Sometime in late February, I heard a rumor that Fugazi were coming to town. I immediately sought confirmation of this rumor, calling people, and digging about as it were. I was pleased to find out that it was true, and that tickets would go on sale in early March. I don't think that since I have lived in New Orleans, I have ordered tickets for a show in advance (excepting the Breeders and Yo La Tengo, which was a week and two days in the future, respectively), but I am glad I did for this one.

I was wondering why the posters that Tipitina's were putting out were so awful. Obviously, this implied two things. 1.) When you don't go through a production company, your fliers suck and 2.) They weren't worried about advertising the show.

I found that to be the case, as the show sold out well in advance with almost no advertisement whatsoever (many callers on my show that day were unaware that there WAS a Fugazi show).

There were more people in and around Tipitina's that night than I had ever seen before. The bouncers were letting kids through without tickets for $12 a pop, twice the cost of the real tickets, so the place was overflowing. Adding to the crowds was the fact that the show was one of the few all ages ones.

I usually hate all ages shows, due to the fact that the only moves that 14-16 year old kids know is the pogo. Every f*cking song, pogoing. I know that the only shows that will let the 14-year old kids in are pop punk shows, but you don't have to pogo all the time. Fortunately, any 14-year old kids who came to hop were thwarted by the horrific opening band, Amerigo.

Amerigo was everything I hate about opening bands. They were some sort of bastard child of post-rock and Patton-metal with a heavy dollop of Sigur Ros-cum-Radiohead atmospherics. Their lead singer looks like the sort of weirdo who re-enacts Civil War battles. The cello player, dressed in the finest fratboy rap-metal regalia managed to put on a few entertaining grimaces while emotionally collapsing to the rediculously overwrought music. I'm going to try not to pick on the geetar player, since I think he would probably cry. Sometimes when you see good bands you just have to deal with the crap.

If you've been to a Fugazi show (or have seen the fantastic documentary Instrument), then you know that they never play with a set list. One never knows what to expect. After a bit of haggling with Tip's lighting personnel (oh, Ian, f*cking quit it already), they dropped into "Break," the lead track from their 1998 album End Hits.

Predictably, they played a lot of songs from The Argument including, surprisingly, the ultra-quiet "Life and Limb." Joe got his turn at the mic during "The Kill" and the U>Red Medicine song "By You." That album was also heavily covered, including my favorite track, Guy's virulent rant about poor little rich boy rockstars, "Target" ("I hate the sound of guitars/A thousand grudging young millionaires").

Fugazi is one of my top 5 favorite bands, so I loved every song they played, but here are the highlights.

• The last song on the encore set was "Long Division," a real shock to me that they would play, and possibly one of the more intimate and powerful songs they have written aside from "I'm So Tired." It was a really powerful piece in concert. Actually, all of the Steady Diet tracks were amazing, including my pre-show hopeful, "Latin Roots."
• The version of "Epic Problem" they played was simply blazing. It was probably the hardest rocking song of the night, in all honesty.
• "Waiting Room" totally set off the crowd after a slight lull when Ian yelled at some kids earlier in the show for pushing. It was also when the drunk a**hole near me got punched out, so it made everyone in that section's night more enjoyable.
• The absolutely incredible version of "Shut the Door" was my favorite moment of the night. Towards the end, Guy just played this screaming line on the guitar right when Ian screams "She's not breathing!!! She's not moving!!!" and it absolutely put me into a state of musical bliss.

All in all, I would say that this was probably one of the best, if not the best, show I've been to in New Orleans and in general. Maybe when Ian is in town for Jazz Fest, we can get him in the studio to have a chat, and see why the hell they hadn't came here since 1996! This was one of those shows that made me forget the fact that punk rock is strangling on it's own history. In another 15 years, may they still produce quality work.

Paul
Special to XROXX
Visit Paul's website.

XROXX.com Concert Rating: XXXX (4 out of 5 possible X's)

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