The lights dim and the crowd of 1,200-plus people huddles together in anticipation for what's behind the massive red curtain. They're waiting for VonRa. University of Florida student Dave Rhea and his band are about to play their "woohoo-we-just-got-signed" gig for screaming fans inside the Hard Rock Live in Orlando. For Rhea, the band's bass player, it's a celebration a lifetime in the making.

Rhea, 29, was born in Huntsville, Ala., four years after his only sibling and band namesake, Vaughan, was born. In 1991, after being on their own for a while, they decided to move in together, and this is when Rhea first began to play the bass.

"My brother was playing guitar already and I was getting tired of just sitting there while he played all the time," Rhea says. "So mom bought me a bass, and the rest is history."

The brothers played together on people's patios, at parties and in 1993 they decided to form a band.

"It was real gradual," Rhea says. "My brother and I started playing with some friends, you know, we'd go to people's houses and they'd have little parties. We started writing original stuff and we put together a five-member band and started playing out at Scruffy Murphy's, The Mill (in Orlando). We played around the same circles as Tabitha's Secret, back in those days before they were Matchbox Twenty."

After VonRa hit a lull, Rhea wanted to "keep on rocking" so he decided to form the band Blue Meridian, with his pal Donovan Lyman. Rhea, a major in magazine journalism, quit UF the summer of 1998 to pursue Blue Meridian full time. The band was on the brink of being signed, but then didn't, and Rhea found himself without a degree to fall back on, stuck working a day job, and in yet another band at a lull.

"I was like in these really desperate times and I was so broke that I told my mom to fire her maid, cause she was paying her 60 bucks a week to come and clean," Rhea says. "I was like, 'screw that man, pay me 60 bucks to come and clean.' So for a week I did that."

He then received a phone call from Jeff Hanson, manager of bands like Creed, Sevendust and Virgos. A Memphis rock band called Dust for Life was looking for a bass player, and he wanted Rhea to audition.

"I went to Memphis and tried out for those guys, and a week later we were in New York taking photos and putting a record together, and then the next week we were out touring with Creed," Rhea says. "So that was pretty cool."

During his stint with Dust for Life, Rhea shared bills with bands like Collective Soul, Fuel, and 3 Doors Down, but after nine months his gig was canceled.

Fortunately for Rhea, he found his way home again.

"Vaughan had already done the "Fame" record, and I was amazed by his initiative," Rhea says. "He showed me that this was my home again. My last gig with Dust for Life was around March 1 [2001], and I guess about the end of July I talked to him and was like 'man I want to be back in the band' and he's like, 'man come back.'"

The last few months have been quite eventful for Rhea. He graduated in December and got married in January. Now he has a date with VonRa at the recording studios in February to re-record the album "Fame" at a national scale for Elektra, the company that represents Third Eye Blind, Staind and Metallica.

"It's just a great feeling to just be signed, to not be local anymore," Rhea says. "Which is awesome, good feeling, cause you know at least you've got one good honest chance at trying. We're professionals. We're professional musicians."