The entire arena is completely pitch-black dark for a few seconds, before an assumed grainy black and white video starts flickering on and off on the screens, as static and distorted voices are heard through the PA system. It progressively begins to clear up, until it shows in bold letters on the screen; MARCH 3rd 2010. The grainy black and white video starts to show Ryan Ross Hernandez during a show in Madison Square Garden on March 3rd, 2010, when he apologized for his infamous Rolling Stone cover story interview of March 2010.

"In the quest to be cleaver, I completely forgot...
... about the people that I love and the people that love me.
And feels absolutely terrible."

Was the excerpt taken from that apologetic speech he made that night, zooming in on the tears that were filling his eyes at that moment. Then a variety of video and audio clips are intertwined together, taken from different media outlets reporting on Hernandez's controversy, creating a mass rumble of audio. A few are highlighted, as one clip of a CNN analyst speaking of the incident. "This interview in Rolling Stone just really crossed all different sorts of lines. Even people we supported Ryan for some of the crazy things he said in the past were kind of shocked." From there the distorted audio and video ends, the screen going black and the audio ending. The quietness shortly ends when audio clips start playing again, this time more clear and in single form. From each clip a bold excerpt is taken from them and displayed on the screen. Each word or phrase flashed on the screen. Such as, "racist," "misogynist," "kiss-and-tell," "homophobic," "douchebag," "attention whore". The round of clips ends with a commentary saying over the PA system:

"Ryan Ross Hernandez has committed career suicide. It's over for him. As a musician, as an actor, as a writer. He buried all his talents simply because he can not keep his mouth shut."

The screen now displays the date NOVEMBER 22nd, 2010. The date marks the day that Hernandez's commercially and critically successful album, Let a Man Be Lost. A bright finally shines onto the stage, presumably using it as a sign of sunlight at the end of the tunnel, after the darkness. The audio excerpts heard are such as, "Rolling Stone raves," "Another number one single and album for Ryan Ross Hernandez," "The best mainstream album in over a decade," "A deep study in musicology," "The album of the year, and until Hernandez's makes another record; the album of the decade." The same voice of the female commentator before, is heard once again:

"Ryan Ross Hernandez has made a comeback from being the most hated man to the most beloved. And he accomplished it by providing people that he is one of the best musicians we've heard of in the last ten, twenty, thirty years."

The audience is now ecstatic to finally see and hear Ryan Ross Hernandez. More lights appear on the stage, all dim down and centered right on the middle of the stage. The circular platform starts to spin and raise, slowly giving the audience sight of the singer's six-foot figure appearing. As it continues to rise, the crowd see Hernandez dressed in a black leather jacket, with a butted up white collar shirt underneath, and a black pair of pants. He has his signature custom wooden red-ish Martin D-18 large body dreadnought acoustic guitar in hand, as a microphone is perfectly placed to match his height on the stool. Now that the audience at hand gets a full view of him, they applaud and cheer. He begins to play a riff that the crowd is largely unfamiliar with. The riff is smooth and gentle, it has an almost soulful quality to it. After about twenty-some seconds of just the riff playing, he steps an inch forward and beings to sing.

Ryan:
Said I don't wanna hurt no one
Said I don't wanna hurt no one
Said I don't wanna hurt no one, no one, no one
Especially not you
But I still got some running to do
No, I still got some running to do

Hernandez sings over the soulful riff, in a slightly lower tone than his usual falsetto voice. No one has heard this seemingly new song before, and are mostly left blank faced. Nevertheless, Ryan continues playing the riff, having a barely audible piano-based motif comprising a series of sustained descending half and whole notes, begin playing in the background.

Ryan:
Let a man be lost
For once in his lifetime
To live out his whole life
All in a night's time
To sit in his home life
And stare out at the skyline
Know that he's got plenty of time
Left in his lifeline
Left in his lifeline
Left in his lifeline
All in a night's time

Ryan starts to sing louder as the verse progresses along. The piano notes intertwine between verses, from being loudly heard to barely heard behind the riff Hernandez's is playing. After a few seconds, the piano fades away and he starts singing again in a much softer tone, near-whisper almost.

Ryan:
Then maybe I won't screw it up too bad
If I can live my whole life in a night's time
If I can just live my whole life in a night's time
All in a night's time



He finishes it off singing the last line a capella, and the crowd is reeling knowing that Hernandez's will finally dig in to the songs they know from him after that intro. The duo of lights that were on him as he played, now disappeared. In the barely visible stage area, Ryan hangs off his acoustic guitar to his tech who brings him the electric guitar he'll be using next. The big-screen behind brights up and shows centered across it; STEP ONE: HEARTBREAK. The lights rise again, this time finally giving the audience view of the entire stage. We see Ryan Ross Hernandez with his Fender guitar hanging from his back and the rest of his band with their respective instruments and microphone stands. Ryan turns his back to the crowd and places the guitar appropriately in front of him, he nods at the rest of the band, giving them the cue to start their performance.

He turns back around to his microphone and starts to play a soft guitar riff with each time being played, he pulls the wah-wah pedal, customarily placed on his guitar. From the first riff, the audience cheers and applauds knowing that Hernandez will be starting them off with his hit single and best single winner at the 20th International Music Awards, 'A Never-Ending Trip to Heartbreak'. The band slowly follow up behind him. The groove drums speed it up a bit, which feels like a slow train carrying the song on top of it. Soon after Ryan starts to sing his famous falsetto voice range that sends the women in the crowd in a swoon, most of which sing-along with him. By the chorus a chugging bass line joins in the laid back rock performance. Since the lyrical meaning of the track deals with how explosive relationships can be, it is only appropriate that the background screen is decorated with war battlefield imagery being displayed. Now can one relate a relationship to be as bad as World War III? Apparently, Hernandez can. But that really doesn't seem to bother the audience in hand. Ryan plays a guitar solo towards the end of the song, it was a controlled solo since it was quick and heavily layered by the other instruments. The end of the song is closely resembled to the intro with the wah-wah pedal echoing guitar coming into play again.



The audience cheers as he concludes the song, the lights don't go away entirely this time, instead a few dim lights stay on Ryan's figure. He gives off the guitar he was using the song to his guitar tech, and is now handed a red Rick Turner Model 1 Guitar, strikingly similar to the model guitar Lindsay Buckingham uses with Fleetwood Mac. Ryan swiftly adjusts it around his back with the guitar strap.

Ryan: "Good evening."

He simply says, with a smile creeping on the corner of his lips as he puts his ear pieces that were hanging around his ear back inside them. Hernandez steps back from the microphone and coughs as he plays a few notes to make sure his guitar is in tone for the song about to be played. Despite the bare light on him, it's visible to see another microphone stand being set up and placed a few feet next to his own. He turns his back to the crowd and counts the band down, as they dive in the play the breezy, California pop/rock song, 'The Halfhearted Lover,' both a recent number one song for him in the states and a best single nominee. For this performance, Hernandez's keyboardist is seen now in the background, joining the band. The lights return to give a full display of the stage and backing band. The second this song begins, there is no one left sitting down in the audience, everyone is on their feet. Hernandez even moves his body in a dancing matter, along with the melody as he plays his guitar parts, which sends the women in attendance in a complete frenzy. Ryan steps forward to the mic, presumably to start singing but instead has an introduction in store.

Ryan: "Ladies and gentlemen. The lovely and talented, Bettie Cavallo."



Hernandez says with a smile, as he introduces his new musical partner in his newest endeavor, Holiday for Two. Not surprising to see Bettie join him for this song in particularly, as this one of the songs where she provided backing vocals and is prominently heard on this song. Bettie walks onto the stage from the backstage area with a smile as she waves and flashes a smile to both the audience and Ryan. The band is still playing the instrumentation of the song, and once Bettie reaches the microphone stand next to Ryan's, he begins to sing in his pure falsetto voice this time, not trying to bounce around it. Seemingly, at least for tonight, he is directing the lyrics at Bettie, as he spends most the first verse looking at her while he sings, bar the times he looks down to keep his guitar playing aligned. Bettie takes a hold of the microphone on the stand, as she begins to sing the chorus of the song along Ryan. She always follows Ryan eyes and sings while looking at him. At one point in the chorus, he just steps back completely and let's Bettie take the reigns of singing on her own. While his body is still sideways he turns his head and begins to sing the first few lines of the second verse to the crowd, seemingly explain the situation to them before he returns to singing to Bettie. By the time the hook comes around, Bettie follows Ryan's lead and echos every line he sings first. They playfully trade off lines, and Ryan lets her finish off their little duel as she impressively hits off a very high note, receiving a fantastic reaction from the audience.

The rhythm and melody of the song, take slight slower tone as Ryan turns to his side and signals the sound engineer to lower a specific instrument. He points to Bettie and smirks, as he takes a step back from his microphone. He continues to play guitar as presumably Bettie takes reigns of the vocals at the moment.

Bettie:
Now here you go again you say you want your freedom

The majority of the crowd cheers, noticing the slightly more upbeat, instrumentation-wise, Fleetwood Mac cover of 'Dreams'. While already most of people there were singing, they continue along with Bettie to sing. Ryan is seen behind bopping his head and shoulder as he continue to play, appropriately on his Lindsay Buckingham inspired guitar.

Bettie:
Well who am I to keep you down
It's only right that you should play the way you feel it
But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness, like a heartbeat, drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost

By the time the chorus hits, Ryan steps back in front of his microphone and joins her singing.

Ryan and Bettie:
Oh, thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean you'll know

Ryan plays leader to his band as usual, and signals for them to return to play 'The Halfhearted Lover' in full force. They all return to place as he turns back his attention to Bettie as earlier and continues to sing towards her. Bettie does not sing vocals on this final part, instead opts to add some very welcomed melody to Ryan's singing. The entire band, include Ryan, finish in near complete sync, finishing off the energetic performance.



Entire room cheers and applaud their performance. Ryan playfully bows down at Bettie as he hands his guitar to a tech.

Ryan: "Give it up for Bettie Cavallo. Everyone remember that name."

He says with a chuckle as he gives Bettie a quick hug, before she politely nods her head at the audience and blows a kiss at them, she quickly exits the stage. As he is given the next guitar he'll be using, he takes off his jacket and hands it off to a backstage personnel that quickly comes and goes from the stage.

Ryan: "One more time, let's hear it for Bettie. She rocked it."

Ryan says backing off of the mic, as he clapped a few times along with the audience, before strapping on his guitar and raising the long sleeves of his shirt.

Ryan: "Well this is the last song of my set. Thank you and hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the night, it's gonna be a good one. I promise."

He tells the audience, backing off slightly from the microphone stand before one of his backing guitarists starts to play gradually building electric riff.



Ryan:
Come on in
I've gotta tell you what a state I'm in
I've gotta tell you in my loudest tones
That I started looking for a warning sign

When the truth is, I miss you
Yeah the truth is, that I miss you

Ryan plays a swift cover of the Coldplay song, 'Warning Sign,' impressively holding that last note. He rises his guitar and starts to play riff his backing player was just playing before, in a more prominent form. A quick rise of cheers is heard as the riff signals for Hernandez's closing off the night with 'The Other Side of Desire,' a fan-favorite off of Let a Man Be Lost. In a melodic tone he uses the wah-wah pedal before diving into singing. A red light illuminates the stage along with the limelight that was already in place. The basslines progress to a much cleaner tone while the drums don't change much from the start, only with the occasional cymbals added here and there. Ryan sings in a more registered deep voice rather than his regular falsetto vocal register. By the bridge, the performance turns into a all-out emotional rock jam. As Hernandez sings the chorus, the look on his face is almost as he is physically in pain. For the breakdown of the song, he dives into the most impressive guitar solo we've heard from him in the entire set. For well over a minute, the audience just presents pure guitar excellence as his eyes are even seen rolling to the back of his head as he plays the solo. He sings the final chorus, following the guitar solo, in such an emotional tone, while not hitting most of the high notes, the audience does not mind at all as the emotion in his voice seems to make up for it. He finishes it off with a simple 'oooh,' before calling it a set.

Ryan: "Thank you very much London and surrounding areas. We love you very much. Thank you."

And with that he gives the crowd a quick round of applause, as they completely shower him in applause and cheers, before the stage goes dark again as Ryan Ross Hernandez and his band head off stage.




OOC: Was an outstanding RP, from PANIC! Amazing!

Jason sees himself on the camera laughing and then stops suddenly and looks around. Once the camera goes off focus, he slumps back into his chair.

Jason: Wow, that was quite surreal.

HaNa: I love you, Ryan!

Jason looks at Cassie bewildered.

Jason: Are you alright, Cassie?

Cassie: *with a bright red face* Just...shhhhh *she still doesn't let go...*

Jason looks at Eric. He raises his voice slightly.

Jason: OH HEY ERIC QUILLINGTON OF THE ROCK BAND INFINITE!

MiSTAR is seen clapping and cheering for Chloe.

Cherise applauds as she knocks back a glass of champagne