Fugazi / The Once Over Twice - Exeter Lemon Grove - 21/10/02
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Not many, mind, but there are a couple of people wandering around the town tonight that aren't going to see Fugazi. Pity them and their blissful ignorance. The 'Gazi may never have had a hit, shot a video, sold a t-shirt or been on a major label, but that hasn't stopped them selling out the Lemon Grove to bursting-point this evening, something they could have done twice over without even breaking a sweat. And, aptly, tonight is nothing short of an education in how this whole music-game should be played.
If Fugazi are the teachers, then The Once Over Twice are their attentive students. As is customary for an Exeter show, the support-act is made up of local guys, performing for the most part perfect exercises in all things post-hardcore. Such assets as geeky time-signatures, stop-start riffs, melodic shouting and a knack of fitting about three tunes into one composition make them an enthralling live force. 'How many songs was that,' heckles one of their friends after a bewildering 'Lies of our Lives' finally splutters to a close. It was but one, although by the look of the sweat-soaked guitars you'd be forgiven for thinking it was about fifty. The Once Over Twice noticeably don't do anything by halves.
'We played this very room in 1989,' utters Fugazi guitarist Ian MacKaye. 'November 16th,' shouts out a member of the audience. Yep - the last time the Washington quartet played Exeter they delivered a show that has since gone down in folklore. The veterans of the local-scene feel contempt for those who weren't there to witness it. Tonight provides the kids with a chance to catch up. It's without a doubt the best gig the city has ever seen. 'Back then,' continues MacKaye, 'we were rising stars... now it's just... whoosh,' he declares during a downward motion with his hand to a chorus of 'aah's' from the adoring crowd.
Nobody quite expected this. Notorious for their angry political ranting and, some might say, antisocial attitude to all things media-related, Fugazi come across as friendly, talkative, genuinely likeable people. So have they calmed down after 15 years in the business? Hell, no. A dual drumkit solo starts 'Cashout' from astonishing recent LP 'The Argument', the power of the song nearly blowing everyone off their feet, MacKaye and Guy Piccioto's polar-opposite vocal styles combining to amazing effect. From there on in, it changes pace, volume and mood, but every note of the entire performance is more essential than oxygen.
Fortunately, the sound is spot-on, and the band look exactly as you imagine they should... Well, three of them do. MacKaye, co-guitarist Picciotto and bassist Joe Lally all have faces that can only be described as looking as if they've spent the last 15 years in Fugazi. Drummer Brendan Canty, on the other hand, appears as if he's doing this to get away from the office (not that it stops his technical genius shining through in the slightest).
Musically, the set spans their entire career, from the early classics 'Waiting Room' (a crowd-favourite dedicated by MacKaye to 'everyone who was shouting this in my f**king face') and 'Sieve Fisted Find' to the more recent and scarily pertinent social commentary of the Picciotto lead 'Life and Limb'. Applause greets each left-wing sentence, every anti-war mini speech, of which there are a few. But every view they share is a welcome insight, a thoughtful suggestion, rather than intrusive preaching. It's for their methods nearly as much as their music that Fugazi are idolised by so many, and their way of doing things as well as their consistently staggering musical output demands huge respect.
Although times may have changed, most things about Fugazi remain the same. The intensity of the music even at its most quiet is still unnervingly sublime and perhaps more intelligent than it ever was. This evening provided them so much scope to go wrong, but they overcame every obstacle only with ease, not arrogance. Rumours of them tiring are utterly fabricated. All that stuff about seeing your heroes inevitably being a disappointment? Lies, the lot of it.
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