and here’s another roots band! fugazi’s a band i legitimately admire right now, not just for forming the hardcore/post-hardcore genres. their $5 tickets, strict policy against moshing, their hatred of commercialism, and their abstinence from drugs-they’re only respected for being so upright and so radical for a punk band because their music is really damn good.
i’ve been listening to a lot more fugazi recently- some of my favorites are “Slo Crostic“, “Suggestion“, and “Bad Mouth“, and i’ve enjoyed their famous compilation album, 13 Songs. fugazi’s a punk band, through and through, but their music goes well beyond typical three-chord punk-it’s more abrasive, noisy, angry, close to the bands termed ’emo’ in the 80s and 90s before the term emo primarily came to mean black-clad, depressing pop-punk. emo means emotional hardcore, not pop-punk!
anyways, “Waiting Room” is probably fugazi’s most iconic song, and i listened to it long before i actually started liking post-hardcore. it has an iconic bassline, an iconic, muted guitar riff, and an iconic, cathartic chorus- it pretty much hits right in every way. fugazi didn’t approve of moshing, but this is a song i want to mosh to. also, it has one of my favorite lyrics in the history of music: “but i won’t sit idly by/i’m planning a big surprise/i’m gonna fight for what i want to be!” just listen to it!
q-street 