With a swipe of his middle finger, Jake turned the volume on the guitar all the way up. He was now live. He turned back to his band, who, by now, had all taken their positions. He looked at each one of them individually to make sure they were ready to start, doing it quickly, less than a half second per member. First Lenny, then Ben, then Ted, then Phil, then Pauline gave him a nod, indicating all systems go (though Pauline’s nod was markedly hesitant and unsure). He then looked back at Ted again and gave him a thumb’s up. Ted nodded once more and gave a four count by tapping his drum sticks together. On the count of four, they launched into their opening number: Can’t Keep Me Down, the hard driver from Jake’s first solo album.
The roar of the crowd picked up in enthusiasm and decibel level when they heard the distinctive intro chords being hammered out by Lenny and supported by strong strikes on the toms from Ted. They played the intro out to completion and then let the last note fade almost to silence before Jake jumped in with his part, strumming out the primary melody with mild distortion that was just a few steps above clean. They played this out through three repetitions, all of them moving with the beat and getting their groove going. The tune used the varying tempo technique that Jake employed so often on his material. After the third rep of the primary melody, they shifted to a slower tempo, but a more powerful melody and rhythm and Jake began to belt out the lyrics that declared he could be abused, could be knocked down and dragged out, but he would always get back up again and emerge stronger from the experience. The lyrics came out of his mouth naturally, with perfect timing and in key to the music, just as if he had practiced a thousand times over the past few months—which he had. He felt his stage fright slipping away as the dopamine and endorphin release that came from performing well began to surge through his body. In the stagefront seats that he could see, he saw nearly everyone singing along with him. His eye caught a particularly buxom and attractive young women who was probably not even old enough to legally buy beer. She gave him a smile and pulled her shirt up, revealing two gloriously bare breasts capped with huge nipples. He smiled as he saw this, thinking it’s been way too long since I’ve done this last.
They reached the first chorus and the tempo switched back up. Jake sang out the words:
You can’t keep me down, no matter how you try
I will stand back up, I will stand back in.
No, you can’t keep me down, you can’t take me out
I may lose a battle, but the war will still be mine
As he sang the chorus lines, Phil and Pauline joined him, giving him soprano and baritone support. Jake smiled again as he heard his sister’s voice mixing with his. She performed her part perfectly, just as she had on the original recording of the tune and just as she had during their rehearsals. Though she had never had any vocal training other than what Jake and Celia had given her, she sounded like a professional.
After the chorus, they switched tempo again for the second verse. Jake continued to play out his parts on his guitar, the fingers of his right hand strumming, the fingers of his left hand fretting automatically, without conscious thought, while he sang into the microphone. He expounded upon his theme of self-liberation and then they ran through the chorus once more. After the second chorus, they played out the bridge, Jake hammering out short, poetic diatribes about those who would try to keep him down while Phil and Pauline hummed angrily in key behind him. After this, there was a final verse, another tempo change, and then three repetitions of the chorus. After the third rep, the outro guitar solo began. On the studio recording, Jake had played the solo (Celia had actually played the guitar parts he was playing now) but had not taken credit for it. Lenny played it now, stepping forward to the edge of the stage and perfectly imitating Jake’s notes with just a little personal phrasing of his own. The crowd cheered for him as he played, most of them nodding their heads in time to the beat.
In the studio version of Down, the outro had faded out. That was obviously not an option when performing live so they had rehearsed up a new ending to put the tune to rest. They played it out now, Jake and Lenny both stepping up, shoulder to shoulder, and hammering out a blistering finale that was accompanied by the pounding of Ted on the drums before cutting off abruptly and letting Lenny’s final note fade out.
The roar of the crowd washed over them once again, the loudest they had heard so far. Jake and Lenny both flipped their guitar picks into the crowd, creating minor scuffles for possession of them where they landed. They walked back to their stations and pulled new picks for the next number, which would be Hit the Highway, Jake’s song about his breakup with Helen, another of his top hits. G came trotting out and sat down in front of his keyboard set, hat and sunglasses firmly in place. Since the cheers remained at the same level, it seemed reasonable to believe that no one had recognized him. If they noticed anything at all, it was just that—as G himself put it—some anonymous brother had come out to play a little keyboards for Jake.
Celia and Obie sat together in folding chairs in the third row of the special VIP section just in front of the stage. Both were drinking draft beer from large plastic cups and having quite a good time so far. The SVIP could accommodate about two hundred people and was pretty much full to capacity. All of the musicians and their special guests for the entire festival had access to it. Most of the other people in the section, Celia did not know. A few she had only met today. There was Jessie, Lenny’s girlfriend, sitting a few seats over. There were the two men that Phil had invited (she had already forgotten their names). There was Mark, Natalie’s husband, and their copilot on the first Celia Valdez Tour. He was sitting on Celia’s left. Suzie had been invited but had been unable to make it (which was a bummer because Celia was approaching the line again with her horniness). A few of Ted’s paramedic friends were sitting just in front of them and had been in those seats all day (and were quite intoxicated). Ben Ping’s wife was sitting just to the right of Obie (and seemed very awed to be in his presence) and, interestingly enough, Rabbi Levenstein, who had married the Nerdlys in Heritage and presided over Kelvin Archer’s circumcision, and his wife were present as well, sitting next to Ben’s wife, both of them dressed in ratty jeans and Intemperance concert t-shirts.
Celia was genuinely enjoying the show so far. She had, after all, played a major part in the production of all of Jake’s music, had played the rhythm guitar on the opening song in the studio when it had been recorded. She had sung along with the lyrics and swayed to the rhythm all throughout Can’t Keep Me Down. And now, as they launched into Hit the Highway, she smiled and began to sing along with that as well. Jake had played both rhythm and lead on the recording of the song, but she had played the lead parts throughout their initial workups of the tune and she knew every note intimately. She played air guitar as she sang along, her fingers fretting imaginary strings in perfect synchronicity with Lenny.
Obie was also enjoying himself. He was dressed in jeans and a tank top that showed off his upper arm tattoos. He had his signature cowboy hat upon his head and his full beard was neatly trimmed for the occasion. He sang along as well. Though his love was primarily country music, classic country in particular, he had a strong affection for any music that was well done and well-engineered. And Jake’s tunes most definitely fell into that category. He even liked the stuff that Jake had done with Intemperance, though only Jake’s tunes, not Matt’s. And, as he sang along and considered the huge crowd of the TSF and the amount of money that Music Alive was making for this shindig, the business part of his mind began to ponder if maybe a country music version of the show could be arranged and if maybe he had the balls to pull it off.