Battle Of The Bands Essay, Research Paper

Battle of the Bands

I told you. Didn t I tell you? We re gonna be famous. I had told them and

everyone else that same thing from the day we first played together. Of course, none of

them really listened to me, I was the youngest. Whether they heard me or not I had told

them and now it was happening. Battle of the Bands had finally arrived and it was ours

for the taking.

You re still dreaming, man. We haven t even played yet so just calm down.

Are you guys stupid or something? This is it, our first step towards

fame. None of them could see it, only myself. Why? I knew it from Day 1. Now we

were almost there and they still told me I was crazy. I just could not understand it. When

it was all over they would tell me I had always been right.

The day finally came. I walked around city hall for half an hour looking at the

stage and all the banners and posters. Battle of the Bands was plastered everywhere.

The speakers were huge and stage lights were everywhere. I knew we would put on the

best show. The other nine bands might as well go home now. I couldn t wait.

While I looked at everything being set up for the first band I started thinking of

how it all started. Five months ago I didn t know any of the guys I was playing with.

Now I practice with them everyday. Five months ago I watched MTV and thought to

myself that would be awesome . Now I m going to be in the spotlight while people tell

us how awesome we are. Everything happened so quickly.

Anthony, come on we gotta bring our stuff over to the tent. My dreaming would

have to wait while I helped get ready for our moment of glory.

You think we ll win?

I hope so, but I don t know. What do you think?

How could any of them ask me that? I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that

we would win by a landslide. What a stupid question. Of course we re gonna win. You

guys are stupid not to know that.

Our turn was slowly creeping up and my excitement was becoming tough to deal

with. We picked second to last as our spot. As the highest scoring band in auditions we

had first pick. I started to regret picking second to last because I wanted to go on right

then and there. These bands were nowhere near our caliber. Let s go out there now and

let these people go home a little earlier. I had to do something to take up the time before

we played, so I decided on the best remedy for boredom: I took a nap.

Hey. Wake up. It s time for us to set up. We re next.

Did I hear correctly? Was it really time? I have to find a bathroom or something

and splash some water on my face. I can t believe it s time. I have to make sure my guitar

is tuned. Do I have all the cables I need? First I have to find a bathroom. I have got to

calm down.

How long do we have?

About twenty minutes. Why?

Because I need to find a bathroom and wa-

There s not enough time. We have to take all our stuff up to the stage.

I guess I ll have to live without the cold water. Twenty minutes in counting until

the debut of America s next box office smash. I must have been starting to wake up

because my visions of fame started to come back to me. Who needs cold water now, I

have pure adrenaline.

This is it guys. Let s do what we always do and win this thing.

Yeah, then you guys will see who knew all along.

Like that we were knee-deep into it. Before I could even blink our first song was

in the past. I can t believe we re doing it. My energy surged when I saw everyone

jumping up and down while we wailed away. I knew we were rocking when I saw the

little pit with guys slamming themselves into each other and the volunteer security trying

to break it up. I have to admit, I was pretty jittery before my first solo, but when it was all

said and done I wanted another.

After our second song we encountered some technical difficulties and had to

stop for about ten minutes. Our drummer broke his bass pedal and we had to borrow

another one. No big deal, right? That s what I thought when I saw a couple of guys duct

taping the bass drum to the stage floor. Apparently it was a bigger problem than I

thought.

While we waited for the drum problem to be taken care of, our singer, Eric,

started saying some off-the-wall types of things.

You girls out there wanna see me take off these sweaty clothes. Yeah, you d like

that wouldn t you?

What the hell was he thinking? He s going to get us disqualified. Eric, shut-up.

Either he wasn t listening to anyone but himself or he didn t care about what his

comments could do to us. He knew perfectly well what the rules said about keeping the

show clean. I knew we were finished if he didn t stop talking. Eric. Eric. Finally, he

acknowledged me. Stop saying that stuff, you re gonna get us disqualified.

Chill out, man, I m just keeping them entertained.

Well stop entertaining.

If the drum problem had taken any longer he would have kept entertaining , but

we had to start our next song. On with the show. Things started rolling again and I

completely forgot about our problems earlier. I was in the zone. Besides that ten-minute

delay we had the victory in the bag. No one at this contest could match us.

Time for the grand finale. Eric would tell everyone thanks for coming out to see

all the bands, especially us, and we would blow them away with our last, and by far, best

song.

Hey, ladies, about those clothes coming off what do ya ll think?

That s not what we talked about. Is this kid really that stupid? I knew we would

be disqualified before it happened. What choice did they have? Not just once, but twice,

we broke the rules. I already had my amp turned off and my guitar set down when they

told us we were being cut short. Five months of all my time and thoughts, and now we

weren t even allowed to win. The victory was practically ours but it didn t matter

anymore.

After the disappointment of Battle of the Bands we all had a falling out. I refused

to ever play with Eric again, and with him went the bassist: they were best friends. After

that I didn t feel like looking for replacements. I was crushed. My dreams had been

shattered. The thing I had wanted for so long had been unfairly taken from me by one of

the people I had thought would help me get it. With that always in my mind I couldn t

motivate myself to start another band. Even when asked the following year to join a band

that had already qualified for the next Battle of the Bands I said no. After that terrible day

one year before I wouldn t look at my guitar the same. I would never play again.