Wearing her Lollapalooza T-shirt, tight black jeans and no shoes, 18-year-old Serena Bass took the cue from her father and fellow rocker Ronny to start the opening guitar licks of a particularly rocking version of "Tell Mama."
Her fingers—the nails painted blue and reflected in the chrome body of her customized guitar—do the work, and the members of Flatblack jump right in.
It’s just another night of practice for the Palm Valley band, and the group with the Southern rock flavor is prepping to open for former American Idol contestant Bo Bice on Thursday, July 3, at Freebird Live.
It’s not Flatblack’s first time at the Jacksonville Beach venue, it’s their third. And when the band opened for classic rock and country legend Leon Russell, they "brought in a really good crowd," said Tim Hall, Freebird’s talent buyer.
"They’re a newer band that’s doing well, and I tried to reward them with a bigger show."
Hall expects about 500 fans to attend the concert, something Bass, a 2007 Nease High School graduate, is stoked about.
"It doesn’t make me nervous," she said. "I’m not when I have my guitar."
And what a guitar.
Bass custom-designed her electric guitar with a shimmering purple body, embroidered strap and wood engravings of a peace sign and the word "Serenacaster," a play on Fender’s famed Stratocaster.
But it’s her acoustic Alvarez guitar she calls her favorite. It’s the one her father bought for her when she was just 15 years old.
"I showed her a few licks and she took off with it," Ronny said.
Serena also got a few informal lessons from Steve Holland, a founding member and guitarist of Molly Hatchet, who has become a Bass family friend.
But the teenager didn’t want to rock all by herself.
"I was a kid just messing around but then he got back in to it—cause you had to teach me," she said looking at her father. "I thought it was cool."
For the last year, Ronny and Serena have collaborated with singer and rhythm guitar player Charles Duren, bass player Terry Wood and drummer "Doc Rock" Tom Hilton.
Their rendition of Santana’s "Black Magic Woman" and the Rolling Stones’ "Paint it Black" will have you dancing, but it’s their original work that will really impress.
You know a band clicks when they credit a song’s creation to every member, rather than singling out one musician. When "Fallen Angel" begins, the band’s pride is almost tangible, and you have to envy the fun they’re having rocking out.
So what do the band mates think of sharing the spotlight with a teenager?
"She’s talented as hell," Wood said, watching a DVD of the band’s performance at the Seafood Festival in Jacksonville Beach.
Barefoot and wearing what her band members call her "guitar face," Serena is the center of the camera’s attention for a moment, and gets a few yelps from the crowd.
"Nobody expects this girl to get up there and play like that," her father said. "People are just sitting there in awe."
Soon, the young musician will be balancing concerts with classes when she begins her graphic design studies at Flagler College this fall.
She’s already put her skill with the visual arts to work on Flatblack’s album covers and T-shirts—she designed the logo of a fish skeleton sporting Ray-Ban Wayfarers.
Don’t be surprised if you see more and more Flatblack T-shirts on people around the beach.
"We have some regular followers at every show," said Bass’ mother and "band mom" Sylvia. "I just had some people call to make sure they had tickets to the show."
And the band is already used to signing autographs. At the Blue Crab Festival in Palatka, Flatblack was approached by fans and even members of the stage crew to sign the shirts on their back and the group’s demo CD.
You never know how much those signatures will be worth one day.
To find out more about future Flatblack’s show, check out www.myspace.com/flatblacktheband. For the July 3 show at Freebird Live, doors open at 8 p.m.
