We find ourselves back in Washington DC, at the legendary DC Space, with Amanda MacKaye working the door for the occasion. It is the third out of six concerts Fugazi played at this venue.

The band dedicates the set to the opening band, the Laughing Hyenas and then strikes up an instrumental. Someone joins them on stage to play the trumpet, which results in a relaxed, ambient introduction for the evening.

Song #1 is up next, yet it quickly becomes clear that the quality of this recording leaves some to be desired as it sounds quite muffled, the vocals especially. It accurately reflects the setting of the former DC Space though; a small, crowded club where people huddle up close and small talk gets picked up easily left and right.

Still, the band brings it as the overall performance is pretty much spot-on and flawless, aside from what seems to be a broken string in the home stretch of In Defense of Humans. Add to that an audience that is responsive and into things, and I can well imagine this event was a blast for everyone present.

Note that Ian improvises on some of the lyrics during Furniture and that both Suggestion and KYEO still include a guitar breakdown at the end of the song and as such differ from the respective studio takes that were still to be released.

This recording also features the first live rendering of Give Me The Cure (released as part of the 7 Songs EP in November 1988).

Requests to play the anthemic Steppin’ Stone cover song are not met, as “there is a law against doing Steppin’ Stone as the city council decided that is was causing some sort of riots, a lot of problems, shooting and stuff, so they said: No kids under 18, and no Steppin’ Stone”.

Even though the band seems a bit reluctant, they do throw in an encore and bust out And The Same and Waiting Room to end the set.

Was this the show where the woman played a trumpet on Suggestion?