Dissonance - Chapter 31

As soon as we got in the car, Sydney and I passed out in the back seat. We’d both brought changes of clothes and changed in the school bathroom before leaving, since neither of us wanted to make the drive in what we wore to the dance.

When we finally got to my hotel, I felt kind of bad for Sydney’s Mom. She’d had to drive by herself the whole way, since Sydney and I were out the entire time. I woke up with her curled up into my side, her head tucked into my chest. I’d apparently put my arm around her at some point, but I don’t remember doing it.

I had a second of panic as my brain was remembering where I was, looking around, until I caught Sydney’s mom looking back at us in the rearview mirror.

“Are we there?” I asked, realizing we’d stopped moving and were sitting in front of a hotel.

“Yeah. You too looked so cute, I didn’t want to wake you up. You said they were in room 122, right?”

“Yeah, I said, looking out the window and seeing we were in front of the door. “Sorry we crashed like that. She kept me on the dance floor all night. I was about to drop but I swear she could have gone for another hour.”

“She does love to dance. It’s late, so you should get inside and get some sleep, since you have another big day tomorrow. Of course, now you’ve got to get yourself untangled,” she said, nodding her head towards her daughter, who was half on top of me, using me as a pillow.

I opened the door and tried to scooch away, but she put her arms around me and pulled herself tighter into me.

“Hey. We’re here. I need to go into the hotel,” I whispered to her, trying to remove her arms.

“Really?” she said groggily, pushing herself off me, although still leaning towards me. “So soon?”

“It’s three a.m. It’s not all that soon.”

“Fine,” she said, stretching.

She looked amazing, her hair messed up and her face scrunched. I’d realized as we fell asleep and she lay against me that she’d decided to not wear a bra when she changed, but it was evident now as she stretched. Knowing her mom was watching through the rear-view mirror, I looked away.

When she leaned forward, lips pursed, inviting a kiss, I panicked and looked at her mom. She smiled and looked away. I took that as permission and gave her a quick peck on the lips before getting out of the car and grabbing my bag out of the trunk.

“We’ll see you at seven-thirty,” she said through her open window as I walked around the car and began banging on the door.

“Sure,” I said, giving a wave as a half-asleep, grumpy-looking Seth opened the door.

The alarm was for seven, but it felt like I’d only just laid down on the blankets they threw on the floor for me when it went off, instead of the four hours it had actually been. We rushed through showers and got dressed and packed up. I was at least comfortable now. I’d started wearing jeans and t-shirts when playing gigs instead of slacks and button-up shirts that I’d worn playing for Willie, mostly because Lyla refused to dress any other way, and it looked weird standing next to her in ripped-up jeans and the rattiest shirts I’d ever seen while I looked like I was going to church. Since a lot of singers dressed down like that, especially in rock, the label didn’t much mind, so it was a win-win.

Our little caravan pulled up, and it took us a few minutes to get in. The gate guard had the list of people who were allowed in the vendor and musician area blocked off from the rest of the parking area for ticket holders. The fact that there was just yellow caution tape blocking off someone like Ronnie Ralston from just random people seemed strange to me, but maybe they brought her through in a different way, and this was just for smaller acts.

The fairgrounds themselves were less impressive than they’d seemed looking at pictures online. Although there were paved walking paths, most of it was just green grass and dirt, and I could imagine it would be a nightmare when it rained, especially out in the parking area which was just a field with a little gravel thrown around. It was big though, and I could already see people pouring in.

I gathered up our group and we headed towards the back entrances. I couldn’t help but notice that the majority of our group were my guests, and felt a little bad about it. Seth and Marco never brought people out and I always seemed to have an entourage. I knew Seth wasn’t close with his family and Marco never talked about his, but it still felt out of character for me, since I’d never considered myself an ‘entourage’ type of person. Warren continued to be on top of his job, since everyone was on the list and we didn’t have any problems getting in.

Unfortunately, the one person who couldn’t be there, was Warren himself. He was still transitioning off some of the work he’d done for the previous band he’d been assigned and this gig had come up so quickly that he wasn’t able to move stuff around in time to get here. I knew he wasn’t going to be there, but now I really missed Hanna. Even at the shows Brent had shown up at, she’d still handled finding out where we needed to go, where the green room or holding area was, and the exact itinerary, including the spring break festival in Raleigh.

Thankfully, Seth didn’t have to bring his drum kit, since the organizers didn’t want to waste time in between acts setting up and breaking down drum kits. We wandered around for a few minutes until I saw a group of people huddled together, including several wearing headphones with mics attached. While we hadn’t had anything like that at most of our gigs, both opening for Linda and at the festival in Raleigh, they’d had mic’d up stage hands helping organize things, so I figured they’d be able to tell me where to go.

We stopped just short of the group, with everyone else giving me a little space as I walked up to stand just outside their small circle. I didn’t want to intrude, since they looked pretty intense in whatever they were discussing, and hoped they’d see me at some point. It wasn’t until I stopped that I recognized Eli Sampson, the lead singer of Nightshade. I’d actually only started listening to their stuff last year, since they were a favorite band of Megan from the lunch group, who played us clips from their shows all the time. They did this interesting combination of rap and rock that I hadn’t heard before. I’d heard a fair amount of rap and R&B mixed, but extended guitar solos mixed with almost alt-rock verses and sections of rapped lyrics was new to me. I wasn’t normally a big rap guy, and so didn’t know how well he compared to well-liked rappers, but it sounded good to me when he did it.

“I swear to god this show is fucking cursed,” a woman wearing one of the headsets said. “We don’t have time to replace you guys like we did the other groups who had to cancel, and we put you on the marketing. We’re going to have to refund some tickets from this for sure.”

“I get it, but I don't know what you want us to do. We only showed up because we didn’t want to screw you guys over, but we’d really like to be with Brad and his family. I’ve known the guy since grade school, for Christ's sake. Even if we did agree to stay, all of our songs were built around his guitar, man. We can’t replace him on this short notice either, and none of us can play his part.”

“You know if you guys would just keep the needles out of your fucking arms, at least right before you had a gig, you’d be able to make it to these things without having to cancel so much,” the lady said.

Eli’s face went red and I swear he would have had his hands around her throat had the person next to him not held him back.

“Fucking bitch,” he said, fuming.

I don’t know what I was thinking, maybe I felt bad that the show was going to have problems or maybe because what she’d just said was so unfair, but everyone in the group was now talking, or shouting, and tensions were running high when I stepped forward to stand right next to them.

“I can play it,” I said, which caused all of them to stop, although mostly out of confusion, since I was almost positive none of them knew who I was or even if I was supposed to be there.

“What?” the woman said.

“I said I can play it. We’ve worked on several covers of your songs and practiced them, and I know the solos.”

“I’m sorry kid, but this really isn’t the time,” Eli said.

“Who are you?” The woman asked, ignoring him and pulling her clipboard up.

“Charlie Nelson from Charlie Nelson and the Wild Cats. We’re scheduled to go up this morning.”

“Eli …” She said, almost beggingly.

“What?” he said, still angry, but not ready to choke her anymore. “I don’t know this kid and I’m not going to have someone sit in and mess up our act. It’s great he got a slot, but I’d rather us not play at all than go out and sound like shit.”

“I really can play it,” I said. “I’ve been on stage every weekend for the last year and a half and we just got off tour. Give me a guitar right now and I’ll prove it to you.”

“Listen …” Eli started before the woman interrupted him.

“Just hear him try it. If he can’t do it, we’ll pull you and see if anyone can go long and start refunding tickets, but if he can, consider it. I know you guys have used stand-ins before when someone was sick.”

“Those were usually names, and … You know what? Screw it. Go ahead. Let’s hear it.”

Everyone in the group all turned to look at me, waiting expectantly. I handed Kat my guitar case, since I didn’t want to set it in the dirt and opened it while she held her arms out like a table. I didn’t have an amp, but I was sure they’d heard enough plucking on an electric guitar without an amp. The festival was already going and it was a little loud, but they were waiting and I wasn’t going to try and go find an acoustic or an amp.

I picked their most popular song and just started in on the solo that lead right out of the rap break after the first chorus. Thankfully, we’d played this not that long ago and it was fresh in my mind. I also had added some of the solos into my practice routine, cause I genuinely liked them and they allowed me to practice speed and precision on something new, instead of the same songs I always played.

I finished and looked up at them.

“He’ll do,” Eli said, although in a tone that he wasn’t happy about it.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to butt in, it just sounded like ….”

“No, no, no,” the woman said. “You’re a godsend. I’ll move the sets around so you guys will be up after them and then Little Town, and then straight into Ronnie. That way we can move a little fast on the change out, so it saves us some time.”

It took every ounce of power in my body to remain calm and collected. That was a huge move for us. We’d just gone from being an opening act to right before the headliner and sandwiched between the big names. Of course, they put groups like us and Little Town which was some kind of all-girl pop group I’d heard of but didn’t know anything about, in between the larger acts to give the audience time to wander off, get food and whatever. But it still meant there’d be a lot more people at the festival than there would have been this morning. Of course, it threw our schedule, since it meant we wouldn’t be going up until the midafternoon, but I’d find a way to make it right for everyone.

The woman dashed off, I guess to let people know about the changes while Eli and his bandmates kept staring at me.

“Sorry kid, I didn’t mean to sound harsh. It’s been a tough few days and I was just on the verge of losing it. I was actually kind of hoping we’d be able to cancel so I could get back on a plane home, and I think I let that affect my response. You sounded great.”

“I can tell her never mind if you still want to try and get out of here,” I said, half turning and pointing a thumb in the direction she’d gone.

“No. Our label’s already going to be pissed about Brad, since they just paid for a really expensive rehab, and if we still do the show it might smooth things over. I couldn’t get a flight out until this afternoon anyway, not with all the food and wine people, and bands, flying in and out today. it would save at best a couple of hours, and when Brad recovers, I’d like for us to still have a record contract for him to go back to.”

“They wouldn’t pull your contract over something like this?” I more said than asked.

“You’d be surprised. Studios don’t have the same attitude they used to have in the day, before streaming and the internet wrecked the industry. Now, anything that even whiffs of bad press and they’ll drop you.”

“Ohh. I’m really sorry about your friend. he’s a hell of a guitar player.”

“Thanks. So, we normally don’t do a lot of warm-up before a gig, but since you haven’t sat with us before, I think they have an area of runs to warm up in. I know it’s going to cut into your time getting ready, but do you want to run through our set list once or twice and make sure everything is smooth?”

“Sure,” I said, and then turned back to my band. “Guys, are you okay with that.”

“Yeah, as long as they’ll let us watch,” Lyla said.

“Sure, let’s go.”

My little group kind of fell in line behind theirs, which included not just the three remaining members of Nightshade but about ten others. I was at least glad I didn’t have a larger retinue than they did, considering the difference in our band's importance.

The practice itself went really well. Their drummer kept amazing time. Seth was good, but he wasn’t in the same league as Trever Hewitt, their drummer. The guy was like a metronome with how evenly he held the time, all the while with runs and flourishes that wowed the audience. While drummers are flashy, especially in classic rock, one of their key jobs is to keep the rhythm for the rest of the band. If they speed up or slow down even a little or let the time signature wander, it can really throw off a song.

I also admired Eli’s voice. It had a tone of grit when he sang, almost like he was chewing on gravel. It really worked for their style of music. I felt I held my own and didn’t get kicked out or corrected, so I guess they thought I did okay too. I wouldn't say it to them, but I’d listened to Mills’ guitar solos and, while I’d liked them, I was pretty sure I was a better guitar player than he was. I know a lot of guys like to think that, but I’d spent enough time on the stage now that I’d like to think I was a good judge of that kind of thing.

I was also happy to see Sydney and Kat standing next to each other without any problems. Kat was even acting very normal, including occasionally leaning over to whisper something to Sydney. I’d been a little worried that she and her mom would get bored, since we should have already been up on stage by this point and instead they were watching practice, but they really seemed interested in the whole thing.

When it was time, we went up on stage. Although I didn't know this band well, and it was different being on one side of the stage, it didn't feel strange at all. Maybe I was just getting used to being up on stage or that I wasn’t singing so I could just focus on my guitar, but I didn’t feel nervous at all.

“Before we get started,” Eli said into the mic. “I know some of you have already heard about Brad’s overdose last night. I wish I had some good news for you, but he’s currently in the hospital and struggling for his life, so please keep him in your thoughts. I know he’d want us to keep going if he could talk, so we’re dedicating this performance to Brad. I’d also like to thank Charlie Nelson, who’ll be up next with his band, for agreeing to step into Brad’s shoes. Now, let’s rock this for Brad.”

I really appreciated the shout-out and was glad I’d gotten to practice with them, since the first song started with me, after Trever rapped the edge of his snare three times to set the beat. I took a deep breath and settled myself. This was my element. I let everything slip away as my fingers began dancing along the neck of the guitar. The tempo was much higher than we normally played, since their entire shtick was high-paced, high-energy music, with fast rapped lyrics and raspy vocals making everything feel hardcore.

I actually really liked this faster pace and a small voice in the back of my head said I needed to do more stuff at this tempo and work it into our music.

The whole set went great. The stage patter was really subdued, at least from what I’d seen them do in Megan’s videos, and I couldn’t fault him for that. To his credit, the music didn’t suffer at all. He pushed hard through every song, and the audience stretched in front of us was building as we went through the set.

The last song finished and we all took our bows before Eli said, “That’s it for us. Stick around and hear Charlie and his band, who’ll be up in a few minutes. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this.”

I appreciated that, especially considering he’d never heard of me before and had no idea what we sounded like. I guess he could assume we’d been good enough to get booked, but that didn’t mean we were someone he’d want to give a thumbs up to.

“Thanks man,” he said to me after he walked away from the microphone while his friends and the stagehands began unhooking everything, leaning in so I could hear him. “I’m sorry about jumping down your throat. You really do have the goods. keep it up. You’ve got serious skill.”

“Thanks. It was fun. And I hope your friend is okay. Let his family know we’ll be praying for him.”

I wasn’t particularly religious, but it had felt like the right thing to say, which apparently it was, because he reached over and gave my shoulder a squeeze before walking off stage. Marco and Seth were already setting up Marco’s keyboards and Lyla was already set, so I figured I’d say a few things to keep as much of the crowd as possible, since there wasn’t any reason for me to move from where I was. Once I picked up my guitar, I’d be roaming the stage anyway.

“How about another big hand for Nightshade. I really appreciate those guys letting me sit in with them. I also want to take a moment to second what Eli said about Brad, their guitarist. I grew up in the music industry and I’ve seen a lot of people lose their lives, or almost lose their lives, to drugs and the lifestyle. I know we like to think it’s part of the whole drugs and rock and roll thing, but overdoses are at an all-time high in this country. If you have friends fighting addiction, check on them. It can be hard watching someone spiral, but it’s never as hard as attending their funeral. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Mills family. Now, that I’ve bummed you out for the second time in a row today, I’m Charlie Nelson and these are the Wild Cats. We just dropped a new album, which you can find at any of the socials up behind me. If you like what you hear, give it a listen.”

The last week I’d had Kat and especially Megan, who was terminally online, set up accounts for us on all the major social media sites and began posting stuff from them. So far it had just been a few replies to bigger names that had no idea who I was, one to Linda who liked my post, or at least one of her social media people had. I also had Kat record both my sitting in with Nightshadeand our set now, so we could post clips from it.

We’d probably have to start doing that at every show, just to have something always going up on our feed. Right now, we had our social handles projected up on the screen behind us, along with the cover art of our new album. We weren’t able to set any of our merch up, but we’d been talking about setting up some kind of web store where people could buy merch for shows like this, and there was a link to our website, that the studio had set up for us. I needed to check and see who owned the rights to that and move everything over to something I owned if it was the studio, but for now it would at least get them over to our social media accounts.

Since we were going right after Nightshade, we’d redone our set list right after I’d finished my practice with them, mostly putting in everything that was fast-paced and rock-sounding and taking out the slower stuff, since we’d be playing for their type of audience. it was a little ‘bait and switch’ and I considered that some of the people might be less than thrilled if they went in thinking it was a rock album only to get something a lot more pop, but we’d capture some of them and the numbers would help us get more marketing and bigger gigs like this.

Although some of the crowd filtered out when we were setting up, the rest mostly stayed and it didn’t look like we’d lost anyone once we got started, which was amazing. This was the biggest audience we’d played for besides opening for House of Grace, even larger than the one at the festival in Raleigh. They seemed to respond to the music as well, sticking around as we finished through our fastest-paced songs and transitioned into our more pop-centered stuff. It wasn’t a long set and we finished in just under forty minutes, but the energy was great and the crowd was enjoying it, so I was completely energized when we got off stage.

Eli and his band were already gone when we got off stage, I guess trying to rush to the airport to get back to their friend. It said something about their professionalism that they did the gig they’d agreed to even with everything going on. There’s a good chance that was one of the reasons they’d gotten as big as they had, and there was probably a lesson I could take from there.

“You are very good up there,” Sydney’s mom said once Kat and Cameron and Sydney finished swarming us after we got off stage.

“See, I told you. He’s going to be famous one day.”

“I don’t know about that. Getting big is more luck than skill. there are a lot of talented people working small gigs and barely feeding themselves.”

I think Sydney’s mom approved of that, because she gave a little nod to me, even though Sydney blew it off.

“Whatever, I know you will. Did you see how many people were out there?”

“I know. We played for a larger crowd when we opened for House of Gracethis summer, but other than that, this was big for us.”

“I know, and …”

Sydney's voice trailed off as her eyes got big, looking at something behind me. The fact that her mother also looked shell-shocked should have been a clue, but I was still surprised to see Ronnie Ralston in all of her glitter and glory, coming up behind me.

“You’re the guy who sat in with Eli, right?” she asked.

Considering how high she sang in her songs, her voice was much lower than I would have executed.

“Uhh … yeah.”

“That was really cool. I also heard what you said before you started your set. Eli had to jet, but I know he heard it too and really appreciated it. You’re a class act.”

“Thanks, I’m Charlie,” I said, sticking out my hand, causing Sydney’s mom to make a little noise.

“Good to meet you Charlie, I’m Ronnie. You guys sounded really good.”

“Thanks. I’m looking forward to seeing you go up. You always put on a hell of a show.”

“Hey, I don’t have your skill on a guitar and my singing is only so-so, so I have to wow them with flash, ya know.”

“Don’t say that. You’re a terrific singer.”

“Okay, I’m the best. You’re right,” she said, swishing her hair back in a dramatic fashion.

“I know you probably have to get ready soon, since you’re up next, but Meredith here is a huge fan, and would never let me live it down if I didn’t introduce you.”

It felt weird using Sydney’s mom’s first name, but introducing her as ‘my friend’s mom’ felt like it might take away something from her moment. For her part, Sidney’s mom looked shell-shocked, like she wanted to either run around with excitement or puke.

“Good to meet you Meredith. Family member?”

“My girlfriend’s mother,” I said, mostly off the cuff because her mouth was moving like she was trying to talk, but no sound was coming out.

“She brought a cd she wanted to get signed, if you had the time,” Sydney said, reaching into her mother’s bag, while her mother just stood there, mouth moving in small motions, eyes like saucer plates.

“Sure,” she said, taking a pen from one of the guys with her, pulling out the dust jacket of the CD, and writing almost a full sentence across it. “Anyway, you’re right. I gotta go get ready. Gotta make sure the fireworks don’t blow me up or anything. I just wanted to let you know I thought what you did was cool.”

“I appreciate it, and it was good meeting you. Have a good set.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving a little wave before she and the rest of her retinue turned and made their way to the other end of the backstage area, where some trailers had been set up, probably for their use.

“That was … that was …”

“Yeah, cool huh?” I said.

“She’s going to be like this for a while,” Sydney said, which was enough to snap her mother out of her fan-gasm.

“Don’t get sassy,” she said, but she was smiling from ear to ear. “Thank you, Charlie. I can’t believe that just happened. I want to wring your neck for singling me out like that, but that was … amazing.”

“You’re welcome. Let’s go find a good place to watch them play from back here. You drove all night to see her perform, it would be a shame for you to miss it.”

As everyone started to walk in that direction, Sydney grabbed me by the arm and held me back a few paces.

“Girlfriend?” giving me a look that said ‘we haven’t talked about this.’

“I didn’t know what to say and was kind of panicking. But … yeah. If you want.”

She dropped the act and smiled before throwing her arms around my neck.

“Yeah, I would.”

“Good. Let’s go see the show,” I said, taking her hand.

First an amazing homecoming and now one of the best shows we’d ever played and getting to play with a major rock band on stage. This might qualify as one of the best weekends I’d ever had.