her know . . . They all jumped in the air and came down on the first line of “Do You Love Me?” by the Contours, and they gained some of the crowd back. But they finished a little wimpy, and then the lights went down and an absolutely black night descended. The stars were shining over New York City for the first time since World War II, and Vinnie said, “Ten minutes, folks!” and guys went over to piss against the walls or add to the consolation-prize bottles.
It was like halftime in the locker room with the score Green Bay 146, You 0.
“A cheap trick,” said Zoot. “We don’t do shit like that.”
Leroy sighed. “We’re gonna have to,” he said. He drank from a Coke bottle one of the Purple Monsters had given him. “We’re gonna have to do something.”
“We’re gonna have to drink pee-pee, and then Vinnie’s gonna denut us, is what’s gonna happen.”
“No, he’s not,” said Cornelius.
“Oh, yeah?” asked Zoot. “Then what’s that in the bottle in the clubhouse?”
“Pig’s balls,” said Cornelius. “They got ’em from a slaughterhouse.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know,” said Cornelius, tiredly. “Now let’s just get this over with so we can go vomit all night.”
“I don’t want to hear any talk like that,” said Leroy. “We’re gonna go through with this and give it our best, just like we planned, and if that ain’t good enough, well, it just ain’t good enough.”
“No matter what we do, it just ain’t good enough.”
“Come on, Ray, man!”
“I’ll do my best, but my heart ain’t in it.”
They lay against the loading dock. They heard laughter from the place where Bobby and the Bombers rested.
“Shit, it’s dark!” said Slim.
“It ain’t just us, just the city,” said Zoot. “It’s the whole goddamn U.S.”
“It’s just the whole East Coast,” said Ray. “I heard on the radio. Part of Canada, too.”
“What is it?”
“Nobody knows.”
“Hey, Leroy,” said Cornelius. “Maybe it’s those Martians you’re always talking about.”
Leroy felt a chill up his spine.
“Nah,” said Slim. “It was that guy Sparks. He shorted out the whole East Coast up that pole there.”
“Do you really believe that?” asked Zoot.
“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
“I believe,” said Lucius, coming out of nowhere with an evil grin on his face, “that it’s show time.”
They came to the stage running, and the lights came up, and Cornelius leaned on his voice and: “Rabbalabbalabba ging gong, rabba/abbalabba ging gong,” and the others went “wooooooooooo” in the Edsels’ “Rama Lama Ding Dong.” They finished and the Bombers jumped into the lights and went into: “Domm dom domm dom dobedoo dom domm dom dobedoobeedomm, wahwahwahwahhh,” of the Del Vikings’ “Come Go With Me.”
The Kool-Tones came back with: “Ahhhhhhhhanhhwoooowoooo, ow-ow-ow-owhwoo,” of “Since I Don’t Have You,” by the Skyliners, with Slim singing in a clear, straight voice, better than he had ever sung that song before, and everybody else joined in, Leroy’s voice fading into Slim’s for the falsetto weeeeooooow’s so you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.
Then Bobby and the Bombers were back, with Bobby telling you the first two lines and: “Detooodwop, detooodwop, detooodwop,” of the Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes for You,” calm, cool, collected, assured of victory, still running on the impetus of their first set’s showstopper.
Then the Kool-Tones came back and Cornelius rared back and asked: “Ahwunno wunno hooo? Be-do-be hoooo?” Pause.
They slammed down into “Book of Love,” by the Monotones, but even Cornelius was flagging, sweating now in the cool air, his lungs were husks. He saw one of the Bombers nod to another, smugly, and that made him mad. He came down on the last verse like there was no one else on the stage with him, and his bass roared so loud it seemed there wasn’t a single person in the dark United States who didn’t wonder who wrote that book.
And they were off, and Bobby and the Bombers were on now, and a low hum began to fill the air. Somebody checked the amp; it was okay. So the Bombers jumped into the air, and when they came down they were into the Cleftones’ “Heart and Soul” and they sang that song, and while they were singing, the background humming got louder and louder.
Leroy leaned to the other Kool-Tones and whispered something. They shook their heads. He pointed to the Hellbenders and the Purple Monsters all around them. He asked a question they didn’t want to hear. They nodded grudging approval, and then they were on again, for