by Rob Mclean
She knew the band members well, as she and Chelsea had sat through many sessions as well as done backing vocals for a few gigs. It was supposed to a four-piece outfit, with drums, keyboards, bass and lead guitar.
Tonight she could see that there was someone missing and Zeke wasn’t too happy about it. There was Christy, the singer, with her long jet black hair in a pony-tail. She was talking to Zeke.
Curtis, the keyboard player was also there. He had an overbite and a habit of letting his mouth slacken and hang open when he played. It made his large bottom lip stick out and look overly moist to the point of dribbling. His tongue would then often dart out either to collect excessive dribble or to moisten his lips from having had his mouth open too long.
She also saw that Lochie, the bass player was there. That would make Chelsea happy. A tall, gangly part-time basket-ball player with masses of frizzy, unkempt hair, barely held in place by a Celtic cross patterned headband. He grinned at Chelsea, who smiled back at him like a smitten school-girl.
Tonight there was someone new on stage as well. He looked older and worldlier. Right away, from the way his eyes were roving over Christy while her back was to him, she knew she wasn’t going to like him at all.
Zeke was answering something Christy had asked. His arms were up defensively with his palms facing her. He shrugged her shoulders and as Angela moved closer and she heard him say, “I don’t know. He just said he was quitting.”
“What? He can’t just quit like that,” Lochie said. “We need him, don’t we?” He directed his question to Zeke as he stormed around the stage.
“Hey, whassup, bro?” Chelsea asked. “Where’s Fats?”
“Eric has bailed on us,” Zeke said, his words heavy with anger and disappointment. Angela then remembered that she hadn’t seen him at church last week. She next thought of the protest rally organized for tomorrow night and that their band was supposed to play there.
“No way,” Chelsea said, “he can’t do that. What about the band?”
“It seems he’s just not a team player,” Lochie said from behind the vacant drum kit.
“So what are you going to do?” Angela asked. “Can he be replaced at such short notice?”
Zeke looked up from his thoughts as Angela approached. His face brightened as she looked at her.
“Hello, it’s my gorgeous groupie,” he said putting his arm around her waist. He went to gave her a quick kiss, but she turned her face away and let him kiss her on the cheek. He didn’t seem to notice her distance and went on to grab her backside and pull her closer for a proper kiss. She didn’t resist too much, so he let his hand wander.
“Eww, get a room,” Chelsea said, screwing up her nose.
Angela pushed away from his grasp. She frowned. “Zeke, we have to talk.”
Zeke groaned. As far as he was concerned, things had been going along okay between them. There was that ‘little’ thing with the sedatives the other night at the nightclub, but she couldn’t prove who did it and nothing happened to her, so he probably thought it was all cool. He had no reason to think otherwise, as she had always been so carefree and agreeable with him, going along with whatever he wanted, but lately he must have surely noticed that she had developed an attitude.
“Not now, maybe later okay? We’ve just in the middle of something at the moment.”
“No drummer,” Lochie said by way of explanation.
The new guy shuffled on the spot, smiled a quick sly grin at Zeke and cleared his throat. Zeke put his hand on the new person’s shoulder and announced, “Guys, this is Aaron. He’s going to help us out.”
He wore a dishevelled suit and tie hung loosely. He had multiple rings and studs in his ears, eyebrows and nose. His extensively tattooed fingers wore a variety of silver rings. His bottle blonde, cropped hair contrasted sharply with his dark goatee beard.
Aaron stared at Angela without compunction, running his eyes up and down her body. Angela moved to stand behind Zeke. She wrapped an arm around his waist and draped the other over his shoulder. Aaron’s lips curled to form a wicked grin.
Zeke didn’t seem to notice Aaron’s lechery. Angela couldn’t decide if he was just being obtuse, or if he had chosen not to react to it because of the need to keep the new drummer on side, or if he actually enjoyed the idea of other guys lusting after her. Did he think it made him a more important person to have something others wanted? Whatever the reason, it firmed her resolve to have it out with him tonight. She stood behind Zeke and possessively put her arms around him, especially for Aaron to see that she was not interested in his lewd looks.
“Last night I was at a combined faith meeting with other youth group leaders. It seems that were not the only band to suffer defections.” Aaron nodded silently. Zeke continued, “It turned out that Aaron’s band, ‘Pain of Thorns’ had imploded after two of their guys left. I was lucky enough to talk to him before anyone else did.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it, man,” Lochie said with an air of sage philosophy. “It was meant to be.”
Angela wondered if it was supposed to be God’s will that Aaron’s band broke up or that the alien AntiChrist had appeared, causing so many to question their faith.
“Whatever it is, dude, here I am,” Aaron said. He sat himself down at the drum kit and started to make adjustments.
“Don’t you have your own drum kit?” Christy asked. Angela wondered what Christy would make of this new guy. Zeke was supposedly with her and Chelsea had designs on Lochie; it just left ‘Goober’ and Aaron.
She wore silver tights with matching silver thigh boots. She had a cropped black leather jacket over a carefully ripped black T-shirt. She had masses of long black hair, that was held in a tight ponytail. She wore lots of severe make-up. She took her singing seriously and treated this session as a full dress rehearsal. Christy had been one of the first to join, as she was focused on her singing. She was blessed with an amazing voice and would have made a fortune with a worldly record career. Instead, she had chosen to stay with the Christian music scene and had been struggling ever since. She had had a string of boyfriends, but none had been content to be second to her over-riding love of singing, much to the distress of her Vietnamese born grandparents. Like Angela’s mother, they too thought young ladies should be thinking more about getting married. Luckily Christy’s American-born parents were a bit more relaxed.
“I’ve got my own kit,” Aaron replied, taking his eyes off the equipment to take a good look at Christy. She either didn’t care or didn’t mind as she met his stare with her own. It was Aaron who averted his eyes first, resuming his study of the drum kit. “But some of this stuff I can use.” Then to Zeke, he asked, “but doesn’t this belong to your old drummer?”
“Nah, I scored the whole thing for him,” Zeke said, “You know, friend of a friend. Got a good deal, so now it’s all yours to use.” Zeke hadn’t told any of the other band members of his ‘generosity’ judging by their reactions, but then Zeke could be very charitable when it suited him, and he did have the financial backing of his parents as well as his own resources.
“Cool.” Aaron measured his reach with the drumsticks.
“Anything else you need, just let me know,” Zeke said. Then, almost as an after-thought, he added, “That goes for everyone. I want this band to really take off. We have a message and I want it to get out there.”
“Amen to that,” Lochie and Curtis chorused.
“Tomorrow night is going to be so big,” Zeke continued. “I have organized someone from ‘Tooth & Nail’ to be there.”
“The record company?” Christy’s eyes lit up. “That’s fantastic.”
“Yeah, but it’ll be no good if we don’t have our act sorted by then,” Zeke said. “So let’s get some practice going.” He clapped his hands and the group responded by getting their instruments and shuffling music sheets.
“So, has Eric quit just the band?” Angela asked to no one in particular. She still stood defensively behind Zeke.
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“What do you mean?” Christy asked.
“Has he lost his faith as well?” The question brought a unison of mute responses. They hadn’t considered the possibility that the people missing from this band and those from Aaron’s old band had left their church as well.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Zeke said. “Eric was never really strong in his faith.”
Angela studied Zeke from a fresh perspective. Everyone agreed that their concept of God was different. For her, God was a loving but somewhat distant deity that watched over everyone from afar, not interfering unless asked to through prayer.
For Zeke, she knew that he saw God as the supplier of all of his divinely assigned entitlements, to be called upon whenever there was a lack in his life. Looking at his privileged life so far, it must be working for him. She wondered if he ever thought about other people’s concept of God and how their faith worked for them. Clearly now he was disappointed at Eric’s belief system.
“Do you think it’s because of the Alien’s proposal?” Lochie suggested with brash naivety.
“The AntiChrist you mean?” Zeke snapped.
“Do you really think so?” Angela asked, “I mean, if it really is the AntiChrist…”
“Of course it’s the AntiChrist,” Zeke said. “What more do you need? He comes offering peace, eternal life, treasures and technology beyond our dreams, but makes it conditional on giving up God.”
“Pretty obvious to me,” Aaron agreed. The rest of the band nodded their silent agreement.
“No, what I mean is; how can anything we do affect him? It’s only through Christ and his return that we are saved. And besides, it’s already laid out in Revelations, so no matter what we do or which way the referendum goes, it’s all foretold.”
Zeke frowned. He hated being questioned, especially publicly. Angela knew that Zeke would be thinking of a whole lot of not entirely nice things to say, but Lochie spoke first.
“Nah, we get to make our choices,” Lochie said. “We have free choice.” There were nods of agreement all round.
“But if you believe that the Bible is the word of God, then it is already written, so no matter what we do, it will all come to pass as it is written.”
“Hey, but only if we make the right choices,” Lochie said.
The seriousness of the moment was disrupted by Aaron. “We should start with a new name for the band.” He said it in such a frivolous way that Angela couldn’t work out if he was trying to stop the conversation from escalating into a debate, but then he added, “All this heavy theology stuff does my head in.”
“So, shallow and sleazy,” Angela whispered in Zeke’s ear from behind, “I sure hope he’s got some musical talents.”
“I’m told he has,” Zeke said, letting go of Angela and turning back to the band. “Okay, how about we go with ‘Righteous Rage?’ It sounds heavy, like we’re serious.”
“Sounds a bit Old Testament, man,” said Lochie. He winked at Chelsea, who in turn suddenly took an exaggerated interest in her fingernails.
“But that’s the image I thought we agreed we’re going with for now,” Zeke said. “We’ve got to put it out there and get their attention.”
“Yeah, I’m with Zeke,” said Curtis, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He was a quiet guy and the youngest in the group. When he wasn’t with the band, he was excruciatingly shy, but Angela also found him physically gross to the point of repulsive. She knew it was wrong to feel that way about him, for he was really was a genuine Christian, so she tried to be nice and ignore his worst features.
“Whatever works for you, man,” Aaron said. He sat at the drums and tilted his head to the side in an attempt to keep leering at Angela.
The vocalist, Christy, saw the way Aaron was looking at Angela. She jabbed him out of his private fantasies. Her stance was aggressive, as was her expression. They locked eyes again and this time it was Christy who turned away first. “You’re the manager Zeke. I’ll go along with anything you want,” she said with one eye on Aaron.
Because she played up to him and stroked his ego, Zeke liked Christy. Angela had known Christy since meeting her when Zeke first put a band together. The girls had become good friends, and she knew, through some girly sixth sense, that Christy wasn’t going to make a move on Zeke. He had said long ago during one of their ‘what if’ conversations, that Christy wasn’t his ‘type. She didn’t like to think what that meant, but it was more because she trusted Christy rather than Zeke, that she knew that Christy was no threat. Besides, Christy could have anyone she wanted and it looked like she had set her sights on the new guy.
“Okay then, let’s have a vote,” Zeke said. “All in favour of ‘The Righteous Rage’?” he raised his hand. Christy followed immediately, then Curtis.
Aaron put a drumstick in the air, and then tapped Lochie on the shoulder. He had been whispering with Chelsea. He took a quick look around, saw what was going on and said, “Oh, we’re voting? Okay then…,” and put his hand up grinning, “I vote no.
Aaron looked up from his drum-kit. “No?”
“It looks like you have a majority anyway, man, but in my opinion, I think the name puts people off,” Lochie said.
“Yeah, it is a bit heavy, dude,” Aaron said to Zeke.
Lochie continued, “It’s always the same thing for Christian bands. You have to decide who your audience is going to be. If you are playing to Christians, then the name’s fine.” There were nods from most of the band members. “But, if you want to reach the worldly, as you say you do, then you have to decide if you want to be upfront about it or do it by stealth.”
“How do you do it by stealth, exactly?” asked Zeke.
“You don’t tell them that you’re a Christian band, and that means not using a name with Biblical references.”
“But why wouldn’t you let them know that we’re Christians?” asked Christy. She had her fists on her hips and her feet planted apart.
“Because most worldly people automatically turn off when they hear the word ‘Christian’,” Zeke answered.
Lochie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and those are the people we’re trying to reach. No good telling the world that you’re Christian and then end up only singing to Christians. We’re better off appearing worldly and then getting on regular, commercial media. We’d be exposed to millions of people, and then we let our music do the talking.”
“You’ve got a point there, dude,” said Aaron.
“Seems deceitful to me,” said Chelsea.
“That’s right,” Christy said, “there’s only one deceiver that I know of.”
“We shouldn’t be afraid to say that we’re Christians,” ventured Curtis. His mouth hung absently open.
“It’s not that we’re afraid of telling the world that we’re Christians,” Lochie said to Curtis as he paced past him, “or that we’re tricking them. It’s just that I don’t think that we should be seen as a bunch of Christians who, if you happen to take the time to listen to us, play cool music…”
“No?” asked Christy. “Why not?”
“I just think we should be seen a bunch of cool musicians who, once you get into our music…hey, you find are Christians.”
“Probably better way of reaching the secular masses,” Aaron said, “and those Christians who know us would still follow us.”
“You shouldn’t keep your light under a bushel,” quoted Curtis, pointing to the ceiling as if delivery a sermon.
Zeke added, “It would be more honest to be openly Christian. I’m not worried about the secular world. We can only deliver the message and if they chose not to listen, then that’s their loss.”
“Yeah,” said Christy, “everyone knows where the Christian radio stations are, and they can listen to us if they want. They have a choice. If they choose not to, that’s their problem.”
Angela stepped from behind Zeke. “But it’s not our job to convert the unbelievers,” she said. Then when she saw the puzzled expressions on the faces of the
band, she continued, “Ours is simply to proclaim the Word and as far reaching the people goes, the Spirit of the Lord will do the rest.”
“Cool,” Aaron said, this time grinning with admiration.
Zeke looked at her blankly. “Wow, that’s my Angela.”
“Actually, I’m not ‘your’ Angela yet,” she said, holding up the back of her left hand to show him that her ring finger was missing a ring. Zeke tried to not groan publicly.
Aaron grinned a wolfish smirk. Angela could see that he was weighing up his chances. She glared at him, then turned away.
“Looks like you’ve got some homework to do Zeke, buddy,” said Lochie, grinning.
“I’m working on it,” Zeke said.
“Better work fast dude. Good-looking girls like her…” Aaron said running his eyes over Angela’s body again, “would get a lot of attention.”
Zeke ignored the jibe. Instead he asked Angela, “So if we’re not trying to reach the worldly, why are we going to all this trouble with getting our band going?”
“For worship,” Christy answered before Angela could. She threw her hands up in the air, “you know, to praise our Lord. You do remember Him, don’t you?”
Aaron raised his hand to interrupt. It almost looked like he was back in school. “Look, I’m a bit new to this Christianity thing, but I always thought that trying to bring people to God was all part of the job. I would have thought we should be at least trying.”
“I can see where you’re coming from and that’s part of it,” Curtis said, leaning back from his keyboard, “but it’s like Angela said, the Holy Spirit will do the actual converting of people. If God wants it to happen, then it will, no matter what we do. All we have to do is play good music and worship Him through that.” Curtis stole a glance at Angela, and when he saw that she was pleased with what he had said, he quickly looked away. He absently fiddled with his keyboard and she smiled quietly to herself.
Zeke had moved away and had been standing on the edge of the stage, staring out to the mostly empty seats. He turned to face his band. “Guys, if that’s right, then it doesn’t matter what we call ourselves. It doesn’t matter why we play, or even what we play. It’s all in God’s hands.” He waved his arm towards the ceiling.
