Clash Of The Rockbands
Concert Time
“I know her! I know her!” A male voice floated down the hallway into our dressing room. Kim shot up out of her seat and rushed to the door. She stuck her head out into the hallway, looking down the hall. She pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped out into the hall.
“Hey, Pauly, let him go!” she yelled down the hall. Pauly was the security guard at the concert hall. “He’s my boyfriend!”
A few seconds later, she and Johnny both stepped into the room, Johnny looking a little roughed up.
Our first concert in Huntington Beach was about to start in fifteen minutes. Butterflies thumped angrily against my stomach walls as I paced around the room, quietly tapping my drumsticks against each other. Jen sat on a stool in front of one of the mirrors, nervously running her fingers through her hair. Rayne stood leaning against one of the walls, studying her lyrics even though she could sing all of them in her sleep. AM stood in the middle of the room, anxiously wringing her hands, looking quite pale.
“We’re all feeling a little bit of the pre-concert jitters.” Kim told Johnny. She walked over to the counters and mirrors lining one wall and ran her hands over her naturally-kinked hair.
“Okay, guys, this is it! Your first concert in Huntington Beach!” Sylvester exclaimed excitedly as he bounced into the room. “You guys are wanted backstage right now! So come on!”
We all followed him out of the dressing room and down the hall, emerging into an open room. The steps leading up to the stage were in the corner of the room. The only things occupying the room were some spare stereos, a mirror hanging on the wall, and a few chairs.
“Okay, you’ve still got about thirteen minutes.” Sylvester told us, looking down at his watch. “I have to go make sure everything’s going as planned. I’ll be back.” He disappeared back down the hall.
Everyone went back to whatever they had been doing in the dressing room. Kim and Johnny talked to each other in low voices barely audible over the noise of the crowd.
“Look who I found!” Sylvester cried a few minutes later as he bounded back into the room. We all looked over to see Matt, Syn, James, and Zacky trailing behind him. Oh great. Now I was going to have to perform knowing that they were watching. Just wonderful.
“What are you doing here?” Rayne asked. Well, more like snapped. Being anxious never made her very welcoming and happy.
“Well, Sylvester invited us.” Matt answered, slightly taken aback. We all glared over at Sylvester.
“He neglected to let us know.” Jen snarled. Sylvester looked uncomfortable.
“Well, Johnny was coming anyway!” he said.
“Johnny is Kim’s boyfriend!”
“Why are you guys so angry about me inviting them?”
“They’re making us even more nervous!” Rayne exclaimed. “They’re a bigger and more famous band then we are! We’ll probably sound horrible to them!”
“We’ve heard you before.” Johnny intervened. “You sound fine to us, right guys?” He switched his gaze to the other four guys. They all nodded.
“Well, you’re on in seven minutes.” Sylvester said quickly as most of the anger left our faces. “Yeah, so...uh...Yeah!” He quickly left the room again, going off to play manager.
After what felt like seven seconds and not seven minutes, Sylvester came rushing back.
“Okay, Huntington Beach is ready for you!” he cried, his eyes glittering excitedly. “Good luck, all of you!” We all nodded curtly. Kim gave Johnny a quick kiss on the cheek and then we all clambered up the stairs onto the stage.
I went straight to the drum-set and sat down on the familiar black stool. Rayne stepped up to the microphone stand; Kim, Jen, and AM all stepped over to their appropriate guitars and slipped the straps over their heads. I stared out at the crowd as I put my drumsticks down on the snare drum to flex my fingers. An endless sea of faces spread out from the stage. Everywhere, people were cheering and screaming.
“Hello, hello, Huntington Beach!” Rayne greeted. The crowd went wild. “Well, we’re new on the Huntington Beach scene. So we’ll give you all we got and hopefully you’ll accept us into this fine, fine society. Deal?” More screams erupted from the crowd. “Alrighty then! Let’s get this concert started, shall we?” More screams. “Right on! Let’s jump to it!” And with those final words, we all started playing our hearts out.
**********
“Oh, you guys’ve been great! A very good audience to play for!” Rayne said into the microphone. The crowd went wild. Rayne waited until they quieted down a little bit to continue. “But sadly enough, this’ll be our last encore. So let’s make it a good one, right?” Cheers from the crowd. “So, let me see your ‘Rock On’ symbols!”
On cue, all the band members held up their hands in the rock sign. You know, the one with your hand fisted and your index finger and pinky stuck out? Yeah, that one. The crowd quickly mimicked the movement.
“Wonderful!” Rayne exclaimed. “Well, let’s not keep you waiting!” We started the song.
Halfway through, the lights that brightly lit up the stage and the crowd beyond all flickered off. Every instrument fell silent except for me hitting one cymbal on a slow beat.
Rayne, Kim, Jen, AM, and I had all been wearing quite casual clothes: a pair of cut-off denim shorts and normal-looking tank-top in varying colors, each emblazoned with TBH and our symbol. We had been planning this little finale for quite some time, but had never tried it until now. There was a special seam on the tank-top that a normal eye wouldn’t be able to see that would enable us to simply tear the tank-top off without pulling it off over our heads. The jean shorts had the same kind of seam.
We quickly and silently tore off our tank-tops and shorts. We pulled on the shoes to match our new outfits. I quickly hid my tank-top and shorts behind my bass drum where no one would be able to see it; the other girls hid them behind the stereos before rushing back to their spots.
A few seconds after everyone had rushed back to their spot, the lights flickered back on, revealing us again. But in completely different outfits.
We each wore a tight corset that was the same color as our bangs. The corset stopped just below our ribcages to show off our flat stomachs. My corset was bright red with thin little spaghetti straps; Rayne’s was white with no straps; Jen’s was navy blue with a halter top; AM’s was bright yellow with off-the-shoulder straps; and Kim’s was bright purple with thick, lacy straps. And then beneath our jean shorts we each wore a pair of tight black shorts made of the same material as the corsets: something shiny, but I wasn’t sure exactly what type of fabric it was. Leather maybe? I don’t know. Our stiletto shoes were made of the same shiny fabric and molded to our legs like a second skin. They went up to just above our knees and was the same color as our corsets.
Sluttish? Sure. Awesome? Definitely.
Enough to make the crowd go crazy?
You be the judge.
Or not.
The crowd went crazy. But we just continued on with the song as if nothing had happened. But the second half of the song was much darker and eviler and deeper and louder than the first half had been. We had made that song especially for the outfits we wore. The first half had been sweet and innocent, like our casual outfits, but then the second half was hardcore and mean and in your face like our tight leathery outfits.
Rayne ended the song with smoothly stepping up onto one of the stereos. She shot her hand up with her fingers formed into the rock sign and gave one last, totally awesome wail.
The song finally ended. I was breathless and I wasn’t even standing up. I probably wasn’t nearly as tired as the rest of the band. They had to move and stand and everything. I just sat on my butt and moved my arms.
Rayne jumped down off of the stereo and walked back over to the abandoned microphone stand. She stood behind the stand, her chest heaving, as Kim, Jen, and AM all shed off their guitars.
“Wasn’t that fun?” she squealed after a few moments. The crowd answered with cheers. “Well, since we’re new here, we want you to get to know us. So, we’re going to have a little Q and A. There are sound guys in every corner with microphones, so if you want to ask a question, please head over to the sound guys. We’ll come back out in a few minutes to answer your questions. Okay?” The crowd cheered again. Rayne beamed, slipped the microphone back onto the stand, and led the way off of the stage.
We stepped back into the little backstage room to see all the Avenged Sevenfold guys standing with wide bug eyes. Sylvester was practically bouncing off the walls, he was so happy and excited. He handed each of us a towel to dab at our faces with. I patted at my face a little bit, trying not to smear the meticulous make-up, and then wiped off my shoulders, which were sweaty too. The five guys still stared at us, probably having some sort of dirty fantasy.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Rayne muttered weakly as she sank down into one of the chairs. I sank down beside her, placing my drumsticks across my legs.
“Anyone got a camera?” Syn asked. He looked slowly around at the other guys. They didn’t respond. They were still lost in their own little worlds. Typical men.
“Johnny, stop staring at me like you’re undressing me with your eyes!” Kim snapped, punching Johnny hard on his shoulder. He staggered a little bit, bumping into Zacky. That snapped Zacky out of his little trance and he finally tore his eyes away from AM to glare reproachfully over at Johnny.
I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the wall behind me.
“Okay, everyone, it’s time for you to go back onstage.” Sylvester said after only a few minutes. Definitely not a long enough time, but oh well.
We all dragged ourselves off of the floor or chairs and stepped back on stage, instantly snapping back into energetic mode.
All five of us walked up to stand next to Rayne behind the microphone stand. She pulled the microphone out of the stand and moved the stand away.
“Okay, so we’ll start at this corner.” She pointed at the front left corner.
The first person in line took the microphone from the sound guy.
“Um, this is for Kim.” the timid-looking brunette said into the microphone. Rayne handed our mike to Kim. “Um, is it true that you’re dating Johnny Christ from Avenged Sevenfold?”
“Yes, that is true. We’ve been dating for about three months now, not including the whole time we talked on the phone before The Better Halves relocated here.” Kim answered. The brunette handed the mike to the next person and disappeared back into the crowd.
“This is for Jennifer.” the redheaded young man said. Kim passed the mike off to Jen. “Would you ever go out with me?” Jen tried her hardest to keep a straight face. The look that resulted from her efforts made her look like she was constipated.
“Um, I don’t really know.” Jen answered slowly. “I don’t know what your personality is and I don’t know anything about you so I can’t give you an accurate answer. I’m sorry.” The redhead looked disappointed, but didn’t push the subject. He handed the mike to the blonde chick behind him.
“I have a question for all of you.” she said. She sounded like that preppy cheerleader bitch from high school. Rayne took the mike but stepped back so we could all group around closer to it. “How did you come up with the band name?”
“To us, the human race is split into two halves: males and females. And we personally think that the female half is slightly better than the male half.” Rayne began.
“And our band is all girls, so we named our band ‘The Better Halves’ because we are a part of that better half of the race.” Kim continued.
“But we aren’t sexist.” I piped up. “Men have good qualities too.”
“Like the ability to amass a lot of muscle,” Jen said.
“And we aren’t saying that women don’t have their faults.” AM continued.
“Because sometimes women can just be total bitches,” I said. “Usually more than men.”
“But there are really great women out there.” Rayne added. “Women who show compassion and sympathy and are polite and gracious and kind.”
“And just those few women can make the female half of the population seem slightly better than the male half.” Kim finished.
“Thank you,” the blonde chick said. She handed the mike to the next person.
**********
Finally, the questions were over with. I didn’t even pay attention as Rayne bid farewell to the concert-goers. We finally traipsed off of the stage. As we trudged sluggishly back to the dressing room, I could barely keep my eyes open. But we finally stepped into the dressing room’s depths. Only then did I notice that the rest of the guys from Avenged Sevenfold had followed us.
As I tugged a pair of jeans on over my shorts, Zacky walked purposefully but nervously over to AM, who stood tugging on a pair of jeans too. She looked up as he walked up. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear. AM beamed and ripped the corner off of a spare music sheet. She quickly scribbled some numbers—her phone number most likely—onto the paper and handed it over to Zacky. He pocketed it, looking triumphant.
“Oh, AM!” Jen squealed. AM just rolled her eyes as she pulled on her jacket.
“That was a good show though.” James commented. I smiled weakly at him in thanks as I pulled my jacket on.
“I wasn’t expecting the clothing change.” Syn commented.
“We noticed.” Rayne told him. “When we stepped off of the stage, you were all gawking at us like a bunch of teenage boys looking at a Playboy magazine.”
“Well, let’s head home.” Kim said.
“Amen to that, sister,” I replied. We all headed back out into the hallway.
“Hey, Pauly, let him go!” she yelled down the hall. Pauly was the security guard at the concert hall. “He’s my boyfriend!”
A few seconds later, she and Johnny both stepped into the room, Johnny looking a little roughed up.
Our first concert in Huntington Beach was about to start in fifteen minutes. Butterflies thumped angrily against my stomach walls as I paced around the room, quietly tapping my drumsticks against each other. Jen sat on a stool in front of one of the mirrors, nervously running her fingers through her hair. Rayne stood leaning against one of the walls, studying her lyrics even though she could sing all of them in her sleep. AM stood in the middle of the room, anxiously wringing her hands, looking quite pale.
“We’re all feeling a little bit of the pre-concert jitters.” Kim told Johnny. She walked over to the counters and mirrors lining one wall and ran her hands over her naturally-kinked hair.
“Okay, guys, this is it! Your first concert in Huntington Beach!” Sylvester exclaimed excitedly as he bounced into the room. “You guys are wanted backstage right now! So come on!”
We all followed him out of the dressing room and down the hall, emerging into an open room. The steps leading up to the stage were in the corner of the room. The only things occupying the room were some spare stereos, a mirror hanging on the wall, and a few chairs.
“Okay, you’ve still got about thirteen minutes.” Sylvester told us, looking down at his watch. “I have to go make sure everything’s going as planned. I’ll be back.” He disappeared back down the hall.
Everyone went back to whatever they had been doing in the dressing room. Kim and Johnny talked to each other in low voices barely audible over the noise of the crowd.
“Look who I found!” Sylvester cried a few minutes later as he bounded back into the room. We all looked over to see Matt, Syn, James, and Zacky trailing behind him. Oh great. Now I was going to have to perform knowing that they were watching. Just wonderful.
“What are you doing here?” Rayne asked. Well, more like snapped. Being anxious never made her very welcoming and happy.
“Well, Sylvester invited us.” Matt answered, slightly taken aback. We all glared over at Sylvester.
“He neglected to let us know.” Jen snarled. Sylvester looked uncomfortable.
“Well, Johnny was coming anyway!” he said.
“Johnny is Kim’s boyfriend!”
“Why are you guys so angry about me inviting them?”
“They’re making us even more nervous!” Rayne exclaimed. “They’re a bigger and more famous band then we are! We’ll probably sound horrible to them!”
“We’ve heard you before.” Johnny intervened. “You sound fine to us, right guys?” He switched his gaze to the other four guys. They all nodded.
“Well, you’re on in seven minutes.” Sylvester said quickly as most of the anger left our faces. “Yeah, so...uh...Yeah!” He quickly left the room again, going off to play manager.
After what felt like seven seconds and not seven minutes, Sylvester came rushing back.
“Okay, Huntington Beach is ready for you!” he cried, his eyes glittering excitedly. “Good luck, all of you!” We all nodded curtly. Kim gave Johnny a quick kiss on the cheek and then we all clambered up the stairs onto the stage.
I went straight to the drum-set and sat down on the familiar black stool. Rayne stepped up to the microphone stand; Kim, Jen, and AM all stepped over to their appropriate guitars and slipped the straps over their heads. I stared out at the crowd as I put my drumsticks down on the snare drum to flex my fingers. An endless sea of faces spread out from the stage. Everywhere, people were cheering and screaming.
“Hello, hello, Huntington Beach!” Rayne greeted. The crowd went wild. “Well, we’re new on the Huntington Beach scene. So we’ll give you all we got and hopefully you’ll accept us into this fine, fine society. Deal?” More screams erupted from the crowd. “Alrighty then! Let’s get this concert started, shall we?” More screams. “Right on! Let’s jump to it!” And with those final words, we all started playing our hearts out.
**********
“Oh, you guys’ve been great! A very good audience to play for!” Rayne said into the microphone. The crowd went wild. Rayne waited until they quieted down a little bit to continue. “But sadly enough, this’ll be our last encore. So let’s make it a good one, right?” Cheers from the crowd. “So, let me see your ‘Rock On’ symbols!”
On cue, all the band members held up their hands in the rock sign. You know, the one with your hand fisted and your index finger and pinky stuck out? Yeah, that one. The crowd quickly mimicked the movement.
“Wonderful!” Rayne exclaimed. “Well, let’s not keep you waiting!” We started the song.
Halfway through, the lights that brightly lit up the stage and the crowd beyond all flickered off. Every instrument fell silent except for me hitting one cymbal on a slow beat.
Rayne, Kim, Jen, AM, and I had all been wearing quite casual clothes: a pair of cut-off denim shorts and normal-looking tank-top in varying colors, each emblazoned with TBH and our symbol. We had been planning this little finale for quite some time, but had never tried it until now. There was a special seam on the tank-top that a normal eye wouldn’t be able to see that would enable us to simply tear the tank-top off without pulling it off over our heads. The jean shorts had the same kind of seam.
We quickly and silently tore off our tank-tops and shorts. We pulled on the shoes to match our new outfits. I quickly hid my tank-top and shorts behind my bass drum where no one would be able to see it; the other girls hid them behind the stereos before rushing back to their spots.
A few seconds after everyone had rushed back to their spot, the lights flickered back on, revealing us again. But in completely different outfits.
We each wore a tight corset that was the same color as our bangs. The corset stopped just below our ribcages to show off our flat stomachs. My corset was bright red with thin little spaghetti straps; Rayne’s was white with no straps; Jen’s was navy blue with a halter top; AM’s was bright yellow with off-the-shoulder straps; and Kim’s was bright purple with thick, lacy straps. And then beneath our jean shorts we each wore a pair of tight black shorts made of the same material as the corsets: something shiny, but I wasn’t sure exactly what type of fabric it was. Leather maybe? I don’t know. Our stiletto shoes were made of the same shiny fabric and molded to our legs like a second skin. They went up to just above our knees and was the same color as our corsets.
Sluttish? Sure. Awesome? Definitely.
Enough to make the crowd go crazy?
You be the judge.
Or not.
The crowd went crazy. But we just continued on with the song as if nothing had happened. But the second half of the song was much darker and eviler and deeper and louder than the first half had been. We had made that song especially for the outfits we wore. The first half had been sweet and innocent, like our casual outfits, but then the second half was hardcore and mean and in your face like our tight leathery outfits.
Rayne ended the song with smoothly stepping up onto one of the stereos. She shot her hand up with her fingers formed into the rock sign and gave one last, totally awesome wail.
The song finally ended. I was breathless and I wasn’t even standing up. I probably wasn’t nearly as tired as the rest of the band. They had to move and stand and everything. I just sat on my butt and moved my arms.
Rayne jumped down off of the stereo and walked back over to the abandoned microphone stand. She stood behind the stand, her chest heaving, as Kim, Jen, and AM all shed off their guitars.
“Wasn’t that fun?” she squealed after a few moments. The crowd answered with cheers. “Well, since we’re new here, we want you to get to know us. So, we’re going to have a little Q and A. There are sound guys in every corner with microphones, so if you want to ask a question, please head over to the sound guys. We’ll come back out in a few minutes to answer your questions. Okay?” The crowd cheered again. Rayne beamed, slipped the microphone back onto the stand, and led the way off of the stage.
We stepped back into the little backstage room to see all the Avenged Sevenfold guys standing with wide bug eyes. Sylvester was practically bouncing off the walls, he was so happy and excited. He handed each of us a towel to dab at our faces with. I patted at my face a little bit, trying not to smear the meticulous make-up, and then wiped off my shoulders, which were sweaty too. The five guys still stared at us, probably having some sort of dirty fantasy.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Rayne muttered weakly as she sank down into one of the chairs. I sank down beside her, placing my drumsticks across my legs.
“Anyone got a camera?” Syn asked. He looked slowly around at the other guys. They didn’t respond. They were still lost in their own little worlds. Typical men.
“Johnny, stop staring at me like you’re undressing me with your eyes!” Kim snapped, punching Johnny hard on his shoulder. He staggered a little bit, bumping into Zacky. That snapped Zacky out of his little trance and he finally tore his eyes away from AM to glare reproachfully over at Johnny.
I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the wall behind me.
“Okay, everyone, it’s time for you to go back onstage.” Sylvester said after only a few minutes. Definitely not a long enough time, but oh well.
We all dragged ourselves off of the floor or chairs and stepped back on stage, instantly snapping back into energetic mode.
All five of us walked up to stand next to Rayne behind the microphone stand. She pulled the microphone out of the stand and moved the stand away.
“Okay, so we’ll start at this corner.” She pointed at the front left corner.
The first person in line took the microphone from the sound guy.
“Um, this is for Kim.” the timid-looking brunette said into the microphone. Rayne handed our mike to Kim. “Um, is it true that you’re dating Johnny Christ from Avenged Sevenfold?”
“Yes, that is true. We’ve been dating for about three months now, not including the whole time we talked on the phone before The Better Halves relocated here.” Kim answered. The brunette handed the mike to the next person and disappeared back into the crowd.
“This is for Jennifer.” the redheaded young man said. Kim passed the mike off to Jen. “Would you ever go out with me?” Jen tried her hardest to keep a straight face. The look that resulted from her efforts made her look like she was constipated.
“Um, I don’t really know.” Jen answered slowly. “I don’t know what your personality is and I don’t know anything about you so I can’t give you an accurate answer. I’m sorry.” The redhead looked disappointed, but didn’t push the subject. He handed the mike to the blonde chick behind him.
“I have a question for all of you.” she said. She sounded like that preppy cheerleader bitch from high school. Rayne took the mike but stepped back so we could all group around closer to it. “How did you come up with the band name?”
“To us, the human race is split into two halves: males and females. And we personally think that the female half is slightly better than the male half.” Rayne began.
“And our band is all girls, so we named our band ‘The Better Halves’ because we are a part of that better half of the race.” Kim continued.
“But we aren’t sexist.” I piped up. “Men have good qualities too.”
“Like the ability to amass a lot of muscle,” Jen said.
“And we aren’t saying that women don’t have their faults.” AM continued.
“Because sometimes women can just be total bitches,” I said. “Usually more than men.”
“But there are really great women out there.” Rayne added. “Women who show compassion and sympathy and are polite and gracious and kind.”
“And just those few women can make the female half of the population seem slightly better than the male half.” Kim finished.
“Thank you,” the blonde chick said. She handed the mike to the next person.
**********
Finally, the questions were over with. I didn’t even pay attention as Rayne bid farewell to the concert-goers. We finally traipsed off of the stage. As we trudged sluggishly back to the dressing room, I could barely keep my eyes open. But we finally stepped into the dressing room’s depths. Only then did I notice that the rest of the guys from Avenged Sevenfold had followed us.
As I tugged a pair of jeans on over my shorts, Zacky walked purposefully but nervously over to AM, who stood tugging on a pair of jeans too. She looked up as he walked up. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear. AM beamed and ripped the corner off of a spare music sheet. She quickly scribbled some numbers—her phone number most likely—onto the paper and handed it over to Zacky. He pocketed it, looking triumphant.
“Oh, AM!” Jen squealed. AM just rolled her eyes as she pulled on her jacket.
“That was a good show though.” James commented. I smiled weakly at him in thanks as I pulled my jacket on.
“I wasn’t expecting the clothing change.” Syn commented.
“We noticed.” Rayne told him. “When we stepped off of the stage, you were all gawking at us like a bunch of teenage boys looking at a Playboy magazine.”
“Well, let’s head home.” Kim said.
“Amen to that, sister,” I replied. We all headed back out into the hallway.
♠ ♠ ♠
I know, that was a long chapter.But once you stop suffering from the eye strain, please send me a comment.