Fugazi - Calton Studios and Paradise Lost - The Venue, Edinburgh 1990

I first heard Fugazi through tape trading, one of the guys I used to trade with stuck some songs on the end of something to fill up a side of the tape with "Ian from Minor Threat's new band" so I thought cool looking forward to hearing this. I listened to it and was a bit confused, it wasn't fast hardcore, I didn't get it, at that point I was into speed, music pretty much had to be as fast as possible so Fugazi wasn't hitting the mark. It was off kilter and complicated. I just didn't get it.
A few months on and they released Margin Walker and the same trader stuck the whole thing after another hyper speed hardcore album and I thought, not that shite again but I kept listening to the tape and it really grew on me and I went out and bought the vinyl. In 1990 I bought the album Repeater on tape and it was pretty much the only thing I listened to for ages, even my Iron Maiden loving mate Steve loved it and as such it was the tape for any car journeys we undertook.
So one weekend I was due to go see Autopsy and Paradise Lost on the Sunday at the Venue in Edinburgh and decided to go through to Edinburgh on the Saturday to buy records in Avalanche rather than buy them before the gig and then risk them getting broken or nicked. As I walked towards Avalanche I spied a poster saying Fugazi were playing, which got my interest going and as I got closer realised that the date was that night, fucking hell, well I had to go so went without vinyl in favour of a gig ticket and a ten flash bulb for my 110 cartridge camera, yeah I only got to take 10 photos at a gig back then, and those flashes kind of just balanced precariously on top of the camera and would fall off at the slightest touch so just perfect for taking photos at gigs. They also just looked cool as fuck...

 I then fucked about Edinburgh for a while killing time before heading down to the Calton Studios and ended up running into Ian and Brendan on the Royal Mile, I think I said something like "Hey you're playing tonight!" they were probably glad I was around to give them such a handy tip as they obviously had no clue why they were there eh...
Dr Phibes and The House of Wax Equations opened the gig with swirly trippy indie rock and lots of fancy lights and strobes. It felt like what I imagined being on drugs must have been like, I saw them a few times more and they were always great.
They paled into insignificance though as soon as Fugazi played, really intense and played just about everything they had put out at that point, a few folk shouted for Minor Threat songs and stage divers were stopped by the band which added a bit of tension to proceedings. I can proudly say I was not one of those people on this occasion, I saved that for when Mindfunk played.
This was the only time I ever saw Fugazi and I wish I had had a better camera to take more shots.

After the gig I had to figure out what to do with myself as I'd missed the last train home and spent some of the night sleeping on a bench in Waverly train station until being chucked out at about 5am, I then wandered about a bit and ended up climbing Arthur's Seat and watching the sun come up. Sounds quite serene and beautiful eh, possibly it was, but I was chilled to the bone, ached all over and was fucking starving so fuck the sunrise.
I had a pretty miserable Sunday morning wandering the city aimlessly waiting for somewhere to open, bummed spare change of people for a while so I could buy a hot chocolate in a vain attempt to thaw me out a bit and then headed to The Venue mid afternoon in the hope that some of the Sunday regulars were as sad as me and be hanging about at that time.
Autopsy and Paradise Lost were both great, again I wish I had a better camera, or more money for flashes and films at least as I used the last of my shots on Paradise Lost as I liked them more than Autopsy on record.

In all it was a great weekend if somewhat unplanned but I was thankful for my bed after the three mile walk home after getting the train back to Dundee on the Sunday night. Then on Monday I got to go to school and brag to Steve that I just got to see Fugazi. In your face mate, ha ha.