AllFreeNovel
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You've been gone for so long
Dropped the bottle
In the trash
Another bottle of whiskey gone
There's an itch
Like a rash
Never be the same
Now you're gone
Fuck the rest of this shit. I concentrated on the beats and my marks for accent. I changed up the downbeat at the exact right spot. I couldn’t get in my head. I had a fucking show to do.
After playing a few more songs, Miami addressed the crowd again. “You have been kicking ass with us out here! I have a surprise. But I bet you saw this coming. I have someone to introduce you to.”
It was time forDip and Grind, and I looked to the side stage to see Pierce standing there with Coleman and Harrison.
“He’s going to come out here and help us knock out this next song. We got a mic for him?” The sound guys brought out the second mic that was already prepared. “Okay. Let’s get to rocking. Black Rock, I give you Pierce Lawrence.” He held his hand out toward the side stage.
Pierce strutted out onto the stage like…I don’t even know what. The only thing that came to my head was a giant cock. That led to thinking about the Giant Purple People Fucker that Coleman had in his dresser at home. I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. Pierce turned and glared at me, but the audience was still going nuts, so they didn’t seem to notice. I gestured for him to go on.
“Hello again, Black Rock. Thank you. Thank you. You were amazing for me and Surf Sons earlier. And I heard you all the way back at the busses for Midnight Hunt.” Of course, that made them scream again. And the only thing worse than a front man of a rock band was two front mans—or men. What-the-fuck-ever. I was tired of Pierce’s voice already, so I started tapping out the beat, cutting him off.
“Well, all right.” Miami took over. “Ziggy says he’s ready to go. Let’s get thisDip and Grindgoing.” He made a lewd hip thrust that had the audience going nuts again.
Pierce had never sounded better, but I kind of hoped this would be the last fucking time we ever played this song. It was worse than21stCentury Fuck Up.
After the song, Pierce and Miami hammed it up before Pierce left with Miami pretending to kick him off the stage. We played one more song before leaving the stage for the break before the finale. We planned on performing two songs for our encore. But one of them was supposed to beWhiskey Gone, which Miami moved to the front of the show, so I had no clue what he wanted to do.
I wasn’t the only one. Wolf took a long drink of water and asked, “What are we doing?”
Jinx started with, “We could throwTwenty-first—”
“Hell no,” Miami interrupted and the rest of us echoed that. It wasn’t so much we hated the song, but we hated hearing Miami incessantly bitch about it. “Besides, we haven’t played that in so long.”
“We’re ending onWith This Song, so maybeStill A Personwould work? It’s super simple,” Jinx suggested. “And we can do all our solos leading into it, morph straight intoWith This Song. Sound good?”
We had playedStill A Persona few times during the tour. So it worked. We all agreed. And as we jogged back out onto thestage, we all did stupid shit to rev the crowd back up. They were chantingHunt. Hunt. Hunt.Before I got back to my kit.
“Miss us?” Miami shouted into the mic. He paused when he had to, and this was one of those times. The crowd was insane, and I wondered exactly how many people were out there. It looked like a sea stretching out as far as I could see. “Well, I know you know who we are…” He turned and laughed. “But I’m going to introduce you all the same. Starting with…” He put his arm around Jinx and kissed him, but he shook his head and walked off. The first time we toured, I didn’t think kissing Jinx like that would go over well, but everyone knew they were together. It was old news. And it didn’t hurt our popularity at all. Miami pointed at Wolf. The crowd was going nuts again.
Wolf started thumping out some of the most intricate bass work I had ever heard. He was capable of shredding as well as Jinx on guitar, if not better, but he loved the bass. And what he played was amazing. When he was done, he raised his hand over his head. “Wolf!” Miami yelled.
We had agreed we would do this between the songs, but as usual, Miami felt the vibe of the crowd and changed it up. We could adjust on the fly, though. So, not surprisingly, once the crowd died down, Miami gestured behind him, and I started in with a rudiment that included a drag. I repeated it a few times as Miami did his thing. “One of the craziest mother fuckers around. He beats the skins with the best of them. He keeps our rhythm, and I’m proud to call him brother. The one. The only. The fucking best drummer here. Ziggy!”
I kicked into my solo, which was long and intricate and fun. I hit every tom, every cymbal, and high hat I had. At one point or another within the solo, I touched every single thing in my kit while keeping that bass pounding double time with both feet. And going back to what we said we would do, I blended the endof it right into our song. Wolf jumped right in with me. He could always pick up right where he needed to be.
“We are Midnight Hunt,” Miami shouted.
And with a single riff from Jinx,Still A Personwas on.
I'm still a person and I burn
You think I'm plastic and reactive
