Fugazi shown in a scene from Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, D.C.
Long-dormant D.C. post-hardcore outfit Fugazi will be making their extensive vault of live recordings much more accessible, bringing the archive to streaming at long last.
After 14 years spent as a digital archive on the Dischord Records website, Fugazi will begin to upload their live recordings onto their Bandcamp page. Launching on Friday (May 2) as part of Bandcamp Friday, the first two offerings will bookend the band’s career, including their debut show at D.C.’s Wilson Center on September 3, 1987, and their “to-date final performance” in London on November 2, 2002.
Further shows will be uploaded on a monthly basis, while the band’s online archives will also remain accessible.
Fugazi first formed in 1986, comprising noted members of the D.C. hardcore and punk scene, including Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Guy Picciotto of Rites of Spring. Between 1990 and 2001, the group released six studio albums, largely avoiding commercial success along the way. While the band would chart modestly in the U.K., their U.S. peak occurred in 1995 when fourth album Red Medicine reached No. 126 on the Billboard 200.
The group’s live performances were arguably one of the strongest aspects, however, with their DIY punk ethos resulting in the band performing over 1,000 shows across 16 years, with most gigs being priced as low as possible – often $5 – to make them accessible to everyone.
In 2004, the band’s extensive live archives were opened up and they began to issue their Fugazi Live Series recordings as physical CDs to fans. In 2011, the archives moved online, with more than 800 shows being made available for fans to purchase – complete with false starts, stage banter and audio dropouts.
“We liked this idea of, ‘Let’s just let it be everything,'” Picciotto told the New York Times in 2011. “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.”
Fugazi have been inactive since embarking on an indefinite hiatus in 2003. Though members remain friends and regularly perform together both privately and in other bands, there is yet to be any official word of a potential reunion from the revered group.
Stephen Macklam (left) and Sam Feldman.Courtesy Photos