Thursday, January 8, 2009

Intensity at City Gardens 3/11/1990



I've had this footage saved as a favorite of mine on YouTube and have planned to post it here on DCXX for quite awhile now. Tonight seemed like as good a time as any considering most of this weeks posts have been a bit text heavy.

Most of you are probably wondering, "Who the hell is Intensity?", well I'll try to fill you in. Intensity were from Princeton New Jersey, which is a town over from where I grew up. My friends and I all picked up their demo at a BOLD, Up Front show in Sayreville, New Jersey. At the time, which I believe was 1989, picking up a new demo by a band from Jersey that had a huge X on the cover seemed kinda cool. Jersey had bands like Turning Point, Release, Enuf and of course Vision, who at the time were pretty much making the most waves. To find a brand new band was exciting because you never knew if they were going to be the next big thing.

On the way home from that BOLD, Up Front show I remember us all listening to the Intensity demo. Then once we got home we listened to it again and again. Although lyrically it was pretty damn goofy (the lyrics to "Jersey Shore" are priceless), musically it wasn't that bad, total mosh fest type of stuff, like a straight edge version of Maximum Penalty or maybe even Breakdown. Soon after we ended up meeting the guys in the band, hanging out and getting to know them. Eventually I even had a hand in getting their 7" released on a new D.C. label done by Ken Olden, called Common Sense Records, which was an off shoot from the fanzine that myself and my friend Tony were doing at the time.


Intensity at City Gardens, check out their guitarist Jordan with the drum riser jump, right behind Chris their singer

Some how or another Intensity actually had a lot of hook ups. I know their drummer Kevin was friends with Drew from BOLD, so they would get show hook ups through them. They also got some sort of hook up with Judge and ended up playing with them quite a few times (Unisound, The Anthrax, City Gardens, etc.).

This particular video is from the Judge "Where It Went" video shoot show at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey. It was Sunday March 11th 1990. Intensity opened, followed by Outburst and then last but not least, Judge. I've talked about this show countless times and I'm not going to bore you all again with how great it was, but I will say, having Intensity open was a really fun way to start the show. For me and a lot of my friends, since we knew the band, it was cool having this "down with the band" that's playing vibe that was going on. Keep in mind, I was 16 at the time, so being "down with a band" that was playing City Gardens with Outburst and Judge seemed really cool. You can even see me (blue Nike hat) and some friends up front singing along. I'm pretty sure this was the same night Intensity threw lollipos out into the crowd when they played their song "Lollipop" of course.

That's pretty much it for now, I really intended to keep this a "text light" post, but evidently that is easier said than done. Have a good weekend, thanks for tuning into another week of DCXX and remember, "What a mess, what a mess, I don't want to get a needle stuck in my chest !". -Tim DCXX


13 comments:

Benj said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Benj said...

i had a copy of intensity's 7" on tape (along with no future and false justice/out loud, 2 great jersey shore-core bands), and your description of it is pretty much dead on. the lyrics were definitely pretty goofy even though they weren't trying to be tongue-in-cheek. i skated with dave shivel a couple times in princeton, i think he played guitar in the band and had a vert ramp in his yard that was only 5 or 6 feet tall. brian schwinn was the only member not from princeton i believe - he was from trenton and we used to skate together from time to time too. he joined a band called negative male child in the 90's, and most recently he played with the stuntcocks from new brunswick. i never got to see intensity live but i listened to the 7" all the time. vintage vinyl in woodbridge had a wall of old hardcore records hanging up, and right along with bold, judge and gorilla biscuits, there was the intensity 7" on sale for 75 bucks.

Pedro Carvalho said...

They sound much better live than on the 7".
I remember when many years ago I started trying to get every single youth crew related record ever released before 1991.
I started getting all sorts of obscure EPs by just about any band that fit this description and one day I got a package from someone in New Jersey containing that Stand Up / On Life split and the Intensity record.
The Stand Up EP was pretty weak, while the Intensity one was a bit better, but the reason I'll never forget it is that awesome song about saving the bald eagle, because "it's a simbol of our american pride". I traded it a while later but now I regret it, because good or bad, it's the funniest EP of that era in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

My 7" came with 2 lyric sheets, would have gone down alot better without one, not one of my favourites of that time.

xChrisx said...

Its reading stuff like this that really makes me want to be there in that moment.Being pretty young(24) and living in shitty Europe i never got to see witness these epic shows/bands.

Anonymous said...

that DRI /SOIA show would have been more interesting to hear about

DOUBLE CROSS said...

I actually do have a pretty damn entertaining story about that DRI / Sick Of It All show, but I'll save that for another entry. -Tim DCXX

Dan said...

can someone upload some intensity? id really like to hear more after watching that video

Dave B said...

Being from Va, I guess this was a NJ thing. I never got this band at all. "MMM MMM Let's get funky" and my all time fave, the bald eagle song.

Todd said...

Yeah, would be stoked to hear about DRI/SOIA especially since fucking Nasty Savage and Ripping Corpse were also on that show. Looking at fliers like that is one of the only times that I wish I were older.

Stark-Arts said...

crazy to see those old City Gardens flyers - City Gardens never got it's props due to the CBGB's legend and Anthrax being closer to NYC...
On this flyer i was at 5 shows...wow
JC

Bob Harnsberger said...

I was at this show and am still friends with a couple of these guys.. if anyone out there has a copy of their 7" I would love to have it! email me at harnsberger1@comcast.net Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Can someone please please please upload their 7" I been looking forever for this. Thank you.