Fugazi
Live Series - November, 4 2002 - London - The Forum

Stop and go. One believes that things should last forever. Especially when stopping and starting again is a philosophy of life. I've always imagined Fugazi like this: they record an album, go on tour, come back home, look for some band to record for Dischord, start packaging and shipping the albums they publish for their label, and then again: an album, a tour...

So for fifteen years. At a certain point, just stop. Or, as someone might say, "hiatus," an ambiguous term that can be understood as either a break or a pause. So: did Fugazi break up or not? The data we have says that the last time they played together was just five years ago. Then each went their own way. I believe, and this I promise will be the last digression, maybe, that the individual members, in this five-year period, have never produced, not even remotely, the results reached by the quartet when it was united. In this, a parable very similar to that of the Clash. Because then, if we really wanted to digress, we could sit here for quite a while comparing the two bands.

Now, of the above, and the nostalgia of all the group of Washington D.C. fans, Joe Lally, the band's bassist, must have noticed. He thought (well) of carrying out the following operation. Since, among the many obsessions of Fugazi, there was the one of recording their concerts through Dat, he inaugurated a long series of publications called the "Fugazi Live Series". Twenty concerts, in single or double CDs, published in 2004, ten in 2005 (again, it's not clear if the releases will continue or not). Obviously without any cuts or overdubs. Of these, I have the one related to the absolute last concert, held on November 4, 2002, at The Forum in London. I could simply say, a statement that, for once, I believe will find only consensus, that anyone who attended a Fugazi concert surely ranks it among the ten best concerts of their life. Those who had the fortune, will try to get one of the CDs. Those who didn't, give it a listen. However, I wouldn’t want them to curse the sky for not being present. Your dealer should be able to find them for you without much trouble. In any case, they are sold on the Dischord website, ten dollars for the doubles, eight for the singles. There you can also read every setlist. The only regret is that no Italian concert has been published (between us, there is a bootleg, halved and not excellent, of the last time they played at Leoncavallo, I believe in 1999).

Coming specifically to this CD, you will find everything for which you loved them. They present themselves with the usual "We're Fugazi from Washington D.C.". Then: fury. MacKaye irritated as usual when stage diving begins. The impressive rhythm section (another digression: the best in the last twenty years along with that of the Red Hot?). The singers who occasionally go off-key, the guitars that sometimes get lost. With that awareness that it could be the last time (one for all, "Shut the door", truly "Beyond the limit"). But do we care about that? Overall, they are fierce, as always, and nothing more would need to be added. Only that, when towards the end the chords of "Blueprint" start, after yet another insult from MacKaye, we get a little lump in our throats, and if I had been there, I would have had tears in my eyes.

I realize I've been didactic, prolix, and talked little about music. Perhaps because Fugazi, for many of us, have been, also, and above all, much more. The last doubt remains: is it better that, as happened with the Clash, they never get back together? Yet, the regret of having seen them live only once...