The ''Fugazi Live Series'' is a series of live recordings by American
post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has bee ...
band
Fugazi
Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They are noted for their style-tr ...
, released on CD in 2004 and 2005 and also on the official
Dischord Records
Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idle ...
Fugazi Live Series website for download beginning on December 1, 2011. As of November 2019, 896 concert recordings have been released for download.
Background
Between 1987 and 2003, Fugazi played over 1000 concerts in all 50 US states and all over the world. Over 800 of these shows were recorded by the band's sound engineers. Beginning in 2004 and continuing into 2005, Fugazi launched a 30 CD Live Series that featured concerts from various points in their career, which were made available for sale via
Dischord Records
Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idle ...
. Continuing with the live series concept and after several years of development on December 1, 2011 Fugazi launched a comprehensive Live Series website through Dischord Records that features 130 of the band's concerts available for download at the suggested price of $5 each or a "
pay what you want
Pay what you want (or PWYW, also referred to as value-for-value model) is a pricing strategy where buyers pay their desired amount for a given commodity. This amount can sometimes include zero. A minimum (floor) price may be set, and/or a suggest ...
" sliding scale option for each download between $1 – $100 with the goal of eventually making all 800 shows available for purchase. For $500 fans can also purchase an "All Access" privilege which will include access to any future concerts and downloads added to the site.
While each concert was professionally mastered, the recordings capture everything that happened onstage and for preservation's sake the band chose not to edit anything out, singer/guitarist
Guy Picciotto
Guy Charles Picciotto ( ) (born September 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and producer from Washington, DC.
He is best known as the guitarist and vocalist in Fugazi and Rites of Spring.
Career
Rites of Spring ...
explained to the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' "“We liked this idea of, ‘Let’s just let it be everything,’ “ Mr. Picciotto said. “There doesn’t have to be the idea that this is the great, golden document. It’s all there, and it’s not cleaned up. You get what you get.” The sound quality also varies as the earliest recordings were made to
cassettes, then eventually digital formats such as
DAT,
CD-R
CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the int ...
and ultimately hard-drives were used. Each concert page also includes fliers, photographs and ticket stubs. As a career-spanning archival project, the Fugazi Live Series has few equals, putting the band in the company of acts like the
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
,
Phish
Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended Jam session#Rock, jams, blending of Music genre, genres, and a dedicated Fandom, fan base. The band consists of guitari ...
, and
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, ...
, some of the only other artists with such a large volume of concerts available for purchase.
CD release: Set One
The first set of twenty live recordings was released in April 2004.
# ''9-3-87 Washington, DC / Wilson Center''
# ''12-28-87 Washington, DC / DC Space''
# ''10-8-90 Bielefeld, Germany / PC69''
# ''11-6-90 Nancy, France / Terminal Export''
# ''8-17-91 Calgary, Canada / MacKewen Hall''
# ''6-28-92 Berlin, Germany / Tempodrome''
# ''2-14-93 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida / The Edge''
# ''8-7-93 Washington, DC / Washington Monument''
# ''9-4-93 Pontiac, Michigan / Plaza Amphitheater''
# ''11-17-93 Canberra, Australia / Anu Bar''
# ''8-26-94 Curitiba, Brasil / 92 Degrees''
# ''10-9-95 Peoria, Illinois / Expo Center''
# ''10-27-95 Seattle, Washington / DV8''
# ''10-30-96 Sapporo, Japan / Counteraction''
# ''11-2-96 Hong Kong / South Island School Hall''
# ''5-2-97 NYC, New York / NYU Loeb Center''
# ''7-1-97 Dunedin, New Zealand / The Room''
# ''9-3-97 Washington, DC / Wilson Center''
# ''7-24-98 Fredericton, Canada / New Maryland Recreation Center''
# ''5-7-99 Kilkenney, Ireland / Friary Hall''
CD release: Set Two
The second set of ten live recordings was released in 2005.
# ''3-16-90 Gainesville, Florida / American Legion Hall''
# ''10-14-91 Sydney, Australia / Triple J Radio''
# ''5-29-92 Bordeaux, France / Theatre Barbey''
# ''8-9-93 Washington, DC / Fort Reno Park''
# ''8-28-93 Kansas City, Kansas / Memorial Hall''
# ''10-6-99 Geneva, Switzerland / L'usine''
# ''3-27-02 New Orleans, Louisiana / Tipitina's''
# ''10-22-02 Birmingham, UK / The Sanctuary''
# ''10-31-02 Leeds, UK / Metropolitan University Student's Union''
# ''11-4-02 London, UK/ The Forum''
References
{{Fugazi
Fugazi live albums
Live album series
2000s live albums
Self-released albums
Albums produced by Ian MacKaye