Live Concert Photography: Lee Fields with Benny Trokan at White Eagle Hall 10/6/23

By a rough estimate, I’ve attended about 1,600-1,800 shows in my life as a fan, journalist and photographer, but last Friday night at White Eagle Hall may arguably be among the most memorable and weirdest experiences I’ve ever had. And I’ve had artists spit out beer, whiskey and water at me or in my general direction. At a GWAR show at House of Vans, mischievous fans threw decorated cardboard boxes around — and the band did what they famously did: spew out vats of fake blood, vomit and sperm during their show. Yeah, seriously.

Last Friday, I showed up to catch soul legend Lee Fields do his thing for the first time in about a decade. Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Benny Trokan, who’s also a member of Fields’ backing band played a fun set of mod-era R&B and rock. Trokan and his band ended their set, and people were chatting and milling about during the in between set change over. Roughly 5-10 minutes in, the venue’s head of security came out and said with a very firm, measured delivery “Everyone has to go outside now. There’s a carbon monoxide leak in the building.”

I didn’t immediately hear “carbon monoxide leak” and for a brief moment or two, being a bit confused from shock, I thought “wait, is this a bomb? Lee Fields? A soul singer? Here? Why?” My second thought was — perhaps, too fittingly for me — was “But I have this 9 buck beer. Y’all aren’t going to let me hold it, let alone drink it outside. What about my beer?”

Most of the 250 or so, who were there stood outside bemused by the entire affair but in a relatively good mood, despite the relative strangeness of it all. The Jersey City Fire Department showed up a few minutes later. At one point. I overhead a fireman say to a colleague “Twenty-two ten per million.” I don’t know how much is a legally acceptable amount, but that number is a helluva lot.

Eventually, the fire department put up caution tape around the building. And it was pretty obvious by then, that the show wasn’t going to go out. Sadly, we never got a chance to see Mr. Fields do his thing. That was a bit disappointing. But speaking for myself and for the several attendees that I spoke to that night, we’re all grateful that the carbon monoxide alarm went off, and that management and the venue handled it the way they did. No one died. No one got hurt. And to my knowledge, no one got sick. But by far, it was a very strange night that I’ll remember for the rest of my days.