Page 42 of Behind the Lights

We nodded in unison. Sticking his hand out, we quickly piled ours on top of his. “It’s now or never and can’t think of anyone else I’d rather share this journey with than you three fuckers.” He laughed before we filed in for a group hug.

There was no curtain to be pulled back for a big band reveal, no announcer to say who we were. We were well and truly on our own which as the front man meant I had to address the crowd. Of course, that wouldn’t happen until I’d swallowed down the lump blocking my throat. The four of us walked out on stage, Diamond took his seat behind his drum set, Mickey donned his bass and Stoli nodded to me as he swung his guitar strap over his shoulder. I scanned the crowd, we had about fifty people mindlessly staring at us. As a virtual unknown, they had no idea what to expect so it was up to us to bring it and show them what we had.

I grabbed hold of the microphone stand as though it were my lifeforce, cleared my throat and damn near stuttered, “Hey, hi. Um, we’re Social Sinners from Seattle.” I looked to Stoli for help and found him staring out at the crowd. Turning to Mickey, he shrugged and hit a couple notes on his bass, shaking Stoli from his stupor. Diamond, as usual seemed completely unaffected by, well, everything, which made me smile and I needed that. I turned back to the crowd. “And we are here to rock your fucking world.”

Stoli kicked right in to the first song, and the other guys followed suit. I tapped my toe to the beat before launching into the lyrics. Halfway through the first song, I scanned the crowd, noting it had doubled in size. That alone grounded me, driving me forward to make this the best performance I could. The first song ended to loud claps and whistles. We only had half an hour to dazzle them and draw them in, so the roadies would have time to set up for the next band.

The end of our performance was met with a cheerful roar and we were all smiles. There was easily five hundred people in the crowd now. Nowhere near the ten thousand that would pack the venue later tonight when the headliners took the stage, but a record breaker for us nonetheless. Four kids from Everett, Washington had just impressed a non-home crowd. No family or friends there to draw them in, just us and our given talents and I have to tell you, that fucking kicked ass.

I grabbed the mic to give the crowd a final shout-out. “Wow, this is great. Thanks for listening to us. Again, we are Social Sinners and we’ll be over there,” I pointed to where the merch tables had been set up, “selling our debut CD. Thanks for checking us out.” When I turned to walk away, I glanced back and saw a huge line forming beside the table with a security guard standing at the front of it. When I turned to tell the guys, I found they were staring at it as well.

“Dude, how many CDs did you burn?” Diamond asked Mickey.

“Two-fifty.” His eyes were wide as saucers. “Ugh, that’s not going to last through Idaho if those two shows are anything like this one.”

“I’ll call Brett when we’re done and see what he can do,” Stoli told him.

We took our seats behind the folding table and security moved to the side to allow the single-file line to move forward. Not being set up for electronic sales meant we had to turn a few people away, but I knew Stoli’s mind was already focused on fixing that. I sat at the end of the table, Stoli beside me, Mickey next and Diamond was the first one they hit as they came through. Shirts, body parts and the cd’s they’d purchased were thrust at us to sign. I know it’s cliché to say, but we couldn’t stop the proud looks on our faces. This was a reality, one we wanted from the onset, but one that until it slapped us in the faces didn’t really sink in as a possibility.

When all was said and done, Mickey took an inventory of the remaining CDs. “Holy shit guys, we sold eighty-six CDs.”

“My hand is cramped from signing so much,” I said, twirling my wrist around to stretch it out.

Diamond held up his arm. “Check it out, look at all the numbers I scored.”

“Sharpie’s a bitch to get off,” Stoli chuckled. Diamond was a total ho. “Let’s head out so I can call Brett about the CDs, it’s too loud to try and talk in here.”

“Great show, guys,” the venue manager said as we passed behind the stage.

“Thanks,” we said before stepping outside into the overcast afternoon.

Stoli was dialing as soon as we surfaced and talked to Brett while we walked toward the van.

“Let’s eat then head back inside. I want to check out the other bands.” My stomach was growling and oddly enough I was craving a bologna sandwich which we had the goods to make in the ice chests. Seemed that everyone woke up while we were on stage and chaos was erupting around us. I caught a glimpse of the foot traffic coming in through the front gates and couldn’t believe the wave of people entering. It was insane and would only get more hectic as the more popular bands played throughout the day.

“Hey,” one of the guys leaning against an older tour bus hollered to us.

We stopped, Stoli included, who hung up to find out with the rest of us what this guy wanted.

“You’re the band that just came off stage, right? What’s your name?”

“Social Sinners,” I helped him out, he looked like he might have an aneurism trying to recall it.

“Yeah, Social Sinners. You’re not too bad. I’m Nate, guitarist with Double Duty. Is this your first time on tour?”

Stoli’s phone rang, he quickly introduced himself to Nate before walking away to take the call. “Yes, we’ve only played local gigs around Seattle and Portland,” I told him.

“Right on, we’re on at the top of the hour. Come check us out. Maybe we’ll grab a beer afterwards.” We finished introductions and told him we’d be in to watch them before he headed toward the band entrance.

“Hey guys,” Stoli said when he caught up to us at the van. I made him a sandwich and handed it over. “Thanks. That was Brett. He booked us a cheap hotel room in Boise. He and your dad, Joey, are burning us a bunch of CDs to overnight tomorrow.”

“My dad?”

“Ha, yes your computer hating father is helping out.”

We had a good laugh over this, there wasn’t a computer in our house which meant he was probably next door at Stoli’s helping. I was blown away by this gesture. We definitely needed to do something nice for our families when we had some extra funds.

After a quick lunch, we wandered back inside to watch the bands from stage side. Getting a feel for how events of this nature operated. It was chaotic for sure, but organized chaos that somehow worked well for the teams involved. This gave us a greater appreciation for those who worked behind the scenes, ensuring we had successful events. Double Duty was gearing up to take the stage, Nate caught us intently watching their pre-concert antics and waved us over.

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