With the Evens, MacKaye Keeps It Simple

All this is a roundabout way of noting that even as the Evens have been MacKaye's musical focus for the past five years, legacy issues abound, particularly with some hardcore fans reluctant to let go of the past.

MacKaye says: "When Fugazi started, I was asked, 'Will you ever be able to escape the specter of Minor Threat?' There are still people who want to talk to me about Minor Threat, and there will be people who will want to talk to me about Fugazi, but I can tell you already we play shows that are heavily populated with people who have come to see the Evens.

"In each case, the music has taken a turn not because it's a style or a genre but a particular reflection of what specific individuals develop," he explains. "That's the conversation I'm having with Amy, the conversation I had with Brendan and Joe and Guy, and the lack of conversation I had with Lyle, Brian and Jeff.

"I'm sure that people will always be interested in my legacy, and that's fine -- I don't deny it," MacKaye says. "They can take or leave the Evens; plenty of people don't take it, and that's okay. We have shows where 100 to 200 people come out; with Fugazi, it would be 1,000 to 2,000, so already it's clear it's not the same people who are coming out. Those who come, they're up for the voyage."

And, MacKaye suggests, it has been a voyage for him. "In every band I've been in, there's been a different thing going on. I played bass in Teen Idles; I sang for Minor Threat; I sang for Embrace, but we only played 12 shows; I played guitar in Fugazi." Though MacKaye plays sitting down now, wielding a baritone guitar instead of the old electric, "the energy of the music is as consistent as anything else I've ever done," he says. There are no regrets.

"What I do miss, in terms of Fugazi, those guys are my family," he says. "When I think about Fugazi tours and the work we did, I don't think about the gigs or the music -- that was the cathartic exercise I can still arrive at with Amy. I think about the before and after -- talking at the restaurants, driving, the experiences, the friendship. The way Fugazi toured, we sat at the same table for dinner from the beginning all the way through -- I remember other bands thought it was crazy. But it was that friendship that was the driving force of the band."

That camaraderie will be on display later this summer in Glen E. Friedman's book "Keep Your Eyes Open," a collection of his Fugazi photos. MacKaye has known Friedman since Friedman was SkateBoarder magazine's chief photographer and mail-ordered Minor Threat EPs from Los Angeles. The two met in 1981 at a Faith/Bad Brains show at CBGB in New York, "and we've been fast friends ever since," MacKaye says of Friedman, perhaps the most prolific documentarian of his generation's skateboard, punk and hip-hop subcultures.

"Keep Your Eyes Open" will be published Sept. 3, the 20th anniversary of the first Fugazi performance at the Wilson Center; the band's last American show, in 2002, was at Fort Reno, where, on Monday, MacKaye will share the bill with his longtime Fugazi mate, bassist Lally, who will play with members of DCIC (DC Improvisers Collective).

Lally, who is planning to move to Italy, has been in charge of the Fugazi Live CD series, drawn from the band's most legendary shows and available only on the Internet. Dischord will take over that responsibility and, MacKaye says, will sell the live recordings on CD and in digital formats. That first Wilson Center show is among the 30 available now, as is Fugazi's final show (or as the Dischord Web site puts it, "last show played to date") from London.

"Get Evens," the Evens' latest album, was released in November, on Dischord, of course, and its sound and substance suggest turbulence under a disarming calm. "Everybody Knows" is one of several Republican not-love songs ("You fabricated your way in here, and everybody knows," capped with a Trump-inspired "You're fired!"). The opening track, "Cut From the Cloth," asks, "How do people sleep amidst the slaughter / And why would they vote in favor of their own defeat?"

According to MacKaye, "Dinner With the President" is "about me realizing that by my decisions on how I live, that will never happen." Sample lyric: "I don't exist in their worldview / But if I went, I know what I'd like to do / Stand up and scream while the food is served." He's right -- that will never happen.

The context, even the specific focus may be different, but the passion, commitment and desire to challenge the status quo have hardly diminished from the days of Minor Threat.

"I'm a long-distance runner," MacKaye says. "It's not the means, it's the end. It's always the journey for me. That is the point, to have the engagement in life. I think I'm always going to be this way. I'm 45 and I've kept it up pretty steadily, and I'm pretty unflagging."

It's a spirit, he says, nurtured while he was growing up in late '60s and early '70s, witness to "a social revolution where people loved each other and worked hard to change things and questioned authority -- that just seems like such a good idea, today more than ever. Question authority!"

The Evens and Joe Lally

Appearing Monday at Fort Reno, across from Wilson Senior High School near Tenley Circle NW

Details: The free show begins at 7:15 and is over by 9:30. Occasionally, shows get rained out; call 703-318-2197 to check. For a complete schedule of Fort Reno performances, visit http://www.fortreno.com/schedule.html.