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featured image by: Ken Salerno
The bill was Judge, Outburst and Intensity, the date was Sunday March 11th, 1990 and the venue was City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey. This would be the first time Judge played City Gardens and to say that people were excited would be an extreme understatement. On top of this being Judge’s first visit to City Gardens, they were planning to shoot a video for the song “Where It Went” off of the Judge - “Bringin’ It Down” LP, so of course that kicked the excitement level up about 10 more notches. After years of watching Youth Of Today’s “No More” video with all that great live footage from The Anthrax, the bar was raised extremely high and we all wanted to get ourselves into this video.
Like usual, I remember showing up to the show early and hanging around outside the club. Echoing through the empty venue was Judge playing “Where It Went”, over and over again. Before the doors opened, the film crew were capturing some of the up close angles of the band members without the interruption of the crowd. Some friends and I would crack open the side doors to sneak a quick peek of the action. I also remember Gus SXE coming up to me outside the show and commenting on the X I had shaved in the back of my head, he thought it was cool and it was kind of funny because the inspiration for me doing it was from seeing photos of him with it.
Photo by: Cara Longo
By the time the show started and most importantly, Judge hit the stage, the entire club was in a frenzy. Everyone knew the cameras were on and everyone wanted to get themselves on film, so the “No Stagediving” rule usually kept in mind at a City Gardens show, was quickly thrown out the window. I recall Judge either opening with “Where It Went”, or at least playing it very early in their set. The crowd went insane, but I think a lot of people held back because they didn’t want to risk getting thrown out and missing the remainder of Judge’s set. By the end of the set, Mike announced to the crowd that they were going to play “Where It Went” one more time, only this time Mike urged the crowd not to hold back. This time was nothing less than pure insanity, bodies were hurling everywhere. I was determined to get a piece of the action, so I made my way on to and quickly off the stage and on top of the crowd. Before anyone knew it, the song was over, the set was complete and a very memorable night had come to an end.
Photo by: Cara Longo
When all was said and done, I did manage to get myself in the video, unfortunately my appearance wasn’t for a stage dive, but for a sing along, but for a Judge video, I’ll happily take it. All these years later, anyone that I talk to, that attended this show, holds it in very high regards. With all the classic venues like CBGB and The Anthrax usually getting the attention, it was cool for City Gardens to get a little piece of the action and become immortalized on film. To this day, I can’t hear “Where It Went” and not think of this night. -Tim DCXX
