprovisional (tagged Roadrunner) is another highlight and appropriately closes out the main set, as momentum builds and builds before the inevitable breakdown.

The encore includes the staple Shut the Door, and a double dose of Joe on vocals (Recap Modotti, By You). Guy’s teasing use of the microphone on F/D is certainly memorable, once backing away then moving close, his vocals fading, abating, then strengthening, rising.

The audio quality of the recording is pretty much very good overall, the mix fairly balanced with the vocals and instrumentation coming through sufficiently distinct and clear.

Presented here are 21 songs total, taken from End Hits (8), Red Medicine (4), In on the Kill Taker (2), Steady Diet of Nothing (1), Repeater (4), and 7 Songs EP (2) respectively.

Not my best photo, but love it when Joe belts on out! Can't wait for the upload