Because the same bus would be used throughout the tour, it was okay to leave equipment and other things on it. However, with the exception of Tim’s drum set, each band member wanted to keep their personal instruments with them in their rooms. This was especially true for Daniel, who was performing on the Martin guitar given to him by Ethan Savage.
After everyone got to their rooms and settled in a bit, they met down in the hotel dining room for a late dinner. At the dinner, Colin gave the band their schedule for the next day, which was the first concert date of the tour. There was a two hour window that they were assigned to get set up exactly the way they wanted for the performance and discuss this with the stage hands. Then they would have a sound, lighting, and video camera check and go over details of this with the head sound engineer, lighting specialist, and video coordinator. Prior to the show, which was scheduled to start at 7:00 PM, there would be a reception for the performers back stage so that the band members and management team could meet each other and socialize before the show began.
The next day, Daniel and the other band members got on the bus at 11:30 and were driven to the arena where they would be performing. Their sound, lighting and video checks were scheduled to happen between 12:00 and 2:00 PM. Each of the three bands performing had a two hour block of time for this, with the Biloxi Brothers finishing up by 6:00.
Daniel and the Second Chance All Stars were astonished at first about all the detail involved in their various checks. The sound engineer had asked Daniel to prepare a written set list of the songs they were scheduled to perform, and who would be doing vocals or instrumental solos on each song. He made sure that Daniel, Eric, and Nick who did most of the singing had the right vocal microphones, wireless for Daniel and Eric so that they could move around on stage freely. After getting some basic sound checks of the overall ensemble, the sound engineer then had the band do a small portion of each vocal and solo feature, so that he would be ready to make adjustments during the live performance.
The grand piano had pickups inside its case on all of the strings. The sound was incredible. Nick played a portion of one of his classical solo pieces to test it out. After he did, the sound engineer said, “That was an amazing piece. I assume that you are not playing it tonight!” Nick then played a couple of his solo passages from their set.
The sound man spent a lot of time with Tim, getting his drum set miked correctly and testing out the sound of each drum and cymbal in his drum kit. For Jonathan, they set up a microphone stand with two microphones, one for his flute and the other for his saxophones.
Everything was marked down in great detail so that the stage hands would set everything up correctly for their performance that evening.
While the sound engineer was running through all of the events of their set, the lighting coordinator was trying out different lighting combinations that would work with the band’s music. Being the third band on the set, they would not be having any fireworks or special lighting effects, other than color changes, and spot mikes on the solos. He also had several bright blended lighting combinations for when the band was performing as an ensemble.
At the same time, the video director was working out all of his cues for which camera feed to project onto the huge digital screens throughout the stadium. This was becoming a more and more important facet of live concerts in huge arenas or stadiums.
When everything was finished for the checks, Daniel and the others were grateful that they had some time off before the reception and concert that evening. It was quite a lot of work to go through every detail piece by piece. The band members were even more excited and apprehensive at the same time, now that they realized that every little detail of what they would be doing on stage would be magnified and shown to their audience.
Back at the hotel, Jonathan and Tim decided to grab a late lunch in the hotel restaurant, while Eric and Nick hurried back to their room. They wanted to relax before they had to get dressed and return to the arena for the reception and performance. Daniel did the same. When he arrived at his room, Jason was not there. Jason and the others not in the band had decided to walk over to a nearby shopping mall while the band was doing their sound check. Around 2:30 Jason arrived back to find Daniel asleep on his bed. Jason smiled and thought to himself how exhausted Daniel must be from all of the pressure on him to deliver at this critical juncture in his musical career.
Fifteen minutes later, Daniel woke up, and saw that Jason was back, working on his laptop. “Jason, when did you get back?” he asked a little groggy.
“About twenty minutes ago,” Jason replied. “You were out for the count, so I have been getting caught up on my computer work.” Jason had been downloading and processing photos from yesterday’s bus trip. “How did your sound check go?”
“It was quite involved, and much more detailed than I expected it to be. Remember what Marlon, Ethan Savage’s rhythm guitar player told us? He was right. It was an incredible amount of work. Not like a party at all.”
“I guess the partying comes later, after the show is over. Just hearing you guys perform on a big stage while watching it from back stage will be a party enough for me,” Jason added. “I can’t believe that my best friend is becoming a rock star right before my eyes!”
“I’m not a rock star yet, Jason! And who knows if I ever will be one. But I know that I am happy you can be here to watch. A month ago I wasn’t so sure about that!”
“Nobody is happier than me about my recovery!” Jason exclaimed.
There was a knock on the door. When Jason opened it, Diana was standing there. “Is Daniel inside?” she asked.
“Come on in,” Daniel said. Diana came over to Daniel, gave him a kiss, and then sat by him holding his hand.
“I had to see how you were holding up,” Diana began. “In a couple of hours my steady boyfriend will be starring on stage and making the world aware of his great talents.” She held his hand tighter and nuzzled his face. “I don’t know if I want to give him up to the world!”
“It’s just a concert, Diana,” Daniel said with a smile. “I’m not selling myself off to the highest bidder or anything.” He then turned and kissed her back.
“Looks like you guys need some time alone,” Jason interjected. “I think I will go check on the others.”
“You don’t need to leave, Jason,” Diana said. “Daniel and I were just getting reacquainted.”
“Well, I think I will get reacquainted with Nick and Jonathan or see how my mom is doing,” Jason replied. “I’ll be back to get changed around five. See you then.”
After Jason left, Daniel and Diana snuggled together on the bed. Daniel confided to her that he was getting real nervous about the concert.
“You will be great, Daniel,” Diana told him in a soothing voice. “You always are. Performing comes to you naturally. I know that you and the band are well prepared. Just follow your instincts, what you have practiced, and go with the flow. It’s normal to have nerves before a big deal event. But once you are there and get started, you will be fine. Don’t forget that all of your friends and family will be there back stage rooting for you!”
“I love you, Diana,” Daniel replied. “You’re always so down to earth and make me feel so good.” He then turned and gave Diana a passionate kiss.
* * * * *
The reception for the band members and their entourages was held backstage at the stadium in a large room. There was catered food and drinks on a long buffet table. Around 6:15 after everyone had arrived, John Dixon, the head of the tour company that was putting on the Biloxi Brothers tour, got everyone’s attention. “Welcome to Seattle and the start of this six concert tour. The purpose of this gathering is to have all the participants meet and get to know each other a little. I am very pleased to tell you that this concert and most of the other five are sold out. I believe that they will all sell out in the next couple of days. I would like now to introduce all of the administrative team that made this possible.”
The tour staff was then introduced, including Colin Porter, the manager for Daniel’s band. After everyone was acknowledged, Mr. Dixon began to introduce the members of the three bands. “I will now introduce the band members performing on this tour. Then I would like a spokesman from each band to introduce the others they have brought on the tour. Our first band performing tonight is Daniel Holmes and the Second Chance All Stars. Leader of the band is Daniel, who does vocal and plays guitar. On bass is Eric Acosta who also does vocals. The band has an amazing keyboard player, Nick Feraducci, and Nick helps with vocals also. Rounding out the band is Tim Wilkinson on drums, and Jonathan Kowalski on saxophone and flute. Let’s have a hand for this fine new band from the Silicon Valley.”
After the applause died down, Mr. Dixon had Daniel introduce Jason, Diana, and the others who had accompanied them on the tour. Next Mr. Porter introduced the second band on the tour, Heathcart, who were from England, and finally the tour headliners, the Biloxi Brothers. Mark and Jonas were the two Biloxi Brothers who came from a small town in rural Mississippi. The two brothers were singer/songwriters who both played guitar and did vocals. After they were discovered by an agent in Atlanta, they had several hit singles that appealed to the tween crowd. A manager stepped in for them, and put together a touring band consisting of bass, drums, and keyboard and for this tour three additional backup singers who were good at doing choreography.
It took fifteen minutes to introduce everyone, and then people were free to mingle. Although most everyone kept to the entourage they came with, Mr. Dixon and the respective band managers made sure that the band leaders and members met. Jason was with Daniel when they were introduced to Mark and Jonas Biloxi.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Daniel began shaking hands and then reintroduced Jason, while Jason took some pictures. “Our band has been looking forward to touring with you and hearing you perform.”
“It’s an unbelievable experience, especially your first concerts,” Jonas replied. “For a musician there is nothing like it.”
“Aren’t you the two teenagers that also work as detectives, and have solved a number of crimes?” Mark asked. “I’ve heard about you in the news, but had no idea that you were musicians too.”
“Daniel is the musician,” Jason explained. “But he is a loyal friend, and has helped me out quite a bit over the past few years. One of the cool things about some of our cases is that we discovered talented musicians who ended up joining Daniel’s band. Now instead of being victimized, they are living up to their potential as great performers!”
“So that explains where the name Second Chance All Stars comes from,” Mark said. “I thought maybe it was because they were fired from other bands!”
“Trust me, you wouldn’t want to fire these people,” Daniel replied with an edge to his voice. “They are all incredible musicians and great to work with. And they play all kinds of styles so that eventually we can expand our horizons beyond the tween market.”
Just then a stage runner came up to Daniel. “It looks like they will need about ten more minutes beyond our scheduled start time to get everyone inside and seated. Your stage call will now be 7:00 PM.”
Jason and Daniel now had ten additional minutes to mingle and meet others before their stage call. After they walked away from Mark and Jonas, Jason said, “Well that went well! You just met Mark Biloxi and both of you managed to get in a dig within two minutes!”
“I didn’t want to,” Daniel said sarcastically, “but someone who is a master of bubble gum shouldn’t be putting other musicians down, especially if he has never heard them play.”
“I can see that the photo I got of you and Mark Biloxi shaking hands will be worth a lot in the future!” Jason said with a laugh.
Jason and Daniel then caught up with Diana, and the other band members who were standing near the stage entrance. Daniel just wanted to hold hands with Diana and focus his head on the very important performance coming up for his band.
Then the call came to get on stage, everyone moved in place, got their instruments ready, checking tuning and making sure they were in the correct places. A voice came over the loud speakers throughout the audience with some general announcements and finally the introduction for Daniel Holmes and the Second Chance All Stars.
The stage lights and video screens all came on at once. Daniel counted off the band into their first number which briefly featured all the band members in a long introduction, then settled into the beat of their first song, “Can You Love Me?” There was a favorable audience reaction to this, and they responded to the lyrics and groove of the song. As they became adjusted to their environment, the band members settled down, overcame their nervousness and focused on their music. The songs were performed smoothly and without any noticeable errors.
In between songs, Daniel gave very short comments, things like “Hello, Seattle. Are you ready to party?” He also made sure to introduce his band mates and acknowledge their solos, since they were an unknown group for this audience. Due to the short time limit of their set, he didn’t want to talk a lot anyway.
After three more up tempo numbers, it was now time for Daniel to sing “Diana.” The lighting changed and the band briefly relaxed while Daniel went to sit on a stool, adjust his guitar tuning and begin the song with simple solo guitar chords. “This is for all you beautiful young ladies out there, especially if your name is Diana,” he said in to the microphone before starting to sing.
“Diana” got a warm reception from the crowd, and then the band started the introductory vamps to “The Freedom Song”, their final number. Between the vocals, Daniel, Jonathan, and Nick all stretched out on extended solos. Before the reprise of the vocals, Tim played a solo drum cadence while Daniel got some of the audience to start clapping to the beat of the song and getting into its revival nature. With the return of the lyrics, the audience cheered, and the band finished off the song with a special ending that brought it to a close in a strong and upbeat manner. Their first major performance was done! There was enthusiastic applause from the crowd and the announcer repeated their name.
Daniel, Eric, Nick, Jonathan, and Tim all came off stage pumped up about their efforts and were high-fiving each other and talking about the experience. Soon their girl friends, Jason, and parents came up to them as well, shaking hands and giving out hugs and congratulations. Meanwhile the stagehands were setting up things for Heathcart, the next band on the bill.
After their instruments were put away and placed in their secure area, the band relaxed for a few minutes and had some refreshments. Heathcart had already started their set, so shortly the band, and the other teens went over to the stage entrance to listen to Heathcart’s music. The band’s music was mostly punk style in nature, with loud guitar riffs and intense lyrics with a lot of angst and rebellion in them. The band members had the punk look, with body piercings, tattoos, Mohawk hair styles, torn jeans worn with boots and muscle shirts. Their music, stage presence, and look encouraged their audience to let out their frustrations in the cascades of loud noisy sounds coming from the band.
Then it was time for the headliners, The Biloxi Brothers. For this show, they had spent some extensive time working on choreography with their backup singers. Their music was very simple, and the choreography added a dimension to it that wasn’t normally there. They also had some very clever videos prepared for their set. For their song “I’m Calling You, Babe,” they interspersed prerecorded video of Mark and Jonas on their cell phones calling someone to ask them out on a date and describing all the fun things they would do together. Then the video would cut to live camera feeds from the audience showing different girls reacting. Once they realized that they were part of the show, it became a big deal for the girls and they responded with waves, kisses, and body movements. The whole audience got into it as they would see members of the crowd hamming it up, and begging the Brothers to take them out.
The Biloxi Brothers played for about ninety minutes before they brou
ght the concert to a close with several of their biggest hit songs. When they were finished, the audience went wild with applause, demanding an encore. Finally, the Biloxi Brothers returned to the stage and answered the audience’s wish, playing two more songs. Then the audience lights came on, and everyone began the process of exiting the arena.
Back stage, everyone was congratulating the Biloxi Brothers and the other band members for their performances. Everyone was exhausted, and soon were gone, headed back to their hotel. On their bus, Jason sat across from Diana and Daniel. Diana was holding Daniel’s hand and resting her head on his shoulder.
“What was it like for you out there?” Jason asked. “To me you guys sounded totally awesome!”
“It was totally mind boggling to look out there at that sea of faces,” Daniel explained. “Eventually I had to just tune them out and concentrate on what I was doing. It is an incredible feeling to perform for a crowd like that. You really feel like you are making a musical statement!”
Chapter 33
Portland
(Saturday and Sunday)
The next morning, the adults in Daniel’s party had arranged for a group breakfast for everyone in the restaurant. Jason sat with his mom and Gary Holmes to visit with them and get their reactions to last night’s performance. He brought along his laptop computer so he could show everyone the pictures that he had taken so far. Due to restrictions on photography, he couldn’t take pictures during the band’s actual performance, but he had taken plenty of photos back stage and on the trip up to Seattle.
The bus was scheduled to leave the hotel at 10, so after eating everyone went back to their rooms to finish packing and bring their luggage and instruments to a side entrance where the bus would meet them. The trip to Portland was only a few hours long, so they arrived at their Portland hotel in the early afternoon. Now that Daniel and the other band members were familiar with the routine of things, they could relax until tomorrow when the two hour block of time for their set up and various checks would begin at noon.
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