Sioux Falls, SD
DENNY SANFORD PREMIER CENTER
Attendance: approx 10,200 people
Revenue: approx $2.55 million.
Pre-Show:
Dressing room
Lynn hopped onto the countertop. "You wanted to talk about it. So let's talk about it."
Chloe looked around. "Right now?"
"I have to be on a plane to Los Angeles tomorrow morning for some session work. So yes right now."
Chloe huffed. "Are you okay with Beca producing Maniac Carnival?"
"So that's what you're calling it, huh?"
Chloe massaged her temples. "Lynn," she sighed.
Lynn lolled her head back, carefully selecting her words before letting out a long sigh, "Look I really don't care who you choose. If you say she won't take us in a pop direction, then I believe you."
Chloe crossed her arms across her chest, "Maybe that's the problem? You don't care."
Before anyone could register it, the Angel of The Underworld slinked off the counter, "Hey Red, why don't you say what's really on your mind?" Lynn breached Chloe's personal space, which caused the redhead to uncross her arms. Slowly she backed up until she felt her back press against the white brick wall. "Oh, now you're speechless? Come on Chloe, please, say your piece," Lynn challenged.
Chloe narrowed her eyes. "Is this just a job to you?"
"What?" Lynn asked.
"Don't 'what' me?" she bit. "This band, our band, is this just a job to you? Because don't think I haven't heard the rumors about you receiving other offers!"
Now Lynn found herself backing down. She noticed Lily and Aubrey watching her and Chloe's exchange; she curled her fist.
"I'm here aren't I?" Lynn pointed her finger at Chloe. "And don't think I haven't noticed the comparison, Maniac Carnival, Psycho Circus?" she threw her arm up in frustration. "But you go ahead and do what you want. Make the album and feed your little fangirl obsession with a band that was never that good, to begin with." Lynn watched Chloe's jaw drop. "I won't stop you."
"Ahem."
The four women looked over at the door frame to see Stacie, their manager.
"Ten minutes you guys," was all she said before leaving.
The girls figured this was probably as good a time as any to drop it. Aubrey, Lynn, Lily, and Chloe spent the remaining ten minutes in uncomfortable silence in their little corners of the room.
Lynn snuck a couple of glances when she was certain her bandmates weren't looking.
So what if she wasn't fully committed? So what if she wasn't sure if she wanted to keep playing with them? The three of them were a talented group of ladies with a clear passion for this vision, thousands of people would jump at the chance to play with the caliber of talent currently sharing the locker room with her.
Generation II was their band. Lynn was the outsider.
She shouldn't have yelled at Chloe.
She could have handled that better.
Chloe felt a soft hand touch her shoulder while they were walking to the stage. "I'll send you the demos I've been working on," Lynn said, unable to bring herself to fully look at Chloe.
"Alright Sioux Falls!" Chloe yelled into the microphone once the crew member gave her the nod that her harness was secured.
Chloe bounced with excitement because this was her favorite part of the show, the part where the Angel of Fire flew into the audience to a designated platform to perform a song. "I'm coming out there to see you! Are you ready?!"
The crowd roared with anticipation.
"Oh come on, you guys can do better than that. I said 'Are…you…ready?!'"
Once more the crowd roared, louder and more determined than before.
"Alright Sioux Falls, I'll come out there, but I know better than to step onto someone else's turf uninvited. So I need you to do me one little favor and just call my name, and I'll come over! Ready? One…two…three…" Chloe held the microphone over the front row of the audience.
Chloe
Chloe
CHLOE
The crowd chanted. Chloe smiled, she fixed the microphone back onto the stand, she took several paces back until she felt the back of her feet hit the front of Lily's drum riser. Looking to her left at Lynn, then over to her right at Aubrey, Chloe gave the girls the nod.
Dun dun dun dun, their guitars roared to life and Chloe clutched her White Chrome Gibson Flying V tightly then proceeded to run full speed towards the audience.
"Here I come!" she smiled. The arena lit up as Chloe spread out her arms and lept off the stage.
Camera phones, gasps, and awed expressions followed as the woman dressed up as an Angel with massive movie prop quality wings soared over their heads to a sequence of pyrotechnics. Ascending higher and higher among the cacophony of cheers and pin lights from the flashlights of thousands of phones Chloe smiled as she rose above the second tier, she could feel the pull of the wires slowing down as the nosebleed seats came into view.
She requested the stage crew to, whenever it was feasible, put her landing platform on the third level or somewhere far out into the audience.
Chloe never wanted the people in the cheap seats to feel excluded. It was the unspoken mission statement of Generation II.
Everyone, regardless of where they were sitting would get bang for their buck. They paid for a ticket and as long as Chloe Beale, Aubrey Posen, Lynn Varley, and Lilly Onakuramara drew breath they were going to make god damn sure that if you were seeing Generation II, you were having the best day of your life.
Chloe reached the top tier, expertly landing on her feet.
Once she landed on the platform the sound of wailing guitars fused with drums flooded her ears, cueing her in. Her fingers sprung to life and she walked down the narrow walkway strumming along while the crew members and security maneuvered around her path, keeping her safe, and checking to see if any wires got tangled along the way.
Chloe smiled at her fans, then she spotted the one. An adorable red-haired girl who couldn't have been older than twelve.
Her freckles and stringy hair made Chloe smile.
The little girl was mesmerized, and the rock singer couldn't help but see a lot of herself in this girl, when she was just a couple of years older and being blown away by her first concert.
As her solo was nearing the end she strutted down the walkway towards the girl. Chloe noted the child's shocked expression; she was determined to make this little girl's entire night.
Chloe leaned over, as much as the barricade and her security would allow, and hit the child with an immobilizing smile which extended across her entire face, "What's your name sweetheart?" she asked sweetly, extending the microphone out to the girl with one arm while loosening her guitar strap with the other so it would slide off of her shoulder.
The child forgot how to speak so her parents had to give her a soft poke to remind her this was real. This was really happening.
"Sa-Samantha," the child forced out. Chloe found her nervousness endearing, as did her bandmates back on the stage. They loved that Chloe did this at every concert.
"Hi Samantha," Chloe said sweetly. "Thank you for coming out and seeing us."
The child nodded her head, never once breaking eye contact with her favorite singer of her favorite band who right now seemed larger than life.
"I want you to have this sweetie," Chloe watched the child's jaw drop when she slipped off the guitar strap then proceeded to hand the instrument over the barricade to the little girl. "As long as you promise me that you'll play rock and roll and never let anybody, especially any icky boys tell you you can't?"
Samantha rushed forward and Chloe gave a subtle wave to her security, letting them know it's okay. The little girl crawled under the barricade and onto the walkway before diving into Chloe's arms. She crouched down as much as she could given her wings and harness limiting her movement, and let the little girl hug her.
The rockstar fought back tears, almost breaking character because in that moment Chloe thought of her son Connor, and how she failed him.
"I promise," she heard the child say into her body. It was enough to bring Chloe back into the moment. Enough to remind her to push the feelings back down, they had a show to do, and it was almost over. Once they walked off the stage she could open up the floodgates, only then could she let it all out. Not a moment sooner.
The performer hugged the child back, then let security gently escort the girl back to her seat. Chloe watched the girl fawn over the guitar as security handed it to her parents.
Security had to do that because there have been a few assholes over the years who've tried to snatch the guitar from the person she'd specifically designated it to.
"Goodbye, Samantha!" Chloe waved then turned around.
The crew triple-checked Chloe's harness then gave the performer the nod. Taking a deep breath, Chloe picked up speed then dashed off of the balcony to rapturous applause as the audience watched her fly back down to the stage.
Thirty minutes flew by and the show wound down. The band was about to perform the second to last song for their encore before the band would have to bid farewell to their fans.
By this time Chloe had switched back to her main guitar, a custom blue Gibson Les Paul; while Aubrey strummed her Paul Reed Smith bass and Lynn her hot pink Ibanez.
Lynn took the mic. "Alright Sioux Falls, now this next song we'd like to do for you is going to be a cover, we hope you don't mind."
Chloe stepped up next, "So in 1973 four guys from New York City decided they weren't going to play by the rules of rock and roll. They donned makeup and costumes and revolutionized rock and roll forever. I'm talking about KISS, give it up!"
Much of the crowd cheered. The girls noted a few Gen Z'ers were lost but most of the millennials and the older people in the audience knew who KISS was. It took everything in Aubrey and Chloe to not give in to their inner Boomer by rolling their eyes and muttering something about the damn youth of today.
Chloe continued, "They were one of my biggest inspirations. When I saw them with my parents I knew I wanted to pick up a guitar," she paused for the crowd to cheer once again. "We'd like to play one of their songs for you if that's alright!"
The band was met with thunderous applause.
"Alright South Dakota, sing along if you know it!" Lynn shouted.
Chloe played a simple chord.
Burr durr durr nerr durr durr doo duh nerr derr doo dunn dunn doo dunn dunn burr…
Out on the streets for a living, the girls harmonized.
Pictures only begun
Woohoohoo
Got you under their thumb.
Lilly tapped her drumsticks together.
Lynn yelled, "Hit it!"
Chloe repeated the previous riff this time with Aubrey and Lynn synched in while Lilly, the most enigmatic of the quartet belted out
Out on the streets for a living
Picture's only begun
Your day is sorrow and madness
Got you under their thumb
Whoo, black diamond
Whoo, black diamond
Darkness will fall on the city
It seems to follow you too
And though you don't ask for pity
There's nothin' that you can do, no
Whoo, black diamond.
The next day….
Chloe woke the next morning to an abrupt pounding on her hotel room door. Grateful she didn't have a partner or partner(s), to have to exchange awkward pleasantries with, while she fumbled for her clothing, after a couple of seconds she crawled out of the fancy bed and stumbled towards the door.
She gazed through the peephole, before opening it. "Stacie?" she asked somewhat confused as to why their manager woke her up in such a manner.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
"Of course," Chloe quickly ushered her into the hotel room. "Stace, what's going on?"
"You know that little girl you gave your guitar to last night?" Stacie asked pointedly and Chloe's heart suddenly dropped to her feet.
"What happened?" Chloe asked.
Stacie pulled out her phone, "Watch this," she said.
Chloe watched the Tik Tok video of the woman she barely remembered from the other night as the little girl's mother, talking about how their daughter had the time of her life last night only to be heartbroken when some jerks punched the girl's father and stole the guitar that Chloe gave her.
Once the video ended, Chloe felt her eyes mist. "Oh my god! Who the hell does something like that, especially to a little kid?" she scoffed.
Stacie dropped her head, "I know. It's not right."
Chloe chewed on the bottom of her lip for a second when an idea came to her. She grabbed Stacie by the arm and flung open the door of her hotel room. Dashing across the hall the two stopped outside of Aubrey's room; Chloe tapped on the door.
A disheveled Aubrey answered in her pajamas and bed hair, she took one look at Chloe then Stacie and invited them in. Chloe smelled alcohol on Aubrey's breath, but decided to put that conversation on the back burner.
Once Chloe explained the situation, Aubrey was equally saddened. "That's horrible. Why would someone do that?" the blonde asked.
"I dunno, but I have an idea. Aubrey, we're going to have to cancel our plans to see the city today."
"What are you thinking, Chlo?" she asked cautiously.
Chloe turned to their manager, "Stace, have our people reach out to the family, find out where they live. Then call Jarvis and the crew, tell them to bring the makeup kits up to this floor."
Stacie nodded.
Chloe turned back to Aubrey, "Aubrey, we're suiting up!" she smiled at her friend who happily agreed once she had an inkling of what Chloe's plan was.
Once more she turned to Stacie, "Oh, and tell the techs to bring our guitars up here too! We're bringing them with us in the limo."
To be continued…