Roger Lambert - Up Front, Courage, Journeyman, Soma 13

This is part of an ongoing piece where we asked various people from bands over the years what they recall as the most memorable show they ever played (or attended, if they were never in a band), and why. What is posted here is only a sliver of what is to come, so be sure to check back. -DCXX

Journeyman was playing at Stockton State College in New Jersey. On the bill was Turning Point, Burn, and I believe there were two others who respectively opened the gig. Journeymen was to play before Burn, with Turning Point finishing the night. But first, the fellas from J-man took the stage.

The stage was in some sort of hall there on campus. We began to play, and were no more than three songs into the set when these skins from A.C. were making a bit of a ruckus. I looked out and saw one seig-heiling and decided I was going to put an end to it so I dashed out into the crowd and wound up for what I was expecting a collosal hit, when the mic I was holding hit its limit. I don't know if someone was standing on the cable or if someone had the bright idea of tying it off well, but it snagged just above my shoulder. It pulled at my arm and forced me to let go of the mic. Well, this took all the momentum from the windup and I delivered the world's lamest "slap" on this skin's left cheek. For one brief second we both looked at each other in utter amazment, then I came to my senses and delivered a proper left. The crowed jummped in and what happened after is a bit a blur, but as the rumors/story goes, a few people locked the doors so the A.C. boys could not exit. Tables, chairs, fists flying. All the while, they had pulled the plug on the band, and yet Chris Cap was still pounding away on the drums. I remember the PA stack falling over and looking out at some flashing lights from campus police.

This went on for a brief moment, and when the campus cops "got their guys" and relieved us from any more nazi BS, we were told the show had only a half hour left and we had to stop. I went to the guys from Burn and told them the stage was theirs, and if they wanted to just use our equipment they could so that they could play that much longer. Chaka just smiled and slapped my back and said...."No way, this is your night, go finish your set." We went out with a new song at the time we were calling "Power" and it didn't last more than a minute before the PA stack stage left took a dive and the crowd was completely nuts...I had never seen so much energy from a crowd...and there wasn't a whole lot of kids there. THAT was a fun night.