Chapter 15

March 11, 1979 - Daytona Beach, FL

Oceanborn found themselves waiting to hit the stage for the second time in two nights which was in and of itself a new experience for them. Karina and Billy arrived earlier than the rest of the band so they could find a secluded spot to unwind and listen to the other bands play. It was fun to sit there and analyze their strengths and weaknesses and compare them to their own. When the rest of the band showed up, it was time to go over the setlist changes and made sure the sound and light engineers were on the same page as well. Of course, the paper Karina showed Billy had a few redactions in it to keep things a surprise. She grabbed his hand and led him back to what had become their secluded spot where she had him sit down.

After leaning in for a sensual kiss, she said “I forgot to do this the other night but you’ll need it tonight seeing as we have to top last night’s performance.” She slipped her hands up under his shirt and they began to glow a faint blue color. Billy felt a warm vibration emanate from her hands and a relaxing feeling swept over him. When it was over, she nuzzled him while wrapping her arms around his body. Feeling a little awkward from the intimacy, Billy said, “Tell me, you aren’t going to eat my face or something, are you?” Karina looked incredulous and then punched him in the arm before replying, “It is considered bad manners where I come from to eat someone’s face, besides; nobody will want to play for us if they know I will eat their face.”

He put his hands to his chin in a thinking man’s pose, “Hmm, You make a good point. What if we were to downgrade that to sucking face?”

Karina’s eyes lit up, “Oh, well now. That sounds a whole lot better!” She then leaned in and kissed him some more. Then Billy reached out and took her hands which had by then cooled down and kissed the back of them.

Karina gave him their customary pre-performance kiss backstage as the band was set to open with ‘Dark Chest of Wonders’. They changed up the opening song because they felt it had a better concert-starting arrangement. The crowd cheered as they saw Carl climb into his trap set and Beth slide in behind the keyboards in the dark. Playing on an outdoor stage is a little different than indoors. There is natural outdoor light that illuminates the crowd whereas indoors you can’t see the crowd much unless they turn on the house lights. The moon was rising from the east which illuminated the much bigger the crowd from the night before. The big surprise, at least to Billy was the number of boats that were anchored offshore. Billy didn’t have time to count them but he guessed there was about twenty sailboats and thirty smaller vessels. He wondered how the boats could stay anchored so close to together and not hit each other, especially with the constant waves.

Carl clicked off the lead-in beat and Doortje and Billy zoomed onto the stage trying not to tangle their cords together while attempting to make a grand entrance. The larger crowd seemed to infuse extra energy into the band and Billy was really feeling it. The singing was crisper and the band members felt more connected to each other.

Sure enough Barb was in the spot she was the previous night and Karina invited her onstage. A little more sure of herself this time, it didn’t take as long to make her way to the stage where she confidently strutted up to Karina and was handed her own microphone this time.

“I heard you practiced the song since last time?”

“Yes” Barb replied trying to be confident.

“You ready to take lead in it?”

Barb suddenly looked nervous. “Uh, How about you lead and I’ll help.”

Karina nodded her head, “Fair ‘nuff, but I have the right to drop out anytime I feel you have it” she said while turning towards Beth who had a certain protein eating grin on her face. Billy saw the exchange and knew something was up. His suspicions were confirmed when Beth began the intro for ‘Storytime’ instead of ‘Hear Me’.

“I think this will make a good story for your kids one day...” Karina said over the intro while Barb turned white in terror. Some things are just hard wired into a person and despite being caught off guard, he automatically hit his part of the intro without thinking about it when Karina threw her hands up in the air and yelled “STOP!” She turned to Barb laughing, “I’m just kidding” she said as the color slowly returned to Barb’s face. Barb’s mic was turned up a bit higher in the mix than the previous night and midway through the first verse, her confidence kicked in and did a decent job of keeping up with Karina, almost as if they had practiced it before. When the song was done, Karina asked if she wanted to hang around for another song but Barb was happy with the success she’d just had and just wanted to scoot back to her friends in the crowd.

‘Storytime’ was next on the docket and then took the crowd by surprise with ‘Ghost River’ (Nightwish) which had never been played live before. The stage theatrics between Karina and Billy as they sang their duet kept things interesting. It was a good thing the words were hard to understand because the lyrics were probably a little too dark for the times.

Karina turned to Doortje and said “OK Littles, get them running to the edge” before exiting the stage. Doortje stepped center stage and did a great job at belting out ‘Running to the Edge’. It was a really fun song to perform because it had a straight forward driving rock beat which allowed the performer to get lost in it. Those were Doortje’s favorite types of songs, especially when she was singing lead. She had the crowd banging their heads during the guitar solo. Again, her edgier voice was perfect for the song which helped to change things up so as not to be repetitive, boring or predictable.

When the song was over, she addressed the crowd which she had never done before. “We like to think that each of our songs tell a story ... Daytona Beach, are you ready for another story?” to which they crowd roared. “The moon is almost full so we’ll try not to make it too SCAREEY!!!” The crowd roared as Beth went into the ‘Scaretale’ intro. Someone in the front row yelled “Where’s the witch?? “ Another person yelled “Burn the witch!!” Billy leaned over before his part was supposed to start and yelled “But, we’re getting bettah!” When he saw their bodies shaking in laughter, he knew they had heard him.

Billy later heard from Doortje that the entire crowd had gone into head banging mode when the guitar riff started. He was so lost in the music, he wasn’t aware of anything else. Soon enough Karina came out in her witch’s outfit and made her way out to the edge of the stage where she tossed a few red apples into the crowd. With the spotlight on her, she pulled out her last apple and offered it to Billy causing the crowd to roar louder than the music. “TAKE IT” they yelled. Being a good sport, he took a bite out of it while she held it as he finished the intro riff and Karina began singing. The crowd was much more responsive this time and it was surprising how fast the song had caught on.

When it was over, Billy and Karina stood front stage breathing heavily from the intensity in which they performed when Billy leaned over and picked up the apple. He held it out to the crowd and took a few more bites before throwing it into the sea of college students. There was a scramble for the apple and it bounced off a few hands before someone finally caught it.

“Daytona Beach, You guys having fun?” Karina yelled. The crowd roared in response.

“It’s that time again ... stump the guitarist. We’ve never played this song live before so please forgive us if something goes awry. My sisters will get us started while I change into something more ... comfortable.” She turned to Billy and said with a sparkle in her eyes “You’re gonna have to figure this one out on your own!” and then pranced off the stage when a guy yelled ‘you can hex me anytime you want’ from the crowd. She stopped and turned to face towards the person who had just heckled and replied “that would probably not end well for you, Charlie.” She chuffed and turned to leave. The heckler nearly fainted because she got his name correct.

Billy tried to mask the horror he was feeling as Beth played the intro to ‘Poet and the Pendulum’ (Nightwish). It had been pretty rough the last time they practiced that song and he wasn’t sure whether to feel anger at Karina’s recklessness or in awe that the band had learned to play it without him. He had planned it to be their penultimate piece, to be unveiled at just the right time after much practice, but alas here he was hoping it would even sound like a song.

Once Beth started the keyboard walk down sequence Billy had no choice but to play his part. There was no bargaining, no begging, you just had to play your part and hope musical armageddon didn’t occur. Karina made stage-fall in a white Romanesque toga-like dress and somehow her hair had extra curls in it. She looked like a Roman goddess as she approached the mic. Beth nailed the high-end harmonies while Doortje hit the low ones and they sounded like a choir of ten people singing. It was obvious the girls had been working on the vocal parts on their own.

The crowd went completely silent as the music died away and Karina started singing in her operatic voice, “Sparkle, my scenery...”. Billy stood there in amazement as tears started running down her cheek as she sang “tuck me in ... beneath the blue, beneath the pain...” She was feeling the pain the lyrics portrayed. So much so his eyes started tearing up as well which caused him to duck out of the light and into somewhere dark so as not to be seen until he could collect himself. This was performed without digital or analog overdubs since technology hadn’t progressed far enough to have it be reliable. As the keyboards moved into their angry part, Billy had recovered and made his way up to the mic and growled “Second robber to the right of Christ” which most likely took many people by surprise.

Goosebumps covered Billy’s body as Karina took the mic off the stand and moved across the stage singing “get away, run away, flyaway...”While pumping her arm to the beat. The girls all sang “FINI” in unison at the end and the lights and music stopped and everything became eerily quiet and dark when Karina grabbed Billy and dragged him to their pre-destined spot in front of the drums. The spots came back highlighting Doortje and Beth as they played their melancholy parts. Karina and Billy were seated in front of the drums as she started singing in a soft motherly tone with tears coming down her face again. They stood up to sing their duet... “Search for beauty, find your shore”. After singing the final words: “In the end, I will always love, you”, Karina dropped her head in despair and walked off the stage.