By 1993, Fugazi per usual played 1000 + cap venues, yet persistently stuck to frequenting favourite small clubs on a regular basis as well.

Case in point is this performance kicking off the 1 ½ months 1993 fall US / Canada tour in the presence of a mere 200 lucky people at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Or, as Ian discloses, “[…] this is a really cool space, it’s kinda great that we have an opportunity to play here, we always try to do one show here every time we come up this way, […] this is the first show of this particular tour and it just could be really a legendary performance, I feel a legendary performance coming up.”

Occasionally, the guitars are a bit low in the mix, the audio frequencies slightly high on treble, but basically this is a really cool recording. What I enjoy most about it is that it reflects the intimacy of the event. Close your eyes, and it feels as if you are right there, up on stage with the band, smack-dab next to Brendan working his magic on drums.

Note the excellent instrumental (shortened) live debut of Fell, Destroyed. This track would not see an official release until mid 1995 as part of the Red Medicine album.

Other highlights worth pointing out in my humble opinion include Cassavetes (goddamn that funky bass), Two Beats Off (w/ The Place I Love tag), Promises (requested and convincingly delivered), Returning The Screw (note the delicate pacing and piercing vocal accentuation), 23 Beats Off into Exit Only, as well as the encore which features both the Joe #1 instrumental and that other bass-driven staple And The Same, once referred to by Ian as Joe #2 (see FLS #0002).

All in all, this recording includes 22 songs total, drawing from Red Medicine (1), In on the Kill Taker (11 - Last Chance for a Slow Dance is the only track missing), Steady Diet of Nothing (3), Repeater (4), 3 Songs seven-inch (1) and Margin Walker EP (2). Quite exceptionally, not a single track is taken from the S/T debut EP.