The next Saturday, the band had two new songs. They decided their cover was Queen’s “The Night Comes Down,” only because Freddie didn’t want to give himself away too badly. Plus Freddie could be able to reinvent some old material that most of the crowd wouldn’t know while upping his hipster factor.
     Sunset Park was filled to the hilt with just about every kind of music fan: the aforementioned hipsters, hip-hop heads, dreaded reggae fans, even a couple of country types walked around in cowboy hats and boots. Freddie and the rest of Gray Fellow arrived through the back entrance, where a shoddy green room area was tented off behind the stage. Folks milled about every place imaginable. A reggae band was covering Bob Marley as soon as they started unloading their gear.
     Once they were backstage, the green room tent was stacked with water and every soda imaginable. “What, no beer?” Boyd said. He was very fond of Pabst, to everyone else’s consternation.
     “I would think you’d have to take care of that over by the huge Miller Lite sign,” Susie said, grabbing a bottle of water. “Besides, it’s not even noon yet.”
     “When did that matter?” Benny said. Everybody rolled their eyes.
     From behind the stage, Freddie was able to see the crowd standing and watching, or sitting in the grass, or just walking around stoned. It reminded him vaguely of Hell, just sunnier and more pleasant to the ears.
     “You look concerned,” Susie said next to him. He started slightly, not realizing she’d been standing there. “Should we be concerned?”
     He looked at her for a second – she’d just cut her long blond hair into a pixie cut, dyed it dark red. It suited her. And then it occurred to him: it wasn’t Benny or Boyd she had a crush on. Fucking Hell, he thought.
     “No, no,” Freddie said, trying to sound as normal as humanly possible. “It just reminds me a little of England. Haven’t played this kind of thing before.”
     “Me neither,” Susie said, sighing. “I hope we’ll talk to some producers or something today.”
     Or something. “I have a good feeling about today, Suz. It’s going to be fun.” Just as long as he resisted the urge to compare this to playing big arenas, he’d be fine.
     They were schedule to play around 1 in the afternoon, which meant they could walk around for a little while, watch some bands from the crowd, get an idea of sound before they went out there. Freddie didn’t want to interact with too many people, which made him feel strange. Usually before shows he wanted as many people as possible to see him backstage so he wouldn’t have to think about going out there until he was onstage. But of course now things were different, and he’d have to wrap his new head around not wanting all that glorious attention.