Becoming

Public Enema Number One

At Long Beach Arena, the kids and women left for the auditorium in time for the support band's set, all of Maiden laughed to see Emppu changing into his Janick's Favourite Armrest t-shirt.

"Blimey, you're actually gonna wear that onstage?" Janick asked, grinning.

"Why not?" Emppu countered. "I am your favorite armrest, right? I'm sure someone will manage to get a picture of us, with you leaning your elbow on my shoulder in the same pose that's on the shirt."

"True enough," Jan agreed with another laugh. "Sandra will appreciate you wearing it onstage, seeing as she designed it."

"Maybe she'll be the one to get the picture, then," Emppu said with a grin. He moved to his usual spot in the wings and Bruce wrapped his arms around him, the two exchanging soft murmurs.

Dave smiled, watching them. "Hope they'll be okay, what with this being the first show since all the shite with Jones happened," he commented to Ade.

"Bruce'll keep an eye on his lad," Ade said. "So will I, and I bet Jan will too, since Emppu stands in the wings on his side of the stage."

"True enough," Dave agreed. The sound of a Spitfire's engine roaring to life, followed by the opening words of Churchill's speech sent them running to their marks to start the show.

They all noticed Bruce glancing towards his partner much more frequently than he'd done in previous shows, but no one could blame him. Then as Wasted Years came to a close, Bruce told the audience, "Southern California is bloody beautiful this time of year. So beautiful, we came out here nearly a week early and went to Disneyland!" He paused as the crowd roared their approval. "Well, we couldn't keep all the Disney magic to ourselves, so we all sent for our kids to join us there, and they're all here tonight." He grinned and waved in the kids' direction.

Someone working FOH lowered one of the boom mics catching crowd noise, just in time to pick up the shouted chorus of, "Hi, Dad!" from the VIP section where all the family members sat. All the other band members also waved in the direction of their kids.

Bruce went on with his schtick. "Now of course, we couldn't just bring the kids, we had to bring our other halves as well... including mine... and we're gonna bring him onstage tonight. Long Beach, scream for Emppu Vuorinen of Nightwish!"

Emppu ran out to cheers and the usual greetings from the guys. Dave grinned when he noticed people in the front laughing and pointing at Emppu's t-shirt as they launched into The Trooper, and caught the camera flashes when Janick once again rested his elbow on Emppu's shoulder. When the "Kiss, kiss, kiss," chant started, Jan grinned and played the opening riff of Rock and Roll All Night before Bruce wondered aloud what everyone was consuming to confuse Maiden with the makeup-wearing band. Someone changed the chant to, "PDA! PDA!"

"Well, if you insist," Bruce said, then pretended to be startled by the enthusiastic roar from the crowd. He draped his tunic over Emppu's shoulders and pulled him in for a tender kiss.

Emppu grabbed the mic to say, "Thank you, Long Beach! Up the Irons!" He headed back offstage after exchanging high-fives with Steve and the guitarists.

They finished the show without incident, then sluiced off before heading to the scheduled meet'n'greet, where their families joined them. The meet'n'greet proceeded as usual, with just one surprise. Matti from Disneyland turned up for it, and after greeting the members of the band, spent the rest of the time speaking with Tasha, much to Dave's consternation and Steve's amusement.

"If you think that's bad, how do you think I feel, with Lauren having her own band and all?" the bassist commented to Dave. "At least there's only one lad chatting up Tasha, not twenty or thirty!"