“‘Psychosocial’,” Liam yelled, grinning.
West smiled at the memory.
“Huh,” Skye said, nodding.“That song is really on brand for you guys.”
“That’s fucking right,” Remi said.“And what song did Liam play to save our asses when our drum machine fucked up at our first ever legit gig?”
“‘Bulls on Parade’,” West answered.
“And what did Ollie play for his audition?”Remi asked.
“‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’,” Liam said and clapped Ollie on the back.
“Both also on brand,” Skye said in the background.
“It was so fucking sick,” Liam said.“I still get hard thinking about how you killed that intro riff.”
Ollie laughed.
Remi continued, “Those people out there think Tilted Haze can’t rock because we’re mainstream, but Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine, and Metallica all got radio play.Tilted Haze is fucking hardcore to the bone.We bleed this shit, and we’re gonna blow their ears out and rock them so hard they won’t know what the fuck hit them.”
“Fuck yeah!”Ollie said.
“Let’s go!”Liam said.
“Let’s fuck ’em up!”West said.
Liam started a low-pitched hooting noise, and they all joined in as the sound grew and grew until Remi clapped his hands to break the huddle.They ran onto the stage as the dry-ice machines billowed smoke from the sides.
At the last second, Remi turned to look back.Skye nodded at him, and her smile was all the confidence he needed.
The band held that energy for two songs, and then the first beer can was thrown onto the stage.
Remi shifted the setlist to play Tilted Haze’s hardest song next.Liam hit the drums with so much gusto that sweat poured onto the pigskins.Ollie headbanged so hard that Remi’s neck hurt in sympathy.West kicked and slammed and worked the stage in tandem with Remi.They gave it all they got.
Remi tried to imbue the crowd with the motherfucking badass rock spirit he’d felt come alive in his soul the moment he heard rock music.But he didn’t have a soul anymore, so maybe that was why he couldn’t connect to the people staring up at the stage.
Remi centered his gaze on one of the guys in the crowd with a face full of metal and a mohawk.He sang to him, headbanged for him.
Mohawk guy finally started nodding his head a bit as the song went on.
Remi went harder; he kicked the rasp of his scream up a level, and there was a yell from the crowd.He didn’t know if it was positive or not, but he chose to think it was encouragement.
As the song ended, Remi’s heartbeat quickened.The rest of Tilted Haze’s setlist was a lot softer.
If their hardest song didn’t get them moving, nothing they played would.He called to the band to do their second hardest song, and Remi improvised by screaming the parts he usually sang.His vocal cords were going to be shot tomorrow, but he wasn’t going to half-ass this.The metalheads in the crowd grew more fidgety.There was more shouting, but he didn’t know what they were saying.
Remi caught sight of a group of girls in the front, a few skinny guys with heavy eyeliner standing around them, almost like they were protecting the girls from the rest of the crowd.He almost thought he recognized one of them from the picture Jillian showed him.They’d been singing every word to the songs.Tilted Haze was here forthem.
They got to the part of their set where they usually switched into the love song ballad, but that wasn’t going to fly.Remi ran back to Liam at the drums.West and Ollie followed his lead.
“We have to do Psychosocial,” Remi said.
“What?”West said.“We haven’t practiced that in years.”
“We have to,” Remi said.“A cover will bring them around to our side.We’ll skip the ballad and then finish out the rest of the set.”
“Ollie?”West asked.
