I swear this guy has no damn idea what he’s doing, and it’s only because he’s a mate of a mate from way back that he is still up there fucking up our shows.
He’s killing my buzz.
The cannons shoot out the gold streamers, and they fly through the air, flittering delicately down into the crowd. A round of cheering, jumping, and applause erupts as they throw their hands in the air. The lighting above flickers, strobing to pink, then flashes on all at once. The vivid, bright light makes the crowd gasp, and I lose my place in the song. The lyrics fail me while I’m momentarily blinded, and the girls must be having issues, too, because the music comes to a screeching halt.
The stadium begins to shake with jeers of unhappiness as I repeatedly blink while looking upward, attempting to figure out what the fuck’s going on with Dennis and his preposterous lighting techniques.
“For fuck’s sake, Dennis,” Andi calls out, loud enough for the front row to hear as she steps forward, looking up to the rafters. The jeering grows louder as the lights flicker and change sporadically.
Fuck me.
I grit my teeth in annoyance, trying to find my center of calm, but it’s absolutelynotworking.
“Dennis, will you fucking fix this shit, you motherfucking moron, before I come up there and shove something very longand hard up your fucking ass?” Andi yells, raising her fist into the air toward Dennis, who’s in the rafters with our lighting equipment that’s clearly more than a little on the blink right now.
I turn toward my microphone and look out to the crowd, whose jeering and sneering is now almost as loud as one of our songs, and I raise my hands, trying to placate them. “I’m sorry, guys… technical glitch and all that. We’re working on the matter. If we could all open our chakras and embrace the harmony of music, we’d know this was meant to happen. Could we all take a moment to embrace each other…” I pause and smile. “Turn to the person next to you, and take them in a tight hug, showing your affection,” I advise calmly, wanting nothing but peace and love.
Casey laughs while Andi rolls her eyes.
The crowd chatters on a little more, and I turn just in time to see someone throw something at me. I dodge whatever it is and furrow my brows, then cross my arms over my chest.
“That’s definitely not embracing the love, people,” I blast into the microphone.
Casey chuckles, and Andi walks up to the closest microphone. She grabs it firmly in both hands and grunts out loudly, “Luke, get Dennis to fix the lighting or turn the normal lights on so we can continue to rock, yeah?” There’s a massive sarcastic tone to her voice, and the crowd cheers loudly.
Luke is our manager slash agent slash general organizer of our day-to-day existence.
“Yeah, Andi, you rock!” someone in the crowd yells out.
She finally smiles, does a curt curtsey, and then walks to the middle of the stage.
The lights flicker a few times, then a loud bang follows. A mass of flashing beams scatter over the stage and the audience.We all look up as another loud cracking noise resounds from above, followed by a bright flash.
An array of orange and yellow flickers rain down like a giant sparkler, and then I see it, like in slow motion, a heavy stage light tumbling down, right in line with Andi’s head.
She freezes, her eyes opening wide once she takes in the massive black object hurtling toward her at lightning speed.
The crowd gasps, and my pulse quickens so fast I can feel the pressure in my skull, and I think I’m going to vomit.
I don’t have time to get to her.
Suddenly, Luke jumps out from the side of the stage, grabbing her in a full-force lunge and landing on top of her, the momentum pushing her to the floor face-first. The light plummets down right next to them, smashing in a wave of broken glass and metal as it breaks apart, then bursts into a ball of flames.
“Fuck!” I call out as the amber and yellow flames lick and burst upward, quickly taking hold of Andi’s bass speaker, then continue up, scorching the curtain right next to it and sending the side of the stage into a blazing inferno.
If Luke hadn’t moved, if he hadn’t seen it in time, I don’t even want to think about what we’d be cleaning off the stage.
I turn to Alana, who’s looking mortified, standing by her keyboard dock, while the crowd erupts into a screaming frenzy. Security guards rush out, attempting to tackle the blaze with fire extinguishers. That’s when I pull off my guitar and run along with everyone else to the other side of the stage, away from the flames.
“Holy fucking shit, Alana, did you see that?” I ask as she grips my hand for support while we wait for the others to join us backstage.
She nods. “Effa, how could this happen? I mean, all those people out there…” Tears fill her beautiful blue eyes. “They’ll be okay, right?”
I flick my head out from the backstage area to see that the ushers are leading people out of the venue, and the fire is completely under control. My body sighs with relief before I close my eyes, just as I hear the thumping footsteps of Kristy and Casey coming my way.
“Are you guys okay?” Kristy asks, and Alana and I both nod.
“That was fucking amazing, girls. We should do that at every concert. Oh my God, I’m on such a high right now,” Casey calls out, bouncing up and down on her toes like a freaking maniac, her plastic bangles jingling on her wrist with her hyperactivity.
