Fleapit revisited:We Are Fugazi From Washington D.C.

"Yes I know this is politically correct but it comes to you spiritually direct. An attempt to thoughtfully affect your way of thinking" - And The Same, Fugazi

I like Fugazi's music, I like Fugazi's message, and I like the way Fugazi do things. Between 1986 and 2003 they played over one thousand shows in five continents and they never once wrote out a set list. They insisted on playing all ages concerts, they dealt with any audience member who was hassling women (or anyone else) at their gigs, and they raised an enormous amount of money (estimated at $250,000) for a range of very good causes. The sort of causes that cunts like Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Elon Musk would dismiss as woke nonsense.

Most of all though, they absolutely fucking rocked. In We Are Fugazi From Washington D.C. (which I saw last night at the Finsbury Park Picturehouse as part of the seemingly eternal Doc'n'Roll season) we're treated to fan recorded camcorder footage of Ian MacKaye, Guy Picciotto, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty playing live across their career and never does a single gig look like a chore.

The shows are intense, the music (most usually described as post-hardcore) is as lithe and sinuous in places as it brash and clamorous. The band don't hector, they don't rant, and yet they get their message across easily. They show more than they tell and in songs like Glue Man, Song #1, Bulldog Front, Margin Walker, Burning Too, Brendan #1, and, perhaps their biggest hit, Waiting Room the audience (both at the gigs and in the Picturehouse) hang on every word and every note.

My all time favourite Fugazi song is Suggestion. A taut, angular, feminist anthem about the horrors of the male gaze which erupts into paroxysms of barely controlled rage at apposite moments. It could be clunky and awkward delivered by a group consisting entirely of men (men who often perform topless for that matter) yet it isn't. The fact that a Fugazi audience has a much larger than average female quotient is testament to this and when we see them perform the song with Amy Pickering sharing joint vocals with MacKaye it is probably the highlight of the entire film.

Not that there's any lowlights. The camcorder wielding fans, many interviewed now in middle age, speak fondly of the time they spent at Fugazi's gigs and in Fugazi's orbit, there's a wonderful section with a stats nerd (my kind of guy) who has compiled Pete Frame style family trees of Fugazi and related bands as well as breakdowns of the charitable donations they have made towards women's shelters, latinx/immigrant rights, abortion rights, animal rights, gay rights, health clinics, and youth outreach.

MacKaye - generally seen as the band's leader - is caught on camera at one point playing his role down. He makes music because that's what he does, because he's been inspired by musicians himself and hopes that he can inspire people himself - safe to say he managed that, and because he wants to bring attention to those he believes can bring more radical change than he, his band, or any musician can.

It's easy to be cynical, to sneer at the idea a musician can change the world or even change your life, but I think it would be wrong to do so. Fugazi, like so many others (The Specials, Public Enemy, Crass, Bad Brains), arrived in my life at an important time. When I was a young man, not entirely sure what direction my life was going to take. The milieu I grew up in was blatantly and unapologetically racist, homophobic, and misogynist. 

Fugazi (and others) showed me there was a much better way and they did it with music that made me want to scream along, made me want to dance, made me want to share it with like minded people, made me want to go out there and make connections, and made me want to be a better person. I've not always got that right but I'm not sitting in the waiting room any longer. Fugazi may be from Washington D.C. but they spoke (loudly) for people thousands of miles away. This film is both reminder and proof of that. An attempt, a successful attempt, to thoughtfully affect your way of thinking.