Gone Isn't Forever

Chapter 11
Our Time Is Now
We were nearing the end of the concert and there were only two bands left: Raising Babylon and Avenged Sevenfold. They lined us up that way because we were Avenged Sevenfold’s “project”. I was starting to grow a little anxious to get on stage. As a musician and a performer, I feed off of the crowd’s energy and they were going wild. I was starting to become a bit jittery while Synyster Gates took his place in front of the audience to introduce us.

“As a musician whose dream came true, it is my honor to bestow upon your good graces a real treat tonight. You see the guys of Avenged and I have decided to take on a bit of an experiment for the length of this tour. We picked up this band somewhere near Las Angeles and this is their first night performing on a big tour stage in front of thousands of kick ass people. If these guys do well enough, they get a sweet record deal and a chance to record with yours truly. Let’s hear it for Michigan native Raising Babylon!” I could hear Brian’s voice call us out. I glanced over at Jo to read her. She was shaking and finding it hard to breathe. Jo had always suffered from stage fright, but for local concerts she had gotten past it. This was a new experience: a bigger stage, a bigger crowd. That meant that her nerves were way up there tonight. I looked around for Jimmy so that I could possibly get him to wrap his comfort around Jo, but he was no where to be found. I caught Jo by the shoulders, my electric guitar I called Sunny dangled around my neck. I looked her straight in her blue-gray eyes and spoke softly to her.

“Jo, you can do this! I know you can, we all know you can. This is it Jo, a chance to show what we’re made of. The only difference in all of those local concerts and this one is your own fear. You can fight it Jo! I believe in you.” I attempted to pep talk her as our band mates moved past us to take their places on stage. She squeezed her eyes shut and the microphone she held in her hands. She took a deep breath and held it in for a moment. Seconds later her eyes flew open and shot right at me and she replied.

“What are we waiting for?” She smiled weakly and I returned it with one of my own. I scratched her back slightly and led her to the entryway. Brian flew past us and patted me on the shoulder.

“Go get ‘em girls!” He stated excitedly.

I stepped out onstage and received a warm welcome by the roaring of an arena filled with thousands of screaming fans. I think we set them off by simply being all girls. You don’t see a metal band consisting of all girls everyday, so that must have excited the crowd to start things off. I started into the intro and the rest of the band followed me as Jo made her appearance onstage. She walked on shyly, clutching the microphone and holding it close to her chest. When she made it to the middle of the stage she stopped and froze, staring out into the faces of our audience. Everything was silent, including Jo when she missed her entrance in the song “The Rapture of the Sinners”. I gestured for the band to stop. I didn’t know what else to do; Jo was crashing and shutting down. So I signaled for the band to start up again and I made my way to her a onstage and bumped her saying “Get it together Jo!” That woke her up and she shook it off, staring at the ground again. This time she entered when she was supposed to but her voice shook at first. But by the middle of the song she was giving the performance of her life. I was so proud!

The best moment was when Kirsten crowd surfed and her apparel was torn to shreds. We had the time of our lives doing what we do best. By the end of our set, Zacky told us that Kirsten getting forced to crowd surf by a very wacked out young man in the front row and her clothes getting ruined from it meant that we rocked it and had just earned our hardcore wings. We got to thank Kirsten for that one. Our first performance on a professional stage was a little shaky in the beginning but the turn out was very well gratifying.

After we were done, it was time for Avenged Sevenfold to take their place as headlining band. We got to go down in the front row, with security protection and receive the Avenged concert of a lifetime! They shocked the hell out of us by calling us up onstage and making us perform “Beast and the Harlot” with them. It was the chance of a lifetime and the experience was beyond all of our wildest dreams. I got to play back to back with Synyster Gates and Harper was able to do the same with Zacky Vengeance. Jo was delighted to duet with M. Shadows and Kirsten was having a blast taking a power stance next to Johnny. Jason and Matt Berry had left Maggy’s drum set up there next to Arin’s. We originally had thought that they had possibly forgotten to take it down because before we took our places on the floor the Berry’s had told us not to worry about it and that they would take care of it. We should have known it was a set up. But none of us cared because we had a blast playing alongside our heroes. At the closing of the concert when Matt was bidding everyone a safe drive home, I spotted The Rev up in the seats. He stood there with his arms crossed and an unreadable expression that made my stomach do flips.

The concert had been long over for almost two and a half hours and most of the bands had cleared out. All of a7x had packed everything back up and the rest of Raising Babylon had taken their place on the bus with them. I was about to board the tour bus myself when I reached into my jean pocket for my lucky guitar pick and realized it was gone.

I didn’t say a word; I just bolted back to the performance arena. I started my search backstage and found nothing. I moved out to the floor and searched there but still came up empty handed. I gazed up to the stage and whoa and behold, my trustee pick signed by the man Mick Mars himself sat alone on the right side of the stage where I had played with Brian earlier that night. I scattered to climb up on stage and ran over to it, hitting my knees and practically diving to retrieve it. When my fingers wrapped around my precious Mick Mars Pick, I couldn’t help but notice a pair of black and red vans connected to a pair of faded black skinny jeans standing right in front of my face. I slowly drew my gaze up only to see James Owen Sullivan staring down at me.