Fugazi Balances Love With Stormy Delivery

4 Stars

Fugazi, the band that has excelled in both hard-core and post-punk music, is a study in contrast. The band's members are both warriors and peacemakers.

The show at the Ritz Theater in Raleigh started out calmly. Punk legend Ian MacKaye warmly greeted the crowd and mentioned that it was the band's third show at the venue.

After bringing attention to those fans who had scored a "hat trick" by seeing all three, he discouraged excessive behavior and asked audience members to be mindful of each other. The band then readied itself, as MacKaye and guitarist Guy Picciotto prepared to strike the first note.

And from that point on, it was like the blitzkrieg had arrived. Bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty supplied the necessary thunder in the background, while the two frontmen provided the lightning.

MacKaye and Picciotto were like a couple of gunslingers, with the former swiveling his guitar about like it was a machine gun and emitting appropriate bursts of noise. The latter occasionally pointed his instrument from his chest like a rifle before he began to recklessly hop across his section of the stage. Their energy was infectious, and they gave a lasting image to go along with the music.

Distinguished by his almost completely shaved head and jerky movements that brought to mind a possessed robot, MacKaye used his angry and primal yell to full effect on such anthems as "Waiting Room."

In his introduction to "KYEO," he recalled the show Fugazi played at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., when the Gulf War was taking hold.

He compared the military machine that drove the early-'90s conflict and the one masterminding today's war, and he screamed for the crowd to "Keep your eyes open!" Neither Fugazi's strong political ideals nor the fierceness with which the band projects them has died since the band was created more than a decade ago.

But the band is far from being a one-trick pony. About the only things that have remained truly constant for the group have been its energy and passion, both of which were abundant in this show. The group's music has evolved over the years from top-grade hard-core to intricate noise-rock driven by the dual guitar interplay.

It was made all the more obvious during the show how hard Fugazi has worked to get its sound exactly the way it wants it. For several songs, the core four of MacKaye, Picciotto, Lally and Canty were joined by second drummer Jerry Busher, whose movements and actions often mirrored those of Canty beside him.

The addition wasn't excessive -- it only helped to bolster the rhythm section during drum-heavy workouts like "Ex-Spectator." Fugazi has survived for such a long time by sticking to its instincts and staying true to itself.

The group has never been one to cater to popular demand. The crowd's cries for "Repeater," an early and well-known staple of the group, went unrewarded. Fugazi apparently put a lot of prior thought into its playlist -- the band often moved from song to song without skipping a beat, and it ebbed seamlessly from its aggressive, intense numbers to its more subtle and layered music.

But the flow of the show was broken twice when MacKaye saw an audience member getting too rowdy. In that regard, he keeps the peace. But the band continues to fight tooth-and-nail to grow as a musical force.

Saturday night was further proof that Fugazi does so well by doing its own thing.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.