Abney Park's The Wrath Of Fate by Robert Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

attire, myself in a tattered brown tailcoat I found in the previous captain’s closet, Kristina wearing a borrowed (and too small) khaki military uniform, and Lilith looking like we stole her from a harem.
    Musicians from other bands began to crowd around, gawking as we unpacked. I’d been afraid the clothes and instruments would draw attention in a bad way. Now I realized they were drawing attention in a good way.
    As I unpacked my gear, the lead singer from the headline band called The Last Dance came up to me. “I absolutely love your new shtick! The band looks fantastic! I’ve never seen anything like this! Look at that guitar!” Jeff exclaimed, as Tanner pulled out a solid brass seven string guitar, complete with spinning clockwork, and firing sparks.
    “Thanks!” interjected Lilith. “It was really my idea. I’ve been dressing them, and drawing pictures for them to copy…”
    Kristina shot a glance as if to say, “Like hell you did,” but a small crowd was now surrounding Lilith, and marveling at her genius.
    “Of course, I didn’t write the music. Honestly, the music sucks. Its not what I’m into at all,” Lilith said casually, adjusting her small breasts in her corset in a very intentionally revealing way.
    Still, I was just thrilled all these musicians liked it. I was afraid the result of our homemade gear, and make-shift clothing would be laughter, or even worse. But people thought it was a new feature. “Um, yeah. We’ve got a new gimmick. You like it? And wait till you hear how our songs have…changed.” This was a perfect cover. We have a new gimmick! Meanwhile, after the one rehearsal we fumbled through this morning, I was not confident we could sound anything like what was expected of us.
    “I’m a bit curious myself as to how they will turn out,” I mumbled this last bit to myself.
    A huge, burly man with a tattooed neck and triple pierced nose appeared in the doorway. “Abney Park, Five minutes,” he growled at me.
    We headed onstage, dragging our own gear. Copper guitar amplifiers, a two-hundred-year-old violin, rusty brass resonator mandolin, a bass guitar with copper tentacles coming out the sides, and synthesizer with tesla coils firing in the center.
    The audience stood baffled and confused, and silent – but at least they hadn’t left!
    The first song began. It was an old guitar driven piece I wrote years ago called “The Death of the Hero”, but this time the guitar rhythm was replaced with violin, sounding more like a gypsy dance, than a rock song. Lilith spun and twirled, and writhed to it, and soon the audience was jumping in beat to the Sufi-style rhythm.
    Then onto a bit I had written the day before: a song about an airship full of pirates, sneaking into town stealing parts for their ship. Again, instead of guitars, it lead in with a mandolin, and puff organ duet between Kristina and Tanner. It was rapid fire, unexpected, and the audience was going wild! This new gimmick as they saw it was so fresh, so novel, and so thorough! “I almost believe it,” they told themselves. “Its like I can hear a story running through the lyrics, song for song!” they said to their friends. We just smiled nervously, played our music, and hoped they didn’t figure it out, which of course they never could. People have a hard time departing from what they know to be true, and this couldn’t be true.

    After the show, and several encores, the crew and the audience were buzzing with excitement over the concert. They loved the high energy of the music, the excitement of being in a strange place at a strange time, and the thrill of being onstage.
    Again Lilith stood in a crowd of fans taking credit for our changes, as the rest of us packed up our heavy equipment. The fact is, onstage she didn’t do much more then swing her hips, but the fans enjoyed it so I had no complaints.
    This was the crew’s first exposure to the Twentieth Century, and modern music; and this was the Twentieth