The crowd appreciated this sentiment and showed Jake that with more cheers.
“Now then,” Jake said, giving his guitar a quick strum; partly for theatrics, but mostly so he could hear how it sounded. It sounded good. “You’ll notice that I came out here alone to open up the second set. Don’t worry. I’m not taking over G’s show or any kind of shit like that. It’s just that G and the band are back there tokin’ up on a fatty they just rolled and they asked me if I could come out here and keep y’all entertained for a few minutes while they finish their business.”
More cheers erupted, mixed with playful laughter.
“So ... let’s see if I can do that,” Jake said, strumming the guitar again.
He then launched into an acoustic solo that showed off his skills with the instrument. It was partially rehearsed, partially improvised. It started slow and then gradually picked up tempo into a complex mix of chords and chord changes, fingerpicking and strumming. The audience liked what they were hearing and were soon clapping along with the beat he was setting. He built the solo up to a crescendo and then brought the tempo back down to seemingly random strumming once again. He then worked that into the opening melody of Step Inside.
The cheers washed over him again as the audience heard the familiar melody being played. They cheered even louder when G and the rest of the band came out onto the stage and took their own positions. Jake went through the opening melody six times, four more than on the studio version of the tune, so everyone would have a chance to get their instruments set and ready to play. He played the sixth rep with an extra flourish of the E string as he finger picked it out. This was the cue for the rest of the group to pick up the main part of the song after the rep.
They did so, just as cued. Rickie began to spin the turntables while James and Fro started plucking their bass guitars. The drums kicked in. And then G started to sing about how everyone should just try to Step Inside another’s head and see things from their point of view. They played the song pretty much just like the studio version, with the exception of the extended intro melody and a more complex strumming of the acoustic guitar during the bridge. The crowd seemed to appreciate these minor enhancements and they gave Jake a standing ovation when he exited the stage.
Jake sat back down and watched the rest of the second set, nodding to the beat on the songs he knew, sometimes even singing along when he knew the tune well enough to do so. G closed out the set with Got Your Sellout, his runaway hit from the Down With It CD. He strutted across the stage, grabbing his crotch every time he rapped the phrase “Got your sellout right here!” and then, when the tune abruptly came to an end, he told the audience thank you and good night, dropped the microphone to the stage, and then he and the band walked off.
Of course, that was not the end of the show and everyone out there knew it. They immediately began shouting and stomping their feet, creating a tremendous noise as they demanded more and more and more.
G and the boys gave them more. They went back out on the stage and performed Grind It All Night, the biggest hit from the last CD after Step Inside. As the song wound down, Jake stood up again and picked up the Les Paul. Bark plugged him back in. Jake was still a little unsure about what they were about to do, but G had insisted.
“All right, go!” Bark barked at him as the crowd cheered the end of Grind.
Jake went, stepping back out onto the stage with a wave to the crowd. They cheered louder when they saw him, even louder when they saw that Mackie, James’ personal assistant, was carrying a Brogan electric six-string out as well. Mackie took James’ bass guitar from him and plugged the Brogan into his transmitter. James immediately tested the guitar by grinding out a quick power chord that reverberated through the arena. This generated even more cheers.
G came over, microphone in hand, and put his arm around Jake’s shoulders. “Do y’all wanna hear another song by this motherfucker?” he asked the crowd.
The crowd’s cheers indicated that they did. But did they really? He guessed they would find out in a minute.
Jake stepped up to his microphone and stepped down on the left pedal again. He then looked out over the audience. “This is one of my songs off my last CD,” he told them. “While G and I and the band were putting together I Signed That Line in the studio, I got the opportunity to hang with James quite a bit. Now you all know that he’s a badass bass player—one of the best I’ve ever had the chance to play with—and, if you saw any of the footage from the last Bigg G tour, you know he can strum an acoustic guitar with the best of them as well. But did you know he can shred an electric guitar too?”
The crowd cheered as James stepped forward to stand next to Jake at the microphone.
“During some of the breaks in recording,” Jake went on, “me and James would take out our guitars and start playing some tunes together. And then, one day, he mentioned to me that he really liked my song Ocean View and he wanted to play it with me. And so, we started playing around with it and pretty soon, the other guys were stepping in as well and it evolved into what we’re gonna play for you right now.” He looked at the band. “Let’s do it, guys.”
“All right!” G said into his microphone. “Ocean View, by Jake Kingsley, with James motherfuckin’ Whitlock on the lead guitar!”
The cheers sounded out and Jake began to play the opening riff of the song. He sang out the lyrics, talking of his hatred of LA, his desire to move to a place where he could see the ocean, could smell the salt, could be at peace. James kicked in with lead just after the first verse, during the chorus, and the crowd went wild as the two guitars dueled with each other. And G jumped in as well, singing a double track for the end lines of the verses and full duet for the chorus. Rickie even threw in some turntable fills that plugged in perfectly to the tone of the tune.
Ocean View was one of Jake’s harder rocking solo tunes, composed with a building musical and vocal intensity. With each successive verse, the lead guitar grew louder, more powerful, more authoritative, and James (after more than twelve total hours of rehearsing the tune in the previous weeks) played the part to perfection. He then launched into the solo, emulating it exactly in notes but imparting his own, unique phrasing. While they played, Jake and James faced off against each other, giving the audience the impression they were involved in a friendly, but heated guitar competition. All the while G danced and sang behind them, belting out his portion of the harmonies and fills.
By the time the tune came to an end, Jake was sweating freely and his heart was happy. They ended the song and he gloried in the applause that washed over him once again.
This time, Jake and James exchanged a complex handshake and then G came over and gave Jake a hug. The hug was unplanned and unrehearsed, making it all the more meaningful.
“Jake Kingsley!” G said when he released the embrace. “Thanks for coming up here tonight, Jake!”
Jake raised his hand to the audience as he walked off the stage. Already he was looking forward to the show in Portland.
Jake and Laura had a few drinks with G and Neesh and the band after the show, but both of them stayed relatively sober. They went back to their Granada Hills house before the party moved to G’s house in Malibu. Though it was tempting to go join the festivities, Jake wanted to be back in Coos Bay by one o’clock the next day. It would be Sunday and he wanted at least one afternoon and evening of doing nothing before going back to the recording studio and the grind on Monday morning.