Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty has told RTÉ Entertainment that he and bassist Joe Lally are relishing their return to Ireland next month with their new band The Messthetics, but has vowed to continue the Fugazi tradition of missing the ferry and arriving late.
Fugazi's independently promoted Irish concerts, which spanned the years from 1988 to the group's indefinite hiatus in 2002, have become the stuff of live music legend, with venues such as Dublin's McGonagle's and the SFX; Kilkenny's Friary Theatre and Cork's Nancy Spain's all playing host to the iconic American band down the decades.
Now Canty is seeing history repeat itself as he brings his new outfit to his ancestral home following the release of their acclaimed self-titled debut on Dischord Records - and with another ferry to catch.
"Let's see if we make it!" he laughed. "Fugazi missed the ferry three times in a row coming over there. We always loved coming over there. It was always hugely important for us to make the journey, even if we messed it up three times in a row! It's always meant a lot to me, and that's why I wanted to make sure that we did it on this trip too."
Canty said so many of his memories of Ireland with Fugazi are "intertwined with us getting there horribly late".
"The McGonagle's gig [1989], they delayed the show a couple of hours and I remember carrying in all our gear above the crowd's heads," he recounted. "Drums were being carried through the crowd to the stage... and then just throwing it up there and ripping through the set.
"There was always something totally chaotic happening to us. One time we broke an axle right down by the ferry landing and we were stuck there on the way out of Dublin! There was always something chaotic, but the shows themselves were always great.
"I remember the Kilkenny show and the Cork show [both May 1999] really well. The crowds are just so great; everybody's just always lit up and we're always in the best mood because of that. It felt much more like a communal experience and it was always made sweeter by the fact that you have just completely messed up and missed the ferry, completely ashamed and trying to make up for lost time and trying to put on the best show we possibly could!
"When I think about the things that set it [Ireland] apart above all else? The fact that we missed the ferry or arrived late to a gig at all, which absolutely never happened! I just remember the third time having to call [Hope Collective's] Niall McGuirk who put those shows on, and we all just felt so terrible and just such like a big bunch of idiots! As you're driving towards the ferry and you're watching the ferry [leave]. The last time we just missed it and the ferry was floating away."
The Messthetics sees Canty and Lally joined by guitarist Anthony Pirog in an instrumental trio whose debut album is the sound of a new band with the bit between their teeth.
"I'm so excited to be playing with Joe again," Canty enthused. "That's number one. Number two, our guitarist is just a monster! He's incredible. He's very musical and he's very driven and we all get along and we all are having just a wildly good time playing with each other. And it's very fluid, in that we don't have a singer. Playing live, that's really as it was in Fugazi the raison d'être of the band - get this thing out live and prove it to yourself that you still have blood in your veins.
"If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you're only as good as the people you play with. I really just want to continue to play with other people and learn and continue to grow and continue to create music that broadens what I feel like is possible."
Crowds here can judge for themselves when The Messthetics play Belfast's Voodoo on Saturday, February 2 and Dublin's Grand Social on Sunday, February 3.
"We're not going to make the ferry on time - I'm going to say it in advance!" concluded Canty, laughing. "In fact, we booked the shows as a complete ruse! We have no intention of going towards the ferry!"
