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fugazi stage banter


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saw this on another board, thought i'd share. dunno if anyone has seen this

http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?section=blogs&ID=574

"I saw you two guys earlier at the Good Humor truck, and you were eating your ice cream like little boys, and I thought, 'Those guys aren't so tough! They're eating ice cream.' I saw you eating an ice-cream cone, pal... You're bad now, but I saw you... That's the shit you can't hide. You eat ice cream; everybody knows it. Ice-cream-eating motherfucker, that's what you are."
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Here's one I witnessed.

So Fugazi is playing in a very small club in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It's so small they are just playing on the floor, and Ian asked very politely that everyone take care not to smash up the monitors, etc. that were all right there on the floor. Of course things got rowdy, and he asked politely several more times. Eventually he said something to the effect of "OK, someone just broke a monitor. Cut out the slam dancing." At this a guy I sort of knew at the time yells "anyone that isn't slamming is a pussy!" Ian responds, sarcastically, with "Oh, pussy? I've never heard that word used in a derogatory fashion before. That's so intelligent," and the heckler yells back "yeah, well you've never been to Delaware before motherfucker!", pulls down his pants and moons Ian. Ian just kind of stands there a second and then just rolls his eyes. It's the only time I ever saw him just sort of give up. I was torn between thinking the heckler was an idiot and being marveled by just how hilariously retarded the whole scene was.

At another show I saw Ian stop the show and say "could the skinheads please be polite and let everyone else enjoy the show?" He's a classy dude.

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I only saw Fugazi once, I think in 1999 or 2000, they played this free festival outside of PITT and CMU campus in Pittsburgh, they played in this GIGANTIC tent, a way to large of a tent, and there were a good 5 - 6000 people there. We thought we were on the side of the tent where they were playing, turns out, we were in the very extreme back. HA! Ian looked like a stick figure, but it was still amazing.

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I saw Fugazi play in Olympia, WA back in like '93. There were a bunch of skinheads that came up from Portland, which at that time was a hotbed for skinhead activity for some reason. The skins were being typically violent and shitty, so Ian told them to be nice or leave. They were yelling that they paid money ($5, of course), and they wanted to see the show. Ian actually personally refunded their money, the skins left, and the fun resumed.

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I only saw Fugazi once, I think in 1999 or 2000, they played this free festival outside of PITT and CMU campus in Pittsburgh, they played in this GIGANTIC tent, a way to large of a tent, and there were a good 5 - 6000 people there. We thought we were on the side of the tent where they were playing, turns out, we were in the very extreme back. HA! Ian looked like a stick figure, but it was still amazing.

I was at that show and hit them with giant soft pretzels in between songs. Actually, I threw pretzels at tons of bands that summer, the summer of flying pretzels.

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I saw Fugazi in San Antonio in 97' and the skins were being a bit rowdy. But nothing anyone couldn't handle. He asked them to please be kind as well. 2 of them bitched about it, so he gave them money out of his pocket (Literally why he was on stage. A whole $30. which was more than the ticket price). They left and still people kept running into people and smashing them into the stage. So they just told everyone, that they would stop playing if anything happened again.

I saw them in 2000 or so two days straight. The show was so packed and over capacity that i couldn't as much as get a cigarette out of my pocket without fear of smashing it. The 2nd night i just gave up after 30 minutes and went home due to the capacity of the place. it was a 400 or 500 person venue that exceeded capacity by at least 200 people. it was like sardines both nights. it made for a horrible experience.

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I got to see fugazi play 3 times and it was amazing every time. the first time I saw them in '97 I didn't fully "get it" as I didn't have all their albums, but they played Merchandise which was incredible. In a weird way that show was equally as important in the people-watching way and watching people react to those songs was intense.

...but whenever they came through right before the Argument came out(2001? 2002? 2003?) I went to both shows in Chicago and it was amazing, I know the first night I blew off a Fifth Hour Hero show at Fireside and a Kill Your Idols show at Fireside the next, the second night they played "Waiting Room" and I burst out in tears of joy when they transitioned into the bassline intro. I just never thought I'd get to experience them playing that song live...easily one of the most exciting moments in music I've ever witnessed personally.

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Ian's banter always annoyed me. Sometimes it's funny and usually he means well, it just comes off as so bitchy most of the time (and I'm all for people not being jackasses at shows).

Yeah, he always had a way of making the show unfun.

hey man, everyone holds him to unrealistic standards, he might as well hold unrealistic standards for his audience.

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I never thought Fugazi shows were unfun at all. He usually didn't complain that much at all. Ian has this reputation of being a dick, but in fact I kind of like the idea that a quiet kid, a teenage girl, an older person or whatever can go to the same show and not have to worry about being assaulted.

Oh, and the show at the Ogden in Denver. If it's the one I'm thinking of, I was supposed to meet up with Ian after that show to discuss a story I'd written about the band. He was concerned about the publication for some reason. In any case, we never got together because the smoke at that show was so thick I couldn't breathe. My wife spent about half the show with her head stuck out the front door trying to breathe. I couldn't believe how bad it was.

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i saw Fugazi in 97 or 98 at this small club that used to have shows here. I remember this one guy going around acting like a douche, trying to "mosh" and crowd surf and heckling the band. Turns out the kid was the venue owner's son and thought he was untouchable.

I remember Ian just blasting the kid verbally until, finally, he pulled $5 out of his own pocket, handed it to the kid, and had him escorted out.

The rest of the show was much more enjoyable after that.

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