Audra waited at the side of the stage with Mason. He didn’t seem nervous at all. He was taking it all in and gazing at his drums with anticipation.
Jimmy smiled at his son, who waved furiously when they made eye contact. Audra accompanied Mason to the stage and led him up the steps to the riser so he could sit behind his kit. He looked at the people in the audience, as if he just noticed they were all there for the first time.
Jimmy went to his son. “You okay, Mase?”
The boy gave him a hesitant nod.
Tommy, Damien and Angel surrounded the riser for support.
“Rock it just like we did at my house,” Tommy told Mason. “Okay?”
Mason nodded again, this time with more confidence. His eyes traveled to Angel and Damien. He tugged on his T-shirt and his eyes rested on his father. Mason wanted to remove his shirt, just like the rest of the band. A laugh rose from Jimmy’s mouth. “You want to take your shirt off like the rest of us?”
“Like you.”
“Okay, buddy.” He slipped the shirt over Mason’s head and handed it to Audra. She whispered something in Mason’s ear and then left the stage.
Everyone took their spot, ready to rock Cyanide Sensation with their newest pint-sized guest drummer. A round of “Awws” traveled up from the audience as Mason settled on the seat behind his kit and picked up a pair of drumsticks. He looked at Jimmy, waiting for the cue to start the song.
As Jimmy clacked his drumsticks together, Mason mimicked him, and they counted off the beats together. It was unexpected, and the band all turned to Mason with smiles, but it filled Jimmy’s heart with immense love for his son.
Cyanide Sensation filled the arena with the fresh sound of twin drummers. Jimmy glanced at Mason, hitting the bass and toms in unison, performing with Immortal Angel in front of a sold out crowd in a country halfway around the world. Jimmy couldn’t describe the overwhelming feeling of pride and contentment that filled his heart.
The moment he hit the last beat of the song, Jimmy threw his stick across the stage and into the audience. He jumped from his stool, grabbed Mason by the waist and sat him on his shoulder. “My son!” he shouted into the audience. The crowd roared back with a massive cheer, which made Mason giggle.
“That’s all for you, buddy. You were perfect! I’m so proud of you!”
Mason patted Jimmy on the shoulder. “You were good too, Daddy.”
Jimmy laughed and hugged his son. They both waved at the audience, and the crowd waved back with rock and roll horns and a thunderous round of applause. Jimmy nodded at Audra at the side of the stage, and she took Mason back to finish watching the show with Aunt Mary in the dressing room.
The last song of the night came with the blink of an eye. It felt like they had just started the show. Ninety-minute sets weren’t long enough anymore. The band’s catalogue of songs demanded a full two hours. Jimmy would talk to Audra about it after the show.
A platform at the opposite end of the arena rose from under the venue. The fans at the front of the stage still didn’t notice, until two lines of security guards opened a path in the center of the room. They created a human barricade with their outstretched arms.
Angel jumped off the stage first. The guy was going to break his ankle one day jumping around like a maniac. Tommy descended the steps on the right side of the stage, and Damien hopped down on the left. By the time Jimmy made it to the arena floor, the fans were screaming so loud Jimmy couldn’t hear Angel who was standing next to him. Another set of security guards circled them while they walked through the man-made path to the platform at the opposite end of the venue.
Arms reached out between the guards and tried to grab any part of the band they could get their hands on. Tommy held his hair in a twisted ponytail pulled to the front to protect it from their grabby fingers, while his other hand guarded his Les Paul.
Girls screamed and guys shouted at direct ear level. It was deafening. They made it to the platform as quickly as possible and climbed to safety. Security dispersed and thinned out to a select few around the small stage, and the crowd quickly engulfed it. Jimmy sat behind the Tama kit, and Damien grabbed his Ibanez. The fans who sat furthest from the main stage now had a front row seat. Their enthusiasm and excitement had them jumping up and down. They yelled and stomped louder than the fans in the front of the venue had all night.
The last song was one of their most popular live hits, Sex & Greed. It started slow and quickly escalated into the rapid fire beats that Immortal Angel was known for. Jimmy hit the drums with so much force, it seemed to propel him off of his stool. It became a nuisance, and he kicked it out from underneath him. He jumped high in the air, and hit the snare with his sticks on his descent.
Tommy and Angel were back to back at the edge of the small stage, but far enough away from the fans’ outstretched hands that they didn’t get pulled into the crowd. Tommy ripped up the guitar with one of his hard-rock infused solos and Angel fell at his feet. He pawed at Tommy’s legs, and directed the lyrics to Tommy’s crotch. Tommy jutted his hips toward Angel, and Angel fell back onto the stage. He began to writhe and convulse, and then it turned erotic. Angel rolled onto his stomach and slithered across the stage. He sang to the crowd while he humped the stage.
Angel sprang to his feet, sauntered toward Tommy and sang the gritty lyrics of Sex & Greed to his lover. Angel taunted Tommy with the raunchy chorus, but Tommy was absorbed in pressing chords into the neck of his guitar and didn’t respond. Angel jutted his hips forward, grabbed his crotch and ran his hand over his pronounced erection. When Tommy still didn’t acknowledge Angel’s overtly sexual gesture, he grabbed a fistful of Tommy’s hair and yanked his head back. They locked eyes, and the heat that transpired between them could have set the room on fire. Angel planted a hard, wet kiss on Tommy’s mouth and ground his hips against Tommy’s leg. He ran his mic up and down the strings of the Les Paul which sent a high wail through the sound system. A few more jolts of his hips against Tommy’s side, and Angel released his hold on Tommy’s mouth. He pretended to wipe ejaculate off of his inner thigh and fling it into the crowd. Immortal Angel shows weren’t for prudes. Their performances were rude, crude, and in your face – and the fans loved it!
The stage slowly began to rise. The fans hollered louder as it rose higher and higher. It finally came to rest eye level with the balcony. Angel turned in a circle, eyeball to eyeball with the worst seats in the house. “Hello, nosebleed section!”
The fans screamed back at him with an elated roar.
He looked down at the floor section at the front of the arena. It seemed a million miles away. “Who has the shitty seats now?” Angel called to them.
Laughter and applause rumbled through the arena. They finished the song, high above the crowd and to a loud chant of “One more!” from the fans.
“I think they want one more,” Damien said into Angel’s mic.
The band was already into overtime. They hadn’t planned an encore, but Damien had the crowd riled up. Audra was going to have a meltdown.
Damien wouldn’t let it go. “I said, the crowd wants to hear one more. Isn’t that right?” They answered him with shouts of “Yeah!” and “One more!”
“I guess that means we’re not done playin’ then. We’re gonna get our asses kicked by production for this, but fuck it!”
Angel pulled the mic away from Damien and covered it with his hand. “Are we really going to do this?”
“Yeah. We are,” Damien said.
Tommy rattled off a quick riff. “I can play for another hour.”
Jimmy shrugged. “Might as well give the people what they want and go down in flames.” Audra was going to fucking kill him, but he was having too much fun and didn’t want the night to end.
Damien broke out in a rare wide smile. He took the mic from Angel, inebriated with rebellion. “I hope no one’s gotta get up early tomorrow morning, cuz we don’t wanna go home yet. I think we can pull off one – what?” He put his hand to
his ear. “Did you say two? You wanna hear two more songs? What was that? Did someone say three? You want to hear three more songs? What about four? Can you stick around for four more songs?”
The crowd was going fucking insane. They yelled, jumped, shouted and stomped their feet.
Damien was still at the mic. “How’s the pipes, Angel? Up for a few more songs?”
Angel surveyed the crowd, making them wait for his answer and the final decision in lengthening the band’s show. Their screams grew louder. After a moment, he slowly nodded.
“All right!” Damien slung his arm around Angel’s neck. “Angel said he doesn’t want to go home either!”
Twenty minutes later, the small stage made its descent to the arena floor. Jimmy stood and raised his sticks in the air as a final salute to the fans.
“Goodnight Sydney!” Angel yelled into the mic. The shouts, screams and cheers from the fans were ear-splitting as security ushered the band back to the main stage.
Mortars went off in succession across the back of the stage while brightly-colored confetti littered the air. The band took their final bow with their arms around each other’s shoulders.
“That was an amazing show,” Angel said. “It’s been an unbelievable journey. I’m proud to share it with each of you. Your talent inspires me. It lifts me high above the clouds. Your music makes me feel like I can fly.” He took several steps back, ran full speed to the end of the stage and leaped into the crowd.
“Angel!” Tommy jumped down into the area between the stage and the railing. Jimmy and Damien followed, worried about their friend’s safety. After Damien pulled the same stunt at Barclay’s Center last year, they all vowed not to stage dive again. It was too dangerous – and here was their singer, lost, ten feet deep into a massive crowd.
Security didn’t know which way to turn. They stood on the small platform at the base of the railing in search of Angel, but the fans at the front were pushing back, overcome by the close proximity of Tommy, Damien and Jimmy.
Fear took Audra’s breath away, and she immediately ran to the pit at the front of the stage. “Do you see him? Is he okay?” she asked Tommy.
“I can’t see anything from down here!” Tommy jumped back onto the stage and motioned for the tech to turn up the lights. He shielded his eyes from the glare and peered into the audience in search of his lover. Jessi was at his side, also searching for Angel. She pointed into the crowd.
“I think they see him,” Jimmy said.
Angel finally appeared, floating on a sea of hands that carried him toward the front of the stage, and security helped him onto the arena floor.
“That was exhilarating!” he exclaimed.
“That was ridiculous!” Audra scolded him. “You could’ve been hurt.” It was bad enough that the show ran almost forty minutes over schedule, but now Angel risked injury to himself or to a fan. She sighed with frustration. This band really was a handful, but they were signing autographs, and the fans at the railing were having the time of their lives. It was Immortal Angel’s first show in Australia, and it would, no doubt, be hailed as one of the best performances of their career.
Now that everyone was safe, she headed backstage.
“Audra! Audra!”
It was coming from two girls who had just pushed their way to the front of the railing. Audra wasn’t used to friendly faces in the crowd of fans, and she gave them a genuine smile.
“Can we get a picture?” one of them asked, holding out her cell phone.
“Sure.” They were asking her assistance in taking a photo, nicely. They probably figured out that if they were nice to her, she’d help them get a photo with Jimmy. Audra was more than happy to lend a hand to decent, respectable fans. She refused to acknowledge the ones who sneered at her and tried to accost Jimmy. She called to Jimmy that two girls wanted a photo with him, when he was done signing an autograph.
“Oh.” The girls were flustered and laughed. “We’d love a picture with Jimmy, but we meant we wanted one with you.”
“Me?” The only thing that surprised her more was the familiar east coast twang in their voices. “Why do you want a picture with me?”
“Because we admire you. We always saw you front and center in the audience at all the local shows. Whenever a photo of the band was posted online or on TV, we always spotted you, and that other girl you were always with.”
“That’s my sister, Kira.”
“We’re sisters too!”
A smile spread across Audra’s face. These two girls reminded her so much of herself and Kira when they were teenagers. “Are you from New York? I didn’t expect to hear American accents.”
“New Jersey. We’ve been following Immortal Angel all over the United States and decided we needed to come to at least one show in Australia. We were both shocked when Jimmy announced you two were engaged. Congratulations!”
“You used to be right here like us,” the other girl said. “And now look at you – tour manager for the band and engaged to your rock star idol!”
“That’s my lady.” Jimmy slung his arm around Audra’s shoulder. “She keeps us all in line. She ain’t a pushover either. She tamed my ass.”
The girls squealed and jumped up and down, excited that Jimmy was talking to them.
Cell phones were suddenly thrust in front of Audra. Everywhere she turned people were taking photos of her and Jimmy together. It was exhilarating and uplifting, especially after taking so much slack from Jimmy’s female fans in the past. There were still a few unpleasant faces glaring at her, but not many.
Jimmy kissed her cheek. “Go take your photo.” He took the girl’s cell phone and nudged her toward the railing. The two girls immediately wrapped their arms around her and smothered her in an uncomfortable hug. Audra wasn’t sure how she felt about the close contact with total strangers, but when Jimmy snapped the photo and they asked her to sign their concert ticket, it inflated her ego.
“See,” Jimmy whispered to her after she was done talking to the girls. “I told you they’d come around. That’s the way you win over a crowd – a few fans at a time.”
The band headed back to the dressing rooms, still reeling from the night’s performance. Angel was particularly high from his leap into the mosh pit. “That was insane! It was incredible!”
“Your set was almost 45 minutes over time,” Audra reminded him. “Do you have any idea how much the label has to pay for that?”
There was that tough business woman again. Jimmy took her hand and swung her arm at his side in an effort to shake some of the tension free. “It was worth it. You heard the crowd. You saw everyone in the pit just now. This is a night they’ll never forget. Immortal Angel made their mark on Australia.”
She didn’t counter or argue, which meant she knew he was right. He gave her his most adoring smile, draped his arm over her shoulder and headed to his dressing room, anxious to see his son.
When Jimmy stepped through the door, the room full of people took him by surprise. “Dad! Mom!” His two brothers were also in the room, stockpiling food from the lavish buffet. Even Kira made a surprise visit. “What’s everyone doing here?”
Kira waved from across the room. “I made the tail end of the show! It was fantastic! Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”
“Is that any way to greet your mother?” Jimmy’s mom kissed his cheek, oblivious to the sweat that covered his body.
Jimmy was too shocked to respond.
His mother gave Audra a hug. “Congratulations. My son couldn’t have picked a nicer girl. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Wilder. I’d like that very much.”
Jimmy’s parents and Audra had met several times over the years, but they hadn’t connected since Jimmy and Audra started dating. Between the back-to-back tours, rehearsals, and their hectic schedules, the four of them couldn’t coordinate and stick to a set date.
“You came all the way to Australia to congratulate us?” Jimmy
asked his mother, still trying to comprehend that his parents took a spur of the moment trip halfway around the world.
“Yes. And to meet my grandson.” Her tone hardened. “I don’t care how busy you are, Jimmy. I want quality time with my grandchild and my firstborn son.”
“I know. Sorry, Mom. It was a crazy few weeks with the tours and Mason. The kid was just getting settled.” He was grateful his mother wanted to be involved in Mason’s life. There was no word on Kendall’s parents, and Jimmy didn’t know if Mason even knew his other set of grandparents.
“Congratulations. Son. Audra.” Jimmy’s dad enveloped him in a hug. “My grandson is a genius, and you’re a remarkable musician, Jimmy.”
“Thanks, Dad. I wish I would’ve known you were here. You could have played with us on stage.”
His father shook his head with modesty. “That’s your music. I don’t play the kind of music you kids like to listen to.”
Mason finally noticed that Jimmy was in the room and bounded over to him. He attached himself to Jimmy’s legs, and Jimmy picked up his son. “Did you meet my parents, Mase?”
Mason nodded really fast. “Gramma and Granpa.”
The rest of the band, along with Jessi and Alyssa burst through the door.
“Mr. and Mrs. Wilder! You finally arrived!” Angel kissed Jimmy’s mother’s cheek with warm affection and shook his father’s hand.
“How did you know they were here?” Jimmy asked Angel.
“Well . . .” Angel tried to hide a sheepish grin. “I sorta flew them out here.”
“You did what?”
“Your mom called me. She was worried about Mason on tour and your schedule. I assured her everything was fine, but when I heard that she never got a chance to meet Mason before we left New York, I couldn’t bear the disappointment in her voice. I hope you’re not mad at me. I thought it’d be a nice surprise.”
Rock Star Redemption Page 26
