Black Holes & Revelations

2006 ~ Pt 1

(solo @ 2:24)

Toquet Hall was on the second floor above a high-end home decor shop. The entrance was down a narrow alley, up a staircase where event posters and job postings and wads of gum littered the walls. At the top of the stairs was an area just big enough for a fold out table made of splintered wood, a money box, an ink pad, and two overweight moms who sat in fold out metal chairs waiting to take teens' five bucks and press a stamp on their hands.

Usually the teenagers waited in line along the stairwell, which is why they were tempted to give their chewed gum a new home on those walls or draw horns and long mustaches on the faces on posters.

That's what Kate was doing. She turned the lead singer of "The Vestments" into the devil with a forked tail, though she didn't have time to color in the horns before the line started moving again.

After the teenagers paid the moms and got their stamps, they filed through another doorway into a large room with a stage. The lights were always dimmed, there were always balloons trapped in the corner of the high ceiling, and there were always smiley faces and inappropriate shapes finger-drawn on the windows overlooking the street below.

Most of the room was standing-only, except for two brown leather couches. Lucky early-comers had pick of three circular high tables to lean against. They were nailed to the floor and their tops decorated with CDs that through the years people had plucked apart. There were also two vending machines behind the stage, one with Snapple and Gatorade, the other with chips and candy.

It was a dump, but it was the only place for a teenager to go on a weekend night.

Kate and her two friends, Lizzy and Emily, stood at one of the high tables. Lizzy and Emily's after-school activity of choice was theater tech. During the fall's high school production of Our Town, when the stage went dark and the techies ran on in black clothing to change sets, Kate would cup her hands and go "Yeaaaah techies!" from the back of the auditorium.

When the spotlights hit the stage again, Kate put her iPod earbuds back in her ears and turned up the volume of Muse's latest album Black Holes and Revelations because, let's be real — the play was boring as fuck.

Lizzy and Emily dragged Kate to Toquet Hall that night because Graham Mitchell was performing with his band. Not only was he the lead of Our Town, he was Lizzy and Emily's huge crush—along with every straight girl and gay guy in theater club.

"I hate pop music," Kate said in a weak attempt at protesting but she was the only one of the three with a car to get them there and the techies bribed her with free dinner before the show.

Thankfully Graham's band was the first to perform. Graham was the lead singer and bassist and his band was called... Loose Change. The songs all sounded lollipop-summery with catchy choruses that repeated too many times. The guitarist could only play basic chords, and the drummer kept the same beat like he was in a military procession, but Graham had a great voice and knew how to work the crowd.

Kate had more fun watching her friends singing along to every note and shrieking whenever his gaze swept past their cluster in the audience. She waited patiently as Loose Change finished their set and carried their instruments off-stage.

Lizzy was the tallest of the three girls and had the better view of Graham's fluffed-up do behind the speakers, in the "backstage" area.

Emily tugged at Lizzy's sleeve, begging for a play-by-play.

"They're leaving, it looks like."

"Do you think they'll go to Baskin Robbins?"

"Oh my god, yes!"

"Should we go there now?"

"Yes!"

They both turned to Kate and she shrugged, which meant Yes, let's get out of here and go get ice cream.

They squeezed through the crowd, along the hall, and out into the little room where the moms were no longer at their post. The lid to the money box was open, displaying stacks of one and five-dollar bills. It bothered Kate how easily someone could just grab it. It bothered her more than they even had to pay to get in to this amateur concert—even though Lizzy covered her entry fee.

In the nearly silent stairwell down to the alley, Emily reached forward and swiped her finger just below Kate's eye. Kate stopped short—perplexed at the sudden and unwarranted violation of personal space.

Emily inspected her finger. "Hmm, well I guess you weren't bored to tears." (Kate claimed she would be on the drive over to the concert.)

"It wasn't terrible... But I wish I brought earplugs," Kate joked.

Lizzy clucked her tongue. "There are genres of music other than alt rock, believe it or not."

"I know," Kate said. "I just don't love my ears being subjected to it."

Her friends both groaned, which made Kate laugh. The three of them were laughing as they walked out of the stairwell into the crisp autumn air.

Suddenly Kate stopped in her tacks and shushed her friends before she realized she was doing it.

A song was playing somewhere. A song she knew so well it was like an extension of her. She looked up at the window of Toquet Hall above them.

Muse. She was hearing Muse.

"Kate where are you going?!" Lizzy shouted.

Kate had sprinted into the doorway and back up the stairs. She flashed her stamped hand at the empty chairs where the moms were still MIA, and pushed her way through the crowd to the very front of the stage.

There were four boys on stage, but Kate's eyes were only on one—on his fingers plucking the strings of a black electric guitar.

"I'm not breaking down

I'm breaking out

Last chance to lose control."

Lizzy and Emily caught up to Kate and were shouting at her, but Kate was elsewhere.

It was just her and this guitarist, the two of them in a tunnel alone with the most beautiful guitar solo in the universe engulfing them. A tear rolled down her cheek.

This was how she fell in love.