Turning Point - Reunion April 8th, 1994

TURNING POINT - Reunion Show from Larry Ransom on Vimeo.
Turning Point - Reunion, April 8th 1994, Pennsauken NJ, video by: Larry Ransom

I remember this show pretty well, it was Friday April 8th 1994. The club was called G-Willikers and it was in Pennsauken New Jersey. I had been to the club once before back in 1990 with my band Mouthpiece. It was one of our early shows that we played with Release. It was one of these bar band type of clubs, the type of place you'd expect a constant flow of cover bands playing "Sweet Child O' Mine" to a room full of trashy toothless drunks. Not exactly the picture perfect club for a Turning Point reunion.

Going into this show I recall a few things that set the backdrop. Kurt Cobain had just killed himself on April 5th and I think it took a few days until they found his body. I remember being at the Turning Point show and the talk of Kurt Cobain's suicide being discussed quite a bit. I also remember a week before this show our bass player from Mouthpiece, Dave Rosenberg got drunk at a party. I caught wind of it and pretty much immediately gave Dave the boot. As much as I loved the kid, Mouthpiece was without question, a straight edge band. If someone wasn't on board, they were out. Because of Dave, we went through a few months where we didn't know what was going to happen with the band. There was talk of us breaking up until we finally found Sean McGrath to step in and take Dave's place. I also remember going to this show with a handful of friends, one of them being Sweet Pete. Before the show I remember sitting down in a pizza place with Pete and talking about how much we both loved pizza and how neither of us would probably ever go vegan. It couldn't have been much longer than a week or two before Pete went vegan, me on the other hand, never did. I'll stick with being a vegetarian.

As for the show, I loved Turning Point, they were one of my favorite bands. With that being said, after they broke up, some of the guys in the band defintely moved on and left behind some of those messages that seemed so important when Turning Point was still a band. The X'ed fists became fists clenching beer bottles and at the time, nothing could have bummed me out more. I had been a huge fan from the first note of the demo, on through the last note on the Turning Point / No Escape split. So going into this show I was bit unsure of how I felt. As much as I wanted to get another chance to climb on top of a crowd and sing along to one of my favorite bands, I wanted it to mean as much to the band as it did to me. Because of this, I ended up spending most of the set standing to the side being a spectator. I do recall forcing myself into the crowd during songs like "Thursday" and "Behind This Wall", just because while Turning Point were together, they had yet to release those songs, so this was my first opportuntiy to actually sing along to those songs. I guess I kind of looked at that later era almost as a different band.

Looking back, I realize I probably should have taken the opportunity to just go out and have a good time. There I was in New Jersey seeing one of my favorite bands and instead of enjoying it, I stood there against a wall for the majority of the set. Now if I had the chance today in 2008 to see a Turning Point reunion, I definitely wouldn't get caught up in what I did then. I guess age and experience has made me confident and comfortable enough with my own convictions to not worry so much about others. But hey, nothing I can do about it now and unfortuantely with the death of Turning Point front man, Skip, that was the last time I'd ever get to see Turning Point. At least I know that I did see them a handful of times when they were still together. One of the best for sure. -Tim DCXX