Chapter 31: Return To Stage

January 29, 1983

The rest of winter break passed in a flurry of activity. We had a total of five band practices at the Andrade house before I moved back into the dorm for the start of spring semester on January 24. We already had a couple of gigs lined up during February. After each practice, I went straight to Julia's place, and stayed overnight. Julia begged me feverishly to be allowed to attend one of the practices; she was dying to watch us perform. We had decided, however, that no one, including families, friends and significant others, would see us live until the grand unveiling of the latest version of Lightning in a Bottle. The exception, of course, was the Andrade family; since they were generous enough to allow us the use of their basement, they automatically received an ongoing sneak preview.

But those close to us would be rewarded, for that grand unveiling would take place in the form of an exclusive concert for friends and family, prior to any other live performances. It seemed as though the hospitality of Señor and Señora Andrade was boundless, for they offered to host the event, even though the expected guest list totaled somewhere between fifty and sixty. Their basement was plenty large enough to accommodate a group of that size. We planned to make it a potluck affair, with all guests asked to bring along something to eat. Plus, the six of us intended to take up a collection, with all proceeds going to Señor and Señora Andrade.

When it came to performing live in front of an audience, I was actually well behind my five bandmates. They'd been doing it for over a year. I didn't expect that to be a problem, because I had experience from my other life to draw on, which of course my bandmates didn't know about. The one area where I was inexperienced, however, was singing lead. There, I actually had close to zero experience, even in the other timeline. Remember, Bud McMillan had insisted on handling lead vocals the first time around. I had minor concerns about that matter, and expressed them to the group. All five of them indicated that I had nothing to worry about. But during our practices, all agreed to allow me to spend extra time in front of the microphone, to build up my confidence and endurance.

On another front, there had been some tentative progress regarding my standing with Evie, Dave, and Paul. Evie now spoke with me freely, and was as pleasant as always, although she was still a bit guarded. I wanted that barrier to come down, but I knew that I was the one who had erected it in the first place. Dave and Paul both now conversed with me, but only within the context of music. With Dave, especially, I suspected that a good part of his new attitude was aimed at humoring Eileen.

I had to constantly remind myself that I had a lot to prove to the five of them; well, all except for Eileen. In a way, I was still on probation. I couldn't start to make demands, nor did I want to. But I did have a few small suggestions, and in particular, a couple of concessions I wanted to make for Julia. And so, one day before practice, I outlined my requests. The three girls, of course, got right on board with everything, as I knew they would. Thankfully, the two guys didn't put up much of a fight, either.

"Fine by me," Paul said tersely.

"Far be it from me," added Dave, "to stand in the way of true love."

Yes, there was a healthy degree of sarcasm in Dave's comment. But I had to tell myself that it was just Dave being Dave.

During the last practice before the family and friends event, we ran through our entire proposed set list, and it went off without a hitch. I held up my end very well. I mean, I knew I could do it. It was just a matter of getting used to it.

Afterwards, I had a little chat with Inez and Eileen about my lack of experience as a lead vocalist. Mayra, who'd watched the whole session, joined us, and offered her own commentary.

"I don't know what you're worried about, Pat," Mayra practically gushed. "You're way better than Danny was. It's not even close."

"All of us pretty much agreed that Danny was the weak link in this band," Eileen offered, looking at Inez for confirmation. Inez nodded in agreement.

"Now," Eileen went on, "we don't have a weak link."

"Amen," Mayra chimed in.

"He was the weakest link," Inez said a little bitterly, "in every respect."

Her remark put things in perspective for me. I had baggage of my own to deal with, but Inez had even more.

Finally, the evening of the show arrived; the first Saturday after the start of the spring semester. We all arrived at the Andrade house early in the afternoon to set everything up. The "stage", as it were, was in the usual location, and we'd hung up a few sheets to fashion a makeshift backstage area.

Shortly after I arrived, I went back behind the sheets to look for something. Evie, Dave, and Paul were back there. Dave and Paul weren't yet aware of my presence; they were having a little private conversation of their own. It wasn't hard to guess the subject.

"Why," Dave scowled in Paul's direction, "should we be throwing a freakin' party to celebrate his return to the band?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, they both saw me standing nearby. I couldn't let that remark go unaddressed. I mustered as neutral of a tone of voice as I could manage.

"I was under the impression," I said to Dave, "that this show was more for Inez's benefit than mine."

Both Dave and Paul shut up immediately. I found what I was looking for, and left the area.

Not a minute later, I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. A voice whispered in my ear, "You handled that very well. I'm proud of you." I turned around, and there was Evie, scurrying off in the direction of the stage. She turned around long enough to flash me a wink and a bright smile.

It was a shot in the arm that pretty much did away with any pre-show butterflies I may have had.

I had quite a contingent of supporters on hand. Dad, Mom and Seamus (who, of course, were there to support Eileen as well) made the trip up north. Naturally, Julia was in attendance, as well as my entire crew of friends from the dorm: Jeannette, Kevin, Dennis, Barry, Holly and Annie. Even my quiet and studious roommate, Dale, was there; he'd actually decided to take his nose out of his books for the evening. The entire group had piled into two cars and driven over together.

Dave's parents were there, as were Paul's (who I had not yet officially met in this life). On top of that, I was quite pleased to see Stella, Evie's mom, present as well.

So, this event represented a coming together of groups of people from all segments of my life: my family, my girlfriend, my dorm friends, and the band itself. Pretty much everyone of importance in my current life was on hand.

Before the show got started, I brought Julia up on stage to meet my bandmates. Of course, she knew Eileen, and had met Inez as well. I had worried a little about what would happen when Julia met Evie, but it went smoothly, helped along by the fact that neither Julia nor Evie had even one ounce of cattiness in them. But the biggest surprise was the behavior of Paul and Dave. Both of them, perhaps chastened a bit by what had occurred earlier, were friendly to Julia, and took the time to chat with her for a few minutes.

Maybe there was yet some hope for those two stubborn buttheads.

At long last, it was time to get the show underway. There were a limited number of seats available for those in attendance; I'd asked Dad to throw some folding chairs in the back of his car before driving up. But most of our audience would remain standing throughout. We planned to do one set of ten songs, followed by an intermission, and then another set of nine songs. We felt that was enough; we wanted to allow time for socializing afterward.

We got things rolling with the song we knew best: "Edge of Seventeen". I had taken over the keyboard part of this song, which allowed Eileen to concentrate on her vocal segment. Just as the others had, I'd quickly come to love our rendition of this tune; it afforded each of us the chance to show off our skills. As I looked out into the audience, composed in part of people near and dear to me, I once again experienced the rush of performing. This was it! This was what I had longed for. It had taken far too long, but here I was, actually realizing the dream I'd formulated shortly after arriving in this new life. I'd nearly lost the opportunity, in fact thought it gone forever, but it had been miraculously handed back to me. And I wouldn't let go of it this time.

The applause at the end of the song was thunderous. I looked around at each of my five cohorts; they were all grinning from ear to ear. Personal differences had been temporarily cast aside. We basked in the adulation, as a group.

Next up was "Harden My Heart". Eileen had been a little nervous about singing this one in front of Mom and Dad. She wanted to get it out of the way early, so we left it in the number two spot. She needn't have worried. She did a fantastic job, and at the end, no one was clapping harder than our parents. Of course, my being up on the stage with her made it that much more enjoyable for them.

And then, it was time for me to get my cherry popped. As a lead singer, that is. No time for nervousness; I knew how to sing, and I was not intimidated in the least by the audience. We began the intro to Greg Kihn's "The Breakup Song", and I commenced with my first public lead vocal performance in either life. I looked out at my parents, who wore proud expressions on their faces. I caught a glimpse of Seamus, my kid brother, who was looking at me as if I was some kind of a rock god. And then there was Julia, who was gazing at me in a manner which let me know that one way or another, I was in for a good time later that evening.

It truly was a special moment for me. But there was no time to savor it, for I also sang lead on our next song, "Someday, Someway" by Marshall Crenshaw. Up next was "Only the Lonely" by The Motels. This one was a showcase for Evie; she gave a sultry vocal rendition, and also chipped in with an impressive sax solo.

Last up in our game of musical vocalists was Inez, the most talented of all. Her first song? Why, it was "Crazy On You", of course.

This was noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was a diversion from the "no old songs" dictum, against which Inez had been waging a friendly war with the others. But as I'd promised, I sided with Inez, and she and I managed to get them to relent just a little bit. Actually, it had been me who pushed to include "Crazy On You" in particular. Which was ironic in a way, because of course, it had been Inez's audition song on that fateful night before Halloween over a year ago.

"And why, pray tell, do you want us to do that one?" a bemused Inez had inquired when I suggested it one day during practice.

"Sentimental reasons," I quipped, which induced a chuckle or two from the rest of the gang. Hey, we might as well laugh about it, right?

With Inez front and center, we took things to a new level. We followed "Crazy On You" with "Brass In Pocket" by The Pretenders. After that, I got a couple of more chances to play the front man role. We did "Pulling Mussels from The Shell" by Squeeze, and followed that by going into rockabilly mode with the Stray Cats' "Rock This Town". The latter was a song I used to love singing along with while driving alone in my car in the other life, so I had it down pretty well.

We'd agreed to give Inez the honor of singing the final song in each set. She stepped forward, cradling her guitar with both hands, and began to sing without any instrumental support. Of course, the tune was "Promises In The Dark", the one that she'd completely blown me away with at my first practice. Fifty-plus people in the audience were similarly blown away this time. At song's end, I smiled over in Evie's direction, and we both began to clap, holding our hands high over our heads so the audience could see us. All in attendance were aware of Inez's recent struggles, and those who were seated rose up in appreciation of her effort, resulting in another standing ovation. Always charmingly humble, a visibly moved Inez offered a heartfelt thanks to everyone when the applause died down.

I had little chance to speak with the other band members during the intermission; each of us was overrun by our respective fan clubs. My immediate family – Dad, Mom, and Seamus – were thrilled to death with our performance, but they had already witnessed various subsets of our outfit playing together. For them, it wasn't really that big of a surprise.

But for Julia, and my dorm buddies? Different story entirely. They all came up to me, with looks of shock, incredulity and amazement on their faces. Julia, of course, led the way. She threw her arms around me and gave me a searing kiss.

"I mean, I expected you to be good," she gushed. "I heard you play and sing that time in my room. But up on a stage like that, in front of everyone? You have this aura about you, honey. I can't believe you've never performed like that before. It's like you've been doing it for years. And the six of you work so well together. I plan to make sure I'm front and center at all your gigs."

"I'll hold you to that," I smiled, not offering any further comment right now. Julia didn't realize that there was an extra special surprise for her coming up very soon.

The rest of the gang was similarly effusive in their praise. After the initial clamor subsided, Dennis pulled me aside for a moment.

"Hey, Pat," he said to me, out of earshot of the others, "I just had a thought. Remember when I told you how I wish I knew how to play an instrument? I've always been fascinated with making music."

"So you want to become our seventh member?" I joshed. Dennis was cool; I knew I could kid around with him, and I of course realized he was leading up to something else.

"No, nothing like that," he laughed. "But you know what? I'm a bit of an electronics whiz. You have an elaborate sound system in place here, and I thought maybe I could help out with setting up beforehand, and taking everything down afterward. I have no musical skills whatsoever, but that would allow me to at least take part in the process."

"So you're volunteering your services?" I grinned.

"You betcha."

I thought it was a great idea. But again, I was loath to make a decision like that without consulting the others. A perfect solution came to me out of the blue.

"Dave is the one who kind of oversees all of that," I said to Dennis. "I'll introduce you to him after the show, and maybe he'll show you the ropes." Of course, that could potentially have a number of beneficial side effects.

"Thanks, buddy," he replied gratefully. And that was the end of the conversation, for now, because the intermission was over. It was time for the second half of our show.

Our opening number in set two was the Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed". Here, Eileen sang lead, backed up by Inez. It set the stage for the part of the show where I'd asked my cohorts for a couple of favors.

The next song, placed in this spot deliberately, was the Tom Petty – Stevie Nicks collaboration, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around". We did this one as a duet between Evie and I; there was no significance to that, other than the fact that it suited Evie's style perfectly. I'd warned Julia about this ahead of time, and she assured me that she was okay with it. Plus, it certainly isn't a mushy love song or anything like that; in fact, it's quite the opposite. But even a duet rife with romantic frustration and anger has the potential to induce jealous feelings in an individual who doesn't feel secure in a relationship. Thankfully, Julia wasn't like that. And I wanted to reward her.