September 18, 1999. 3 p.m., Hamburg, Germany. Fugazi walks on stage at DIE FABRIK. No stage lights, no mystery, just raw daylight blasting through the tall windows of this old machine hall-turned-cultural bunker in Hamburg-Altona. A matinee show. Their last one here. Fourth and final.
The venue matters. DIE FABRIK isn’t your average spot. Built in 1899 as a machine factory. Burned down in 1977, rebuilt two years later by idealists. Big timber beams, wraparound balconies, hard echoes. You probably feel the weight of the place when you walk in. And DIE FABRIK is still around today. It hosts concerts, theater, performances, readings, and public discussions, remaining a vibrant hub for culture and creativity.

The band’s firing on all cylinders from the jump. Ian’s voice is hoarse, but they don’t hold back. Nearly two hours, 30 songs—it might even be their longest show ever. And they don’t coast. Every track has teeth. Every turn is tight. A powerplay.

(…)

(…)

The set leans hard on End Hits—ten songs deep. The rest is a scatter of deep cuts, early burners, and tracks that hadn’t even seen release yet. Well, a good chunk of it, anyway. There’s three tracks off the 7 Songs debut EP, two from Margin Walker (Promises is mistakenly listed as Shut the Door in the set list), just one from the Repeater album, nothing off the 3 Songs seven-inch. Steady Diet of Nothing get three in. In On The Kill Taker get four (Great Cop crashing in right after Public Witness Program is not mentioned in the set list). Three songs from Red Medicine, as well as three tracks from The Argument album, and one song from the Furniture EP, both of which would only see their release more than 2 years down the line (October 2001). Interestingly, The Argument title track already sounds locked in. Ex-Spectator is just an instrumental here, and Guy’s still riffing loose lyrics on Nightshop.

The beginning of the recording is marred by some technical issues. Early on, Ian’s vocals are buried, sometimes even trapped in the right audio channel—most noticeably through Break, And The Same, Merchandise, and into Closed Captioned. But then, the mix shifts during the line: “the imperfections are here to find if your position is so unkind everything is not alright and since we live in present tense the only hope of making sense all depends on the source of light.” Balance returns. Poetic, if you care about that sort of thing. Or just plain coincidence.

(…)

(…)

Sound tech Nick Pellicciotto gets ambitious with the reverb though. Sometimes it hits—No Surprise, Long Division, or even Version—it gives the room space to breathe. Other times it’s too much. Reverb on the hi-hat, that’s pushing it in my book.

A then there’s that ending. Nothing short of a one-shot deal. A known high-quality video of the show floats around YouTube (see below), but it cuts off the final two tracks, which is absolutely gutting because those last minutes are pure magic. Fugazi closes with Glueman into Version. As far as I can tell, this is the only recorded instance of that pairing. The ultimate drift.

Earlier in the set, Ian riffs on the beauty of matinees—catch the show, still have the night to yourself. Then, as the final note fades and the room exhales, he drops the closer: “Don’t forget the night.” Not a warning. A reminder.

Really enjoyed listening to this one, in particular it is great to hear some emerging new material that would later be released on The Argument. There is an almost complete high quality video of this show (just missing the last 2 songs) on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zjwPGh4Zw0
That said, the last songs are not to be missed. This recording is definitely worth listening to.

fantastic concert, thanks much for posting.

Highly recommend this show. It's a wonderful (and long) set list on paper alone, but there's a wonderful energy to it and the recording captures it wonderfully.

The high tempo instrumental double of Ex-Spectator straight into Number 5 is the highlight for me (amp feedback and all)

Note that the song Shut the Door mentioned in the set list actually is the song Promises, and that Public Witness Program goes straight into Great Cop which is not mentioned in the list. Ex-Spectator is an instrumental version. Pink Frosty into Glueman into Version works quite well (unfortunately Glueman and a couple of other songs played on this particular occasion suffer quite a bit of sound anomalities and some dreadful amp feedback). Enjoy.. .