NeoNara || TXT || taebin || yeonkai

2013: Sunday, Part Two

2013, DAY THREE
Sunday, August 18, 2013 3:02 PM

Soobin and Taehyun run, hand in hand, to the food tent, where Beomgyu has stayed true to his words and has two plates of fried chicken ready. They eat while walking back to the Sperry Arena, Kai and Shelly along with them. The food stands and the fair rides are still running for now, but Soobin knows it's only a matter of time before everything closes down. A new week is starting, of course.

He notices Taehyun is carrying the plate of chicken with his left hand, so he reaches over and takes Taehyun's right hand in his left. "This okay?"

"For now, man. This stuff is greasy." And they both laugh, interlacing their fingers a bit, then letting go to resume eating.

Sperry Music Arena is still covered in paint from last night's Polaris Rider rave. An entire section of grass is still pink, roped off along with a few wet patches of grass. The rest of the arena is packed full of people. Walking on Starlight is a nationally known band, and their sound is so simple that most everybody could be a fan of it. Taehyun sees senior citizens along small kids hanging from their parents' shoulders. An entire section in front has people in lawn chairs.

"You'll have this many people at a concert someday," Soobin sings to Taehyun, in no particular tune whatsoever.

"Yeah, right." They smile at each other just as the foley music fades away.

While the crowd gets excited and louder, the stage itself is quiet. Taehyun watches as Emmaline Wheaton, the same woman who sang for Polaris Rider's set last night, walks to the middle of the stage. Last night, she had matched Polaris Rider's glittery silver bodysuit with a dress that outshined all of the glowsticks in the crowd. Today, she's back into soft rock territory, wearing a black t-shirt and skinny jeans. She has a white keytar strapped around her body, but she doesn't reach for it as she approaches the microphone.

"What is she doing?" Soobin asks before Emmaline whips out a small, plastic instrument, and starts to play it.

Taehyun is used to an elementary school recorder being a harsh instrument, overblown by third graders learning how to play Hot Cross Buns. But it's been part of Walking on Starlight's sound for as long as they have existed. Most everybody has laughed it off until they have heard Emmaline play, and then they've shut up about it. For example, all she is doing now is playing a simple melody, and she has the entire audience transfixed. Nobody is making a sound. It is almost otherworldly.

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?" Taehyun hears Soobin ask.

"They start all their shows with it," Beomgyu whispers as Emmaline finishes. There is a countdown, and with no warning, they start off their show with the cover they are most known for.

Don't wanna be an American idiot
Don't want a nation under the new mania
Hey can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind --

Emmaline points her microphone at the audience, who all simultaneously yell, "FUCK AMERICA!" Beomgyu joins in rather loudly. Taehyun and Soobin both pass. Taehyun's still not sure about cursing at a concert, but then again...it wasn't Emmaline who did it.

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn't meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones who're meant to follow
For that's enough to argue

Walking on Starlight doesn't play a lot of covers, but this one of Green Day is the one they are most known for. It was this same cover that someone had taped, put up on YouTube, and gotten them some serious star power. Everybody loves it so much that they have to start off their set with it, or else they get nasty letters asking why they didn't play it.