Chapter 2: Emergence

By five o'clock on Friday afternoon the teens were set. The stage was 50' X 30' and included the Hilton's concert grand at stage right. The band was set up in their usual configuration with Dewayne at the right front, Tony center with the ubiquitous fourth microphone and Kyle at stage left. Tina's keyboards were between and to the rear of Dewayne and Tony. Rebecca's position mirrored Tina's and both girls' equipment was on a platform raised 8" from the stage floor. Jerry was, of course, back center with his drums on an 18" platform. A large black banner was stretched across the back of the stage emblazoned with what had become their logo; large letters seemingly slapped on at crazy angles to each other, each letter in a different color, spelling Chaos.

The back of the outdoor stage was right up against the river. No more than 30 feet to the right Kalliste lay gleaming in the water, made fast to the Hilton's dock. Inside the teens were resting and going over their set lists for the shows that night.

The rise of the rock group Chaos had been meteoric, at least on a local scale. News of their first performance at the Riverside dance had spread rapidly by word of mouth. They had done four more before the Christmas break and three private parties during it. By mid-January they were playing nightclubs and had arrived on the local music scene. Some clubs balked at first but no one could come up with a reason they couldn't do it. They couldn't serve or drink alcohol, but there didn't seem to be an ordinance against the teens playing music where others did.

The largest holiday of the year in Savannah is St. Patrick's Day and the largest and most prestigious stage to play that weekend is the Hilton. Given the group's other commitments for the weekend they hadn't considered playing at all before the offer came in. Indeed the teens were being paid ten times their regular rate for this weekend. The gig was considered the headline act for the entire city, even though maybe a dozen other bands would be playing throughout the city during the weekend. The band's billing had even been openly questioned on local radio stations and newspapers.

Matt stuck his head into the door of the enclosed back deck of Kalliste and got the teen's attention. "Hey there're some guys out here that want to talk to you, they're looking for the band. They are supposed to play here tomorrow."

"Send them on in Matt," Tony replied as he got up from his seat and moved to meet the newcomers.

A bearded man stuck his head tentatively through the door and looked around. "Umm hi, the kid outside said this was the right place, but we're looking for the band that has all this stuff on the stage outside."

"Come on in, you're in the right place. Welcome aboard Kalliste. She's kind of our back stage for the weekend," Tony said.

The bearded man, well over six feet with aged, weather-beaten skin entered followed by two more men wearing jeans, country-style button-up shirts and cowboy hats. "Name's JD," he said extending his hand to Tony. "This here is Harry, and Ronnie. Are you guys the band set up outside?"

"Yep, don't say it," Tony said with a smile on his face. "We know, too young. If you think we're too young you should see us trying to get a gig! Come in and have a seat. Can we get you something, an iced tea, soda, a beer maybe?"

"Well yeah, a sweet tea would be mighty nice thank you. I don't suppose this here yacht has a bathroom does it?"

"I'll show you," Tina offered. She and Rebecca had gotten up to fix the guys' drinks, Rebecca's arm in Tina's for support. Once the men were back and seated the discussion began.

"You said this boat was for backstage? The Hilton owns this?" JD asked.

"No, this is actually my family's boat. They didn't want to give us any rooms because we're local; at least I thought that was why. Did they find rooms for you?"

"Oh yeah, we have rooms in the hotel."

"We made them agree to let us tie up here for the weekend so we had someplace to crash out between shows."

"Well that's why we're here. No one told us anything about another band. We have a truck outside full of gear and nowhere to put it. Your group is playing tonight I take it?"

"Actually we're playing tomorrow too. We have two shows tonight, first one at seven and the second one at ten. Tomorrow you play at one, and seven, we play at four and ten so we're sharing the stage," Tony said walking across the deck with his own glass of tea. He walked up to Rebecca, picked her up from her seat and sat back down with her in his lap.

"Well that's the problem, what are we going to do with all our gear then? There's no place nearby to store it. Even then that's an awful lot of stuff to set up in an hour." JD said.

"Except what you absolutely need to get off just use our stuff. There's no reason to break out amps or stacks, or even PA gear unless you just don't like what we have. Most of our stuff is pretty good."

"Are you sure? I mean some bands are pretty picky about their gear. I saw what's out there, that's top of the line stuff and all pretty new too."

Dewayne spoke up, "Almost everything out there except the actual instruments belongs to Tony and Tina. I assume you don't actually want to use those?"

"Oh no, except the piano, our agent said they would have a piano for us."

"Ah," said Tony. "We asked for one too. That belongs to the Hilton. We do have it mike'd up and run to the sound board though. Gwen and Chrissie run our sound," Tony motioned to the two girls sitting on the other side of the room. "If it's not adjustable they aren't happy."

"So we could use your board too?"

"Sure, we already talked about it and planned on it. The girls will be happy to help you with it. Look, for us it's all about the music and the show. Anyway we can help each other out is fine with us. Just tell us what you need. There's not going to be any this band that band stuff. We have two bands and four shows to do tomorrow. We'll get it done."

"Alright, that's a fine attitude Tony. We're in this together so the same goes for us. Let's go have a look at the stage and see what we're gonna need to do between shows."

There was some work to be done. The drum kits would have to be swapped between shows. Because the keyboard racks the girls used were standard they decided they could just move Rebecca's keyboards out and slide Ronnie's Roland models in. There was enough room in her electronics rack to install his synthesizer module so they could just pull the outputs from Rebecca's and plug in there as well. They could simply unplug Tina's gear and slide it, racks and all, to the side behind the piano. That made room for Harry's steel guitar that occupied the same space as Tina's gear. The drums that were not being used were stored under the back side of the stage beneath a tarp secured from the Hilton. After assuring JD that Matt knew his stuff, especially breaking down and assembling the drum kits, Tony got him and his compatriots an extra fifty dollars each for helping set up between sets.

"Thanks for that," Tony told JD. "Those guys get a kick out of working for us on gigs. It lets them go back to school and say that they worked for the band over the weekend. But coming from you it'll be like a real band instead of just a bunch of kids they go to school with. You know we never did ask the name of your band."

"Rio Knights" JD replied.

"Wait a minute. Even I've heard of you. I just can't place it." He looked around for Gwen, whose mother was reportedly a notorious country fan, and spotted her at the sound board with someone from JD's group he hadn't met. "Gwen! Where have I heard of Rio Knights from?"

"Mom listens to them all the time. They have a song on the radio called 'Baby Say Its So'. Oh! You guys are Rio Knights?"

"That's us," JD replied, chuckling.

"Hah! My own momma won't even come out to hear us, but when I tell her you're gonna be here tomorrow she'll be right up front! Don't you get out of here before I get an autographed picture or something for her!"

"Crap JD, you didn't say you were like famous." Tony joked.

"Heh! I been playing music for 25 years and that's the first song of mine I ever heard on the radio. I'm not about to get a big head about it now."

"OK we've got less than an hour to go. Are you guys going to stay for the show?"

"I'll stay for a bit. Maybe some of the other guys will, but we were on the road all day so some may want to crash and wait for the night show."

"OK, come back and get some passes. See how they have it divided?" Tony pointed in front of the stage where it was roped off up to six feet back. "You need a VIP pass to get up front; we've got a couple of boxes of them over on Kalliste. Make sure you take as many as you'll need."

Rebecca watched Tony closely. It was only a few minutes before the first performance. She didn't exactly like what she saw. He had a façade up. It was not something Tony did, he was honest to a fault, but now not so. Tony just didn't do fake well. She saw it, she knew Tina wouldn't miss it, his best friend Dewayne knew it as well she thought. Unfortunately, she had no idea what to do.

She was startled by Tina's whispered voice in her ear. "Do something! I've never seen him freaking out like this."

Rebecca stood and took Tony's hand and pulled him to his feet. "I think we all agree I need to have a talk to our fearless leader here. Come on Tony."

She led him down to the master stateroom and pushed him on the bed. Rebecca then straddled his hips and sat down on his thighs, both were clad in jeans for the performance in chilly weather.

"OK tough guy. You really need to relax," she said.

"I'm not sure we have time for that kind of relaxation," Tony replied with a grin.

"We don't, after maybe, if we can get alone. I'd like that. But you need to let it go Tony. It's too much. You haven't been much of a boyfriend since you got back from Virginia. You've been a bit of a Prima Donna actually."

"But there is so much to do ... I"

"Stop! Come on Tony, do you do anything alone? Do you see anything wrong with the show, the stage, any of that?"

"No, not really."

"Does Tina?"

"Umm no, she hasn't said anything."

"Oh yes she has, just not to you. Who is the leader of the band?"

"Tina, no doubt about it."

"She's not worried. Why should you be?"