The Wages, An Illustrated Story | 23. Songs and Parables | Victoria Park Bandshell

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A black-and-white drawing with some blue, gray, and yellow. Brandy and her band play in a large brick and concrete bandshell in a park. The aqua sky fills the top of the frame. Brandy and her band are spread out on the stage in the distance. Brandy strides across near the centre with her guitar, trying to create excitement. The band is surrounded by large speakers, and a bank of lights on a gantry above them shine as inconsequential yellow dots in the bright daylight. Grey concrete stretches out before the stage, where a meagre crowd gathers or walks past. At left a person with long hair is standing, while one man sits on a folding chair with three other chairs empty. Four people stand in front of him, and six more gather spaced apart in front of the stage. A boy zooms past on a skateboard. Four more people watch at the right with one walking forward. In the foreground a little girl points out of the frame and runs past with a popsicle, while a woman hurries to catch up with her. Beside the woman an older boy wears a Nirvana T shirt, with the knocked-out happy face with Xs for eyes. End of description.

I got the band on the stage punctually, blasted through a sound check, and then let it rip. A few people wandered toward the stage.

Here was what it was all for in the end, and I poured out some feelings into the sunshine. The quick flicker of joy that I craved came and went, but I felt it—the fleeting vapour that kept my mind in order. The release and engagement with the crowd was what kept me playing. That, and the fact that I wasn’t good at anything else.

I strummed my brains out double hard to fill the guitar out, Tommy on the fiddle and mandolin did a commendable job on the solos he took, and Dwight filled his solos with adept beauty on the pedal steel. Joanne’s rumbling bounce on the bass had a moody flavour, while her vocal harmonies were haunting, and Crystal seemed to be working something out on the drums, in perfect tempo as usual, but with a more urgent snap. I thought, of course, this is something else that’s in it for Crystal. Even though she never jumps out in front, she does love to perform, too.

We were fairly well received as things rolled along.

The two angry guys in the crowd had disappeared somewhere, which I was grateful for, so there was no heckling from them. That wouldn’t have happened if I had said anything to them. Not that I can’t shut down hecklers, it’s just not a situation that I try to cook up.

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