One
Brandon
Who spentthe day after Thanksgiving at a casino just barely on the Nevada side of the border it shared with Utah, playing video poker?
Far more people than I imagined.
If they were in the casino auditorium with me, they may be smiling more too.Especially once tonight’s show hit the stage.
When Danny and Reese heard they’d been booked in Wendover, they were thrilled.Some big-name bands played in the concert hall here, and their band, Plaid Peanut Butter, would scream for an audience of a thousand.
I thought they should be playing to stadiums with fifty times that many, but what I thought should happen and what their band manager made happen were two very different things.Which was why I was sitting in a room that could maybe hold 200, wasn’t anywhere near at capacity, and a lot of the people who were here had stumbled in looking for a place to sit for a minute.
The lights dimmed and my anticipation grew.It didn’t matter where Plaid Peanut Butter played, I always loved their shows.I was the ultimate fanboy-slash-roadie.Hell, I was fucking a member of the band.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Wendover.”Reese’s voice came over the sound system.“Are you ready torockwith Plaid Peanut Butter?”
I whooped and whistled and clapped, and most of the other people in the room joined in, as the opening riffs toWelcome to the Junglefilled the room, and Danny walked on stage as he played.So sexy.He was a few inches taller than my 5’11”, and on stage that height let him tower over everyone.His short, dirty blond hair was carelessly mussed, and combined with the guitar and faded T-shirt, gave him that perfect bad-boy rocker look.
He wasn’t much of a bad-boy, but I loved the look anyway.
The screaming that bled into the chords was Reese.So were the drums, but those were part of a pre-recorded track.She strode into the spotlight to join Danny, and as he slid into the song, she belted out the lyrics in a voice Axel Rose only wished he had.The outfit she wore on stage was made to draw attention.A long lavender wig, purple glasses and boots, and a leather jacket that hugged her body and showed off generous cleavage.
They always opened with a cover, to draw people into the familiar before mixing their own original music.Reese could cover anyone from Halestorm to Evanescence to Guns n Roses in the same set, but the songs she wrote with Danny blew everything else out of the water—Reese with the music and Danny with lyrics that lit the soul on fire.
In fact, I’d met him years ago when he was singing at an open mic night.The words were beauty personified, mostly spoken to a few strummed chords on an acoustic guitar.I’d been smitten from the moment I heard him, and had to introduce myself.
Was I one hundred percent biased when it came to Danny’s genius?Yes.But I was also right.
The house lights came on full force, and I winced at the abrupt brightness, amid a series of groans.To their credit, Reese and Danny kept playing, but the sound had been cut too.Still, their voices carried through the room.Even without mics, in a brightly lit room, they emitted sparks.
The side doors to the room slammed open, and three police officers strode in with a man in the casino’s branded vest.“We need everyone to stay seated for a moment, please,” one of the officers said.
Two more officers stepped in through each of the other doors, blocking the exits.
That couldn’t be good.
The small group looked around the room, and I couldn’t help but do the same.At least five people were slouched and looking painfully conspicuous in their attempts to vanish into their seats.
The casino employee pointed, and the officers with him nodded.“Gary Rice?”One of them asked.“We need you to come with us.”
Every head swiveled as an officer strode toward a young man by himself.“What’s up?”Gary’s voice shook with the question.
“ID please.”
Gary pulled a blue Velcro wallet from his back pocket, looking paler with each passing second.“Did I do something wrong?”
“That’s most likely between you and your mother.”The officer handed his ID back.“She filed a missing persons report when you didn’t come back on the bus with the rest of your Flight Club.”
Gary laughed nervously, and left with the officers.
I heard several sighs of relief when the doors closed and no one else was taken out.Danny and Reese really needed to start playing better venues.Not necessarily because of the fans, but this entire gig screamedlack of care.Like most of their shows.
“Come on, let’s rock,” I shouted as much for the benefit of whoever was controlling the lights as for PPB.
The lights stayed on.
Several people stood and wandered toward the exits.