From the 10th anniversary showThis makes me a lousy so-called devotee, but until I read this superb reminiscence at Chunklet, I forgot that today marks the 20th anniversary of the first-ever Fugazi performance.
In no way does my personal claim on the band come close to that of so many other people, but the sappy truth is that their music changed my life. I had always treated music in a very left-brained, mathematical fashion - more as a craft than an art. It wasn't until I sat slack-jawed, rewinding and rewatching footage of this performance of "Glue Man", that I realized the ferocity, the feral thrust of music was its true intangible magnetism.
Though I've often cursed my late arrival on this planet for having kept me from seeing so many musicians I love, I almost feel spared a greater pain for barely having gotten to see Fugazi. The little of them I saw live put teeth in the oft-repeated claim that the records can't touch the Real thing. Had I gotten to see them dozens of times, being limited to the albums as a sensory experience would be like being surrounded by only shitty photos of a loved one for the rest of my days.
No one's really willing to accept that it's over; I know I can't. I had to remind my wife just the other day that the last time we saw them (at Fort Reno, natch) was, in fact, their last American concert ever. This damn near put her into hysterics. And it's a shame that one last wish will (probably) never be granted.
But we're all better off for them having been here in the first place. Brendan, Joe, Ian, Guy - thank you.
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