Oct 21

Oct 21 Friday Night Flicks: Instrument

For those lucky enough to have seen Fugazi in their heyday (or those who’ve obsessively studied the group’s live archive, myself included), you know that one of the group's most defining characteristics was their approach to the live show.

“One of the things about the way that the band works live is that we always improvise the sets, we never use a setlist, so it’s never scripted. At any moment anyone in the band has to be ready to go into any one of the 70 or 80 songs that we’ve written over the years. It’s really important that you almost enter like a group mind or something so you’re able to pick up on cues from each other, which could be a body motion, or a move on a guitar, or just eye contact, and from that you have to know which parts to extend, how to segway into the next song, what the next song is going to be.” –Guy Picciotto

Unfortunately for fans in attendance just to hear Waiting Room, Fugazi never relied on the tried-and-true “play the hits” ideology; Instead, what awaited concertgoers was a musical odyssey of sorts, a collage-like arrangement of their material with lengthy improvisational detours. This emphasized the subtleties, dynamics, and more experimental aspects of their sound. The unheard music.

Instrument was created in a similar vein. The Jem Cohen-produced film is an avant-garde departure from the traditional “tour doc,” splicing together live footage of the band with grainy photo montages, slow-burn arthouse style clips, and painfully awkward interviews (the journalists never stood a chance) in a way that’s oddly psychedelic.

In an industry presently defined by multi-million dollar contracts, merch bundles, meet and greets, and other miscellaneous forms of corporate excess, Fugazi’s enduring legacy of self-sustainability and innovation exists as a reminder that genuine artistic success will never be measured in dollar signs (corny but true). For any and all keepers of the D.I.Y. flame out there, look no further for your weekend dose of inspiration. Instrument is this week’s Friday Night Flick, an intimate look into the message and motives behind one of music’s most misunderstood groups.

Ice cream enthusiasts need not watch.—Jackson Todd

[Above photo by Glen E. Friedman]