A rockin' Friday night at Satyricon. The headline band doesn't even begin playing until well after midnight. It's Snow Bud and the Flower People, and Klaus is one of the Flower People tonight, on bass. Three other bands have come and gone on the Satyricon stage tonight, but this is the one everyone is here to see. The crowd is so thick, it's solid shoulder-to-shoulder all the way past the room and into the bar and out the door to the street. It is actually packed on the sidewalk outside the club tonight! The entire building is stuffed with people.

On stage, it's all Snow Bud. Everyone in the band has been getting into the spirit by smoking a bong that's four feet long, in the back room. Snow Bud is blazing on guitar, Lance is killing it on the drums, Klaus is really tuned in and concentrating on locking down the groove. The girl he met the other night (she had introduced herself as "Kris's peppy friend") is here, she smiled at him during sound check, he thinks he's getting somewhere with her. It's undeniable that the band is totally rocking. All the heads in the front row, and all the heads behind them, are rocking and nodding in time with the groove. Klaus thinks, "this is a lot of fun," even though the side-fill monitor is so loud in his right ear that it feels like a blinding light.

There's this thing that has been known to happen at Snow Bud shows. There are these dancers (you know, strippers) who are friends of Snow Bud's, and when it gets pretty late in the evening, like after 1 a.m., and they're done with their shows, they swing on by the club. What happens is that one or two girls will get up on stage while the band is playing, and do their thing, dancing to the music and taking off their clothes. So here's this really nice young woman, her name is Darby, she's got this white terry top on and she's getting into her dancing. She takes out a cigarette and lets a guy in the front row light it for her as she kneels on the edge of the stage with her knees way apart; then she blows out the flame of the lighter. It looks cool. The band lights into the next song, which is called "Dick in the Dirt," with their customary gusto, rockin' the house fiercely. Darby starts getting undressed and doing these really suggestive moves. The audience is spellbound. The band isn't missing a beat. Darby is down to a thong about half way through the song. Klaus is thinking, "this is a lot of fun!" and keeps nailing down the groove. It's like, when you have someone dancing like that to your live music, you want to give them a solid groove to dance to, right? Darby is really curvaceous and looks amazing as she alternates between head-banging moves and these sleek, undulating waves. Snow Bud is tearing his guitar apart in a blazing solo, there are undoubtedly at least a dozen guitar players in the audience biting their lip.

Crazy Peg has somehow managed to push and squeeze her way from the bar all the way to the edge of the stage. She is a regular at the club. She's young, blonde, gorgeously beautiful, and clinically insane, like she gets disability cheques. Right now her face is screwed up and twisted up in an expression of anger and disapproval. Her lips are closed but her mouth is moving around. The next time Darby goes down on her knees, Peg purses up her lips and spits on Darby's creamy thigh. There it is, a glob of foamy white spit halfway up Darby's thigh.

Poof! Gone! The magic of the moment just disappears in an instant. The band still doesn't miss a beat, but all the heart has gone out of the performance. Darby picks up her clothes from the stage and runs into the back room while the band is still rockin'. Brummi, the large bouncer, steps up to Crazy Peg and tells her that wasn't cool, then escorts her out the door.

The song ends. Klaus is thinking, "damn! That was an authentic world-class cultural event until that shit."