Ever since 1968, Fort Reno has provided the space and opportunity for an annual free all-ages summer concert series. According to the Dischord website, “The Fort Reno Summer Concert Series is an all volunteer Washington, DC institution which has presented free shows in the park for more than 40 years. The bills often feature a mixture of young bands just starting out alongside more seasoned bands -- all from the area's fertile independent music scene.”

Even though Fugazi would play the Fort Reno Park premises in Tenleytown almost every summer since 1988 until their indefinite hiatus in 2003 (with the exception of three editions, see also some of my earlier notes via my entry for the first Fugazi show at Fort Reno on July 18, 1988), a great deal of these recordings unfortunately are incomplete and/or suffer from significant audio discrepancies. Luckily, this one from 2001 is complete and sounds really good too, not considering a handful of sonic glitches, a bit of interference and the audience being low in the mix because of the soundboard recording and outdoor acoustics.

Actually, chances of the event washing out on a regular basis due to torrential rains and thunderstorms have been as high as Ian donning a Soulside tee shirt for the yearly occasion. By contrast, the circumstances surrounding this show in August of 2001, i.e. Fugazi’s second to last stay at Fort Reno, played out differently (at least in a meteorological way, not in the way of Ian’s sartorial choices).

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In the course of the set, Guy paints a clearer picture, “I know a lot of people drove from pretty far away to come out to the show tonight, and a lot of people drove not knowing if there was even gonna be a show tonight, and uh, for those of you who haven’t been around the last couple of years, almost every time we play here there’s like an apocalyptic rainstorm every fucking year and it’s always like we’re all nibbling our fingernails and watching the lightning explode and everyone’s freaking out and then we get to play one or two songs and then everyone has to you know run under the umbrella’s for a while, but tonight Mother Nature went off early and we got to play a full set [...].”

The performance presented here might feel a bit rough around the edges, which can arguably be chalked up to the fact that this is the last show Fugazi played in 2001, a one-off gig in D.C. about a month after a two-week trek across the Midwest of the United States and Canada, as well as to the fact that both 2001 and 2002 pretty much rank at the bottom of the list in terms of (the number of) Fugazi live performances, with 32 shows each (compared to 134, 129 or 123 shows in 1993, 1990 and 1995 respectively). Considering this, it is not all that surprising that this show is pockmarked with some instrumental slip-ups or even the occasional lyrical flub. 

Nevertheless, it still is an overall interesting and enjoyable listen and it does have a nice flow to it, with many seamless transitions and song combinations, which is pretty remarkable since the band draws heavily from a body of songs that had not yet seen an album release at the time.

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The set list showcases 22 songs, or actually even 23 if you count the instrumental intro which might very well be the only documented live version of this specific “link track” (one of many such little improvs, or so the saying goes). 

Out of the titled live cuts, no less than 7 are taken off of The Argument and 1 song off of the Furniture EP, recordings which would both see their official release some two months later, in October 2001. A handful of tracks off of their previous work complete the set: End Hits (3), Red Medicine (3), In on the Kill Taker (4), Repeater (1), Margin Walker EP (1) and 7 Songs debut EP (2). Unfortunately, Steady Diet of Nothing is not featured this time around.

There is little banter here, aside from Ian (ironically) chiding someone for demanding some banter before introducing Cashout, Guy inviting people to join in the World Bank protests which were to be held in D.C. in September of that year (little did he know that another turn of events was about to unfold on 9/11), or Ian thanking (the late) Father George [Dennis] for his continuous involvement with the summer concert series since its inception.

Footage of this show is available through YouTube (part one via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQtq4Uj6OmM and part two via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MsAhUJBrl4) as is some more amazing photography by Shawn Scallen (via Instagram).

Interestingly, mention of this particular Fort Reno gig is made in an article by Dave McKenna published for the Washington Post shortly after and titled “Fugazi, Defying Genres and Wet Weather”, as well as in a recent October 15, 2021 article by Tom Breihan published for Stereogum, celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Argument album.

This was my last of 5 times seeing Fugazi, and it was my favorite. I got to talk to Guy after the show. He was very nice, and we commiserated over the fact that we both had attempted to see Radiohead the night before, only to be turned back due to lightning and flooding. I had driven from N.C. for both the shows, and Fugazi alone was worth the drive.

oh, i also took the second photo shown even though it shows photographer unknown.

pssst. i took the photo above and my name is wrong. should be Kelly Maron. ;)