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Fugazi the Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton This was exciting. And this was a long day. At the end of the Easter holidays (for those that still have them), I finally got to see Fugazi live travelling to Wolverhampton via London and Birmingham with a stop by at Leicester on the way home. Fuck! Which is another story in itself. We got to the venue ok even though at one point it looked like we were pushing it time wise. They did the search pad thing as we went in. To my relief I was allowed entry. Inside already on were a band called Tone (or maybe that is The Tone). At that point in history I had not heard of them but several times since I have read mentions of them. I don't know, tonight they seemed to be onstage pumping out some bland pop punk about their former youths. I didn't think it was really fitting for Fugazi. Slowly our group filtered one by one to the bar area, something we never do. I returned to see the equally ill-supporting Pram. I don't really understand what they were doing supporting Fugazi either. There is no way you will convince me that they have anything in common with eachother. On stage, two women took centre stage playing keyboards as they were backed by some bruisers playing all means of instruments. And that was as interesting as it got, as it was very dull. The front persons appeared aloof, almost smug. Their cheap tinfoil set up and cheap tinfoil Broadcast-esqe set really ran thin quickly. To my surprise, at the end they received applause. I applauded their exit. At this stage my own personal scheme of territorial pissings was taking place. For Fugazi I didn't want to miss a second. Being a total fanboy I was gripped with anticipation and the mere sight of Brendan onstage adjusted his kit made me hop. Then Joe fiddled with his bass a little and Guy did various and they already getting more of a response from me than the majority of other bands I've seen. They disappeared and shorty came back on stage with Ian saying "Hello, we're Fugazi from Washington DC". Yeah, like we didn't know. On stage they were squinting and looked a little blinded. Ian barked out some orders to adjust the lights so they could see the crowd and then they launched into Birthday Pony and I began to weep. It was surprised how well it fitted as an opener but it did work as a slow release tension climaxing with the explosive conclusion. From there they went straight into Place Position and then the hardcore punkers started acting apeshit pounding the ground into the most furious pit I have experienced ever. It was pretty impressive to feel the floor shake again. At the close of the song Ian bawled out some meathead in the crowding pointing him out until he was well removed. The set was a very hardcore rocking selection, it was breathtaking and tiring. Its a pretty inspiring sight to see Mackaye and Picciotto in front addressing the audience as behind the engine room works visibly tight. And when Joe stepped forward as the set seamlessly went into Recap Modotti, it was quite a treat. The set plastered through songs such as Great Cop, Break and Five Corporations and completely peaked for me when they went straight from Repeater into Small Champion (Repeater live is something else), the sonic push sweeping me backwards. They closed their normal set with an unrecognisable instrumental, perhaps a radically altered version of Steady Diet. They performed two encores, during the second of which Guy went into a story of how they had forgotten to bring a drum carpet on tour and how they asked a llocal restaurant if they could have one they could see hanging on the wall. They closed with Do You Like Me which seemed an odd closer considering its an album opener. The lights came up and I was already regretting the sets passing. I was relieved seeing my favourite band had not turned out to be a disappointment and it drove me hyperactive (this is not in the right order) Birthday Pony
[taken from No Pictures 10] |
