And here we find ourselves at the Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 1, 2002, the last of 5 dates in the state of Texas and some 10 shows into a 14 date jaunt through the southern states of the US in the spring of that year.

Even though Fugazi played in the state of Texas numerous times over the years, they only performed twice in Fort Worth, once at the Ridglea Theater in 2002 and once way back in 1989 at the Axis, which appears to have been another notable show, as can be understood from Ian’s reminiscing opening remarks during which he inquires about some “skinheads that were gonna do a drive-by shooting” at the time.

Even though the band miss a beat here and there (cf. Number 5, Full Disclosure) and even start off in the wrong key leading into Waiting Room (which leads Ian to quip “in the business we call that a key change”), this performance at the Ridglea Theater is one I enjoyed very much, not only because the sound quality of the recording is pretty much impeccable (never mind a slight volume drop about halfway opener Turnover) but especially because this selection of songs meshes so incredibly well together.

(...)

(...)

Plus, you get some wonderful song renditions. Particularly worth mentioning in my book are Burning with some cool additional percussion leading into the song, Give Me The Cure featuring Guy’s “expand the definition of terrorism” rap, Cashout with Ian extending the “everybody wants somewhere” lyric at the end of the song which results in a bit of a back-and-forth with the audience, a blistering version of Smallpox Champion to close out the main set, Forensic Scene and a dubby version of Promises with some added distortion, reverb on the snare and a deep deep thump on the kick drum.

The only thing that kind of curbs my enthusiasm and might prevent me from revisiting this show on a regular basis, is that the recording skips from time to time (note that the original source is a CD). A significant part of Guilford Fall appears to be missing because of this and a number of other songs (Epic Problem, Break and definitely Promises) suffer cuts as well which is very unfortunate.

Banter is few and far between this time around, and basically limited to the band calling out a number of patrons for disruptive behavior, and having someone come up to apologize in public for kicking a woman in the head (cf. “Wrestler boys” rap and “triage station” rap).

Compared to some other shows from the 2002 spring run, this recording includes a relatively shorter set of some 20 live tracks, drawing from The Argument (4), Furniture EP (1), End Hits (3), Red Medicine (2), In on the Kill Taker (3), Repeater (1), 3 Songs 7″ (1), Margin Walker EP (2) and 7 Songs debut EP (3).

Can't wait till this one finally gets released some day. It was my first and only Fugazi show and it was incredible.

This was a great gig. I hope you gents choose to release it. The Ridglea was a great venue, too--the sound was fantastic.