Ian Mackaye

After a violin recital, I dashed out of the church into my car and rushed out of Des Moines, Iowa and drove alittle over 40 miles into Ames, Iowa to see Ian Mackaye. Although I left Des Moines at the same times he started his speech, I only missed 45 minutes of the 3 hour discussion he held.

Ian Mackaye (pronounced Mc-Kai by himself) visited Iowa State University's Memorial Union. The audience asked questions and he answered them fully. The topic emphasized was about the DIY ideas he closely followed in his label and his band, Fugazi. What amazed me was that he was a funny guy. He used and amitted using a lot of metaphors to aid him in answering the audience member's questions. About the end of the discussion, the questions swayed alittle from DIY to specific situations, such as punk today, straight edge, and politcal questions.

Some opinions he expressed:
His most interesting Fugazi show was in a room at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
His stance on Straight Edge; He talked about his Minor Threat song Straight Edge and explained his concept. He also talked about some people adopting that concept plus other version of it, but turn it into a violent situation and later becoming hypocrites in what they believed.
He also talked about punk music/Nirvana in the early ninties in a funny metaphorical way. He described it as a small community of farms.
He also explains that shows with a crowd of more than 2000 people for him doesn't work out financially, so thus, he rarely does them.
He also has a great concept on the outlook of human beings. Humorous, but very sensible.

There were much more topics covered, but as a reviewer, I'm going to keep this shorter than it should be. If you have an opportunity to hear Ian Mackaye talk, you should go.