Cacophony (PAUSED FOR EDITING AND UPDATES)

2: b e y o n d t h e r o a d

I will wander through your open mind, and you will find, no lie can hide.

  Sydney followed Susan's car about twenty minutes East, with traffic. They ended up at the Rainbow tavern in the U District. As she got out and followed Susan into a back entrance, the woman shot Sydney a curious look.
"I'll introduce you to the guys, but the rest is all you. Once I see how you do and get their opinion on you, I'll make a decision."
  Sydney only nodded, apprehension seeping from her bones. She followed Susan down a flight of stairs and a long hallway, before stepping through a doorway into a hot room full of men she didn't know. She raked her eyes across the room, feeling the inquisitive looks of all four men until one set of eyes stood out as familiar to her. They were the same eyes she had spent all afternoon getting lost in.
"Guys, this is Sydney Lee. She is in the market to be your new tech."
  The rest of the band looked up, giving her a curious once over. She didn't even look like she could move half the equipment. She didn't even look old enough to be in a bar.
"Hi Sydney." They all greeted together.
"Hello." Sydney replied, brushing some hair out of her face as she forced a smile at everyone but the blue eyed man whose gaze she refused to meet.
  She couldn't believe it. He had let her gush on and on about how much she loved Soundgarden without actually telling her he was IN Soundgarden. Both annoyed and embarrassed, she glanced up at him as he approached Susan. To her surprise, he walked right up and kissed her. When Susan kissed him back, it made her annoyance flare even more. How could he not tell her who he was? Or that the woman she was interviewing with was his girlfriend!
  Susan handed Sydney a pass to allow her access behind the stage.
"I'm going to talk to the owner and leave you guys to introduce yourselves. Give her a rundown of everything you need, you've got just over an hour until you guys are up."
"Got it." The man kissed Susan once more before Susan disappeared, leaving her alone with the band.
  Sydney instantly glared into those shocking blue eyes. His eyebrows rose, sensing the anger rolling off of her, but he still had an amused smirk on his full lips that was maddening to her.
"Hi." He said almost shyly.
"You lied to me." She accused.
"No I didn't. I just didn't tell you who I was. In my defense, you didn't ask my name."
"Your name would have made no difference, I don't know any of your names!" She gestured to the other three men in the room, who had all stopped what they were doing and looked confused.
"Do you two know each other?" The only man with a beard asked.
"No." Sydney said pointedly, at the exact same time that he said,
"Yes." After a brief pause he explained, "We uh... ran into each other earlier today. Seems like Sydney here has a knack for that."
"I said I was sorry, and you still should have told me who you were. 'I've been to a few of their shows.'" She rolled her eyes. "Of course you have! And Susan! You told me you had a girlfriend but you didn't tell me that your girlfriend was the same woman I told you I had an interview with!"
"I still never lied to you. I would never lie to you Sydney Lee."  His smile only got bigger which infuriated her more.
"Don't say my name like that."
"Like what?!" He laughed.
"Like you know me! You should have told me who you were before I spilled my whole brain out on that cafe table for you."
"If I had told you who I was, and who she was, would you have opened up to me?"
"Fuck no."
  They stared at each other for a moment, but the tension slowly started to evaporate as his point became clear. As her anger faded into a small, reluctant smile, he shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm sorry. Maybe I should have told you. I just didn't want to freak you out... I enjoyed talking to you and I didn't want to fuck that up. I see you took my advice with Sue?"
  She blushed just then, remembering the way she'd behaved during her interview.
"Um... yeah. I guess you could say that."
"Good. Well I'm glad you're here Sydney Lee. My name is Chris Cornell. I sing, and I play guitar. Kim Thayil is the hairy one over there on our main guitar. Over here on the bass is Hiro Yamamoto. Last but certainly not least is Mr. Matt Cameron. He's our drummer."
  Each of them nodded to her respectively, and she smiled at them shyly after her outburst. She was already feeling like she was in over her head.
"It's nice to meet you guys. I'm looking forward to getting to know your gear. Where should I start?"
"The house crew is setting up most of our stuff." Kim explained. "This pedal is messing up though, and it's starting to piss me off."
"Mind if I take a look?"Syd reached out for his guitar, checking the lines that fed it immediately.
  After a few moments of her plucking at the strings and fidgeting with the stomp box, she unhooked the line and grabbed the edge of the flannel on her hips. Using the shirt sleeve, she dusted the outside of the pots off. Looking into the equipment further, she found dust and oily grime everywhere.
"When is the last time you cleaned this?" She asked.
"Umm..." All four men shrugged, looking like scolded children as they glanced at one another.
  Sydney shook her head in disapproval, turning the pedal board over in her hands. After a few minutes of scrutinizing the equipment, she stood with her hands on her hips.
"Let me guess, you've all been dealing with messy sound and static?"
  All four men nodded, and she sighed. There was likely a lot of work to be done and very little time to do it.
"I need to get a few things out of my truck. I'll be right back."
  She disappeared from the room and all four band mates looked at one another.
"The fuck?"
"She's just a kid."
"Yeah, I don't know. She's the same size as that damn guitar."
  As the other three members of Soundgarden voiced their concerns, Chris stared after her in quiet contemplation. She was bold, he'd give her that. It took a lot of balls to handle a situation like the one she had just endured, and would continue to endure should she actually be their roadie.
"Give her a shot." He said, and his friends all looked at him as though he'd grown a second head. "She wants to be here. She worked hard to get here. Let's see what she's made of."
  They all shrugged in hesitant agreement. A few minutes went by before Sydney returned, looking a little flustered. She barely made eye contact with the band, except for Kim. She offered him a shy smile before sitting on the floor and starting to take his stomp box apart. Matt, Hiro and Chris talked animatedly amongst themselves, trying not to laugh as a horrified Kim watched Sydney completely dismantle his pedal. His eyes got wider with each washer she removed, all the way down to the tiny metal plates inside the cradle. She began to clean everything with a contact solution and cloth she had brought with her.
  Without skipping a beat, she began to reassemble the minuscule pieces into the pedal, replacing the plates, washers, pots and knobs. When she was done it looked exactly the same as, if not better than, when she had started. She plugged the guitar lead into the jack after a quick clean of that as well, and grabbed Kim's guitar. She didn't notice the other three men quiet down as she plucked a few simplified notes from a Zeppelin song. She faltered the notes once, but it didn't seem to phase her as she proceeded to grind right into the chords using the pedal she'd just cleaned. Abruptly she stopped, looking up and grabbing for her cloth to wipe down the guitar strings.
"Sounds way cleaner, right?" She asked Kim, happy with her own work.
"Hell yes it does!" He smiled genuinely, grabbing the guitar Sydney passed to him and digging in to the riff she had started.
  A smile lingered on her lips as he played, watching for a moment and marveling at how effortless he made it look. She could only dream of being that good on a guitar.
  Looking around, she eyed some of the amps and other back line equipment. Wearily, she checked her watch. She had about thirty minutes and an endless amount of work to do. She set about doing surface dusting and cleaning the outside of each jack and lead. While she worked they all went over the set list with her, Chris jotting down a copy for her to have with little notes he thought that would help her during the show. She had the cabinet off of one of the amps, dusting out the chassis when Susan entered the room once again.
"It's just about time. How's it going in here?" She asked, scanning the room.
"Fine. We're ready when you are... right Sydney?"
"Yeah! Just gotta..."
  Screwing the last corner of the scuffed up Marshall amp tight, she had done everything she could have possibly done in the time she had.
"Good to go. You need this all on the stage now?" Her hair was flying in all different directions and there was sweat beading on her temples, but she had a smile on her face that plainly showed that she was comfortable and in her element.
"Yeah. Let me help you." Matt offered, stepping forward to grab one of the heavier pieces of equipment.
  Hiro and Kim followed suit, all helping to set up the stage.
"Tell me more about how you tune your guitar, Kim." Sydney was saying when the door shut behind them, leaving Chris and Susan alone.
"So? What do you guys think of her? Was it bad?" She asked him.
"She's great." He said simply.
"Really?" Disbelief was written across her face.
"Yeah. She uh, she managed to impress Kim the most I think."
"Why is that?"
"You should have seen it. He mentioned that his stomp box was fucking up and Sydney went right over to him and started taking it all apart. You should have seen his face. I thought he was going to cry when she had it in about fifty pieces."
"She did?! Did she fix it?"
"Oh, yeah! Put it back together like it was nothing and the sound was cleaner than it had ever been. Sounded like a brand new pedal. It was pretty sick, he was definitely happy."
"Wow." She said, impressed.
  They didn't have much chance to talk further as they made their way down the hallway toward the stage. It was loud, the sounds of the crowd and the final sound check filling the air. Sydney was already visible on the back line, working like a little blonde hurricane to ensure that each piece of equipment was ready. They both watched her for a few moments as she held Chris's guitar close to her ear, checking the tuning. Setting it back on the rack, she turned in time to see one of the venue guys set his drink on top of one of the speakers she had just hooked up.
"Hey! Get that cup off of there!" She shouted at him, and he quickly obeyed before scurrying off.
"You know, I told her that this was a working interview but I didn't expect her to jump in this way. Guess I shouldn't be surprised... she is one stubborn ass kid." Susan said loudly, leaning close to him so that he could hear her.
"I gathered that." He smiled, leaning toward her as well with a smirk.
  Just then Kim ripped into the intro of their first song. Sydney darted off the stage like a cat on a hot plate, handing Chris a mic that she had readily waiting.
"Have fun out there." She smiled.
  Her smile was strange. It wasn't directed at him or Susan, it was just there. She was happy, goofy happy. She was in her zone, she was excited, and it was transparent to everyone near her. He took the mic, pausing for a moment as he got a feel for tonight's stage. Once his cue hit sharply from Matt's snare, the set had officially begun.
  Sydney watched in awe as they played. Chris stole the show. All eyes were on him as he stomped and flailed his way across the stage, belting out notes that sounded inhuman. To her, it was breathtaking. She thought of her dad, and how much he would have enjoyed being here for this.
  The set was winding down... or up, depending on how you looked at it. The band had all gotten lost in their performance, which was an amazing thing to witness. However, it resulted in a lot of hard worked equipment that Sydney jumped in to adjust whenever she could. She didn't know it at the time, but the band was riding high on how good the sound coming from their speakers was. The whole room held a charged vibe that could be felt by anyone that was paying attention. During the last song, Sydney again felt completely floored by Chris's voice. Chills ran down her spine as his penetrating baritone swallowed her whole, before hitting high notes that could peel skin off bone. Glancing down at the set list in her hand, she saw Beyond the Wheel scribbled at the bottom. Looking back up at him, goosebumps ran across her skin like wildfire as he opened up and wailed at top of his lungs. She was completely blown away at the sound she was hearing come out of this man. He was absolutely incredible.
"He's great, isn't he?" Sydney heard Susan's voice reach her ear.
"Yeah." She breathed.
  Just then she realized who she was talking to. Band manager and girlfriend of the man that was currently taking up all of her headspace. The man she was practically hypnotized by as he continued to assault her eardrums.
"Yeah, he's great. They all are." She said, mocking confidence. "Kim on that guitar... that's fucking magic or something."
  It wasn't a lie... Kim was slaying his instrument. Sydney knew for a fact that they would get along well. Kim didn't move around much on stage, focusing his energy on his guitar and making it look like anyone could do it. However, at the moment she only had eyes for Chris. She worried now that Susan would pick up on that.
"It's surreal to see a band vibe together in the way that they do." Susan shouted over the music.
"They didn't have shows like this back home." Syd shot back, smiling over her shoulder at the woman.
  Susan was torn. This girl was so small and so young looking that she had trouble moving on from that. Yet, the band apparently liked her, and she was obviously knowledgeable in this field. The way she had performed her duties made it hard to believe it was her first night.  She also had a certain stubbornness about her that made it hard to say no.
"You've got the job." Susan said finally.
"What?" Sydney shot back over Chris's volume.
"I said you've got the job!"
"Really?! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
  Sydney wrapped the woman in a big hug before she gained control of herself. Back tracking, she tried to explain.
"You have no idea how much this means to me. I won't let you down, I promise! Thank you-"
"You're welcome, Ms. Lee. Let's finish out the show, alright?" Susan laughed.
"Okay! Thank you!" She said again as the band finished their set.
  The bar wasn't especially packed tonight, which made no difference as far as how much the band had fed into their performance. It had been a killer show, hands down.