Hot Rocks

Life in a village is not for everyone. Those who are not born to it find it insular, impenetrable and boring. “Sleepy Hollow” couldn’t describe Quarabup better in this respect.

Yet, over the years, people have learned to make their own entertainment.

Church fairs became community fairs. A simple dance class becomes a social event at the CWA Hall, not to be missed by young and old. A high school song contest became a community Eisteddfod and in time this became the Great Southern Music Festival – showcasing the best local musical talent in various genres of music. Local businesses offered prizes in cash and kind in return for having their name associated with the Festival.

The existence of this showcase for young talent created opportunities for young people to take the next step from ‘garage band’ – getting gigs at The Eagle Rock Night Club, footy club social nights and even weddings.

The Hollister Thompson All Stars emerged from their garage three years ago and were now in steady demand. Lisa Hollister was the driving force for the band. She carried the vocals with guitar in hand. J.J. Thompson supported with lead guitar and keys as needed. Pete Tinetti had the voice to go with Lisa while he provided the bass foundation. ‘Radar’ O’Neill rounded out the band on drums and occasional vocals. They built up their showmanship on covers, having sets they could do of favourites from each of the past four decades, although they liked mostly covering bands of the noughties – bands they had been ape over in school. As their confidence grew, Lisa and JayJay began writing lyrics and tunes. There was a rawness to their original music that the young set really liked – a bit out there.

As Ellie and Candice arrived at The Eagle Rock they saw that the ‘All Stars’ were on the bill tonight. Aaron said he would meet them there and sure enough, he was hanging just outside watching who was going in ahead of him and looking out for Ellie and Candice.

A DJ was playing canned music when they arrived and the All Stars were setting up their gear for the show. Lights were strobing already and the smoke machine made it look like the olden days before smokers had to go outdoors to get their nicotine fix.

“There’s Trent and the others.” Candice ran over to them as Aaron and Ellie looked to where she had pointed. “Hey guys!” – preceded hugs and air kisses all round.

“You guys been here long?” asked Ellie.

“Nah! Haven’t even ordered drinks yet. Who’s going to mind the table while we go and get drinks?”

“I don’t mind,” said Aaron. “I’ll get mine when you come back.”

A giggling mass of girls with five rather laconic young men made their way to the bar. The club was licensed, but the bar could serve soft drinks to those underage and they were very particular about proof of age when alcohol was ordered. Ellie wasn’t 18 yet, so she and three others kept to the soft drinks. The bar tried to cater for the younger kids by offering classic ‘mocktails’ – non-alcoholic drinks that imitated classic cocktails. It was better money for the bar than straight colas and the like, and the kids who were too young to drink didn’t feel too obvious. It also primed them into the cocktail market when they did reach 18. Such arrangements might not work in the city, but here in the village, where everyone knew who your dad was, it worked just fine.

“What you doin’ here, gay boy?”

Since Aaron left the compulsory environment of school, taunts like this became much less frequent. He generally tried to ignore them and on this occasion he resisted the urge to look in the direction from which it came.

“Hey, Cammo! Nancy Boy from the hairdressers is here.” The derisive tone said it all. It was also clear that the speaker had the attention of his preferred audience. The group of five boys made a semicircle around Aaron while Maggots McGee leaned forward into Aaron’s face with a scowl. “Ain’t no-one else here is a Nancy Boy, so what you doin’ here arse-licker? They only let real blokes in here. How did you get in?”

The commotion caught Trent’s attention. Not sure if Aaron was out of his depth, he wandered casually over just in time to see Aaron stand up and stare Maggots out for a few seconds before saying with emphasis “I came with Ellie and Candice. It looks to me like you came with Cammo, Red Dog, Bananas and Stale Ale. Which of us seems to prefer blokes?”

The Club manager had also noticed the rumble and came in sideways between Maggots and Aaron and said, “Come on lads. This ain’t the time nor the place for aggro. Either pull your head in and enjoy the night like everyone else, or leave.”

The bully Maggots was itching to deck Aaron for his smart arse remark but in the presence of the ‘suit’ his mates had the good sense to make him back out, no matter how humiliating it seemed. No need to waste their fun night on a waste of space like him. They seethed off to the far corner of the club to brood over this humiliation.

Even though Aaron’s heart was pounding with the adrenalin his instincts had pumped into his blood, he remained as cool as a cucumber. “That was close,” said Trent. “You really have learned to stand up for yourself, since you left school.”

“If I don’t stick up for myself, they’ll just walk all over me. Justine told me that and nothing disqualifies my right to go about my own business. I’m here to have a good time with my mates. End of story.”

“I heard the other day that Maggots was on 10 demerit points – he’ll lose his job if he gets 12 and loses his license.”

“He was behind the door when they gave out the brains, I tell you.”

The rest of the mob arrived with drinks in hand so Trent and Aaron took their turn, returning with cans of Full Throttle each.

The DJ did a good job of getting the growing crowd of party-goers pumping with some of the latest dance and rap music. The Eagle Rock had a tag line in all their ads – ‘The louder it is, the more fun you are having’. This certainly was a core value and the crowd who came knew the rules – the louder it got the more excited they became.

By the time the All Stars were introduced everyone was on their feet, the smoke machine had filled the air in ways that accentuated the strobing lights, digital images and mirror balls. They began with an original – No time like now! The techno beat made its mark as the kids formed an impromptu ‘mosh pit’ in front of the playing stage. They used a mix of digital backing and acoustic drums to provide the foundation for it all, and really got the place buzzing. Then they filled out the set with five techno-dance covers before two more original songs.

They changed tempo and style, then, moving into a set of covers that mixed the Beatles and the Stones from the 60’s and 70’s. They had a beefier sound than the originals because digital systems do that, but the energy of these tunes was unleashed with as much vigour as when sung by their original bands.

Lisa brought that session to an end with three originals she and JayJay had only just written – World Premiers!

The DJ kept the room vibrating while most of the crowd mingled and drank, getting ready for the next big set. Maggots and his gang had been keeping their distance during the dancing, but in the break he managed to mingle into the vicinity of Aaron and make it clear that they had not finished with him yet.

The next set from the All Stars was the best they had ever done. They put together a mix of their own songs with covers of great Aussie bands like Daddy Cool, Billie Thorpe, Cold Chisel, AC/DC, LRB, and Midnight Oil. Their tribute to Oz Music was great and really got the crowd pumping.

It was 12.30 before the patrons started wandering out of The Eagle Rock to go home or to the next event with mates. Aaron, Candice Ellie and their mates had all walked – it was a small village, really, and it meant that they never had to worry about drink-driving.

They started walking down towards the river when Maggots and his mates came by in his black Holden ute. It was a V8 with much fatter than standard wheels and exhaust systems. It was his pride and joy and he took every opportunity he had to cruise down the main street when he thought the cool crowd might be watching.

Tonight he and Cammo were in the front, and the other three were in the back, relying on an old mattress to make their seating somewhat comfortable. Maggots pulled up alongside them and they all started howling abuse at Aaron and his friends. Maggots was gunning his engine as if the noise made his abuse more terrifying. Just as the taunting reached a peak, Maggots dropped the clutch and did a humongous burnout. He kept his front brakes on as the back screamed and fish-tailed across the road, acrid smoke filling the air. The wind seemed to blow the smoke back over the front of the car, effectively obscuring Maggots’ view and sense of bearings but he kept on for what seemed like two minutes before an almighty crunch killed the V8 roar.

In this acrid cloud of oblivion Maggots had managed to swing his high-powered pride and joy sideways into an upright fire hydrant, stoving in the side and creating an immediate fountain of mains-pressure water 25 feet high.

Aaron and his friends made sure their amusement at the idiot behaviour of Maggots was obvious before running away down a side street to make their way home from there. Maggots and his mates, shouting more abuse at Aaron and his mates as they retreated, were all saturated as they assessed the damage to the ute. It wasn’t going any further tonight.

As they were arriving at this conclusion, the unmistakable strobing of blue and red lights made their way towards them as the local patrol car carefully parked across the road next to them. Two uniforms got out, stepping back to assess the situation. All of Maggot’s friends ran off – some friends – leaving him to face the music.

“Well, well, well. What have we here? Not such a hot driver as you thought you were, eh, Maggots?”

“Give us a break, Sarge!? We were only having a bit of fun.”

“Looks to me like you were having a bit more than fun, judging from the rubber you just laid. We had three different folks call us – that’s a pretty big bit of fun.”

“Yeh, well, it’s Friday night. We’ve gotta make our own fun around here. Anyway, nobody else got hurt, well, except for that fire hydrant.”

“It’s funny how much a bit of harmless fun can cost you though. For one, your car’s mine now. You can have it back in a month if you still want it. I’ll ping you for reckless driving and that’ll probably see the end of your driving for three months, and I am sure the Water Authority will find out where to send the bill for repairing the fire hydrant. Not a bad bit of harmless fun, wouldn’t you say? Now get in the back of the car while we get to towie for your car and the Water guys down here to stop the water. I’ll drive you home later.”

That old ute would not be cruising the main street for a long time, and if Maggots didn’t lose his job once his license was suspended he would have to acknowledge he had the best boss in the world.