Page 17 of The Devil's Tattoo
Chapter4
The Hi-Fi Barwas probably one of my favorite venues inMelbourne.
It had an upstairs area with a bar where people could view the stage from above. Down below, there was a section set down into the mosh pit with four or five steps leading outward, so there was a better view of the stage from multiple angles. I’d seen many shows here, and it was a dark but airy place with greatacoustics.
Today was the first show of theWalls on Firetour. The label came up with the idea to merge the names of both our current singles—our song ‘Walls’ and The Stabs’ song ‘Fire.’ To date, we hadn’t had the chance to meet any of the members of the band we would be spending the next five or so weeks with. It annoyed us a little since we were going to be with them for so long, but Simone said they’d been in New Zealand doing a few gigs. Pete, their singer and guitarist, had sent us an email saying how excited they were, so that was nice enough. We’d fast learned that time was precious when promoting a new albumandtour.
There was a support band as well as The Stabs and us tonight, and it was our turn to sound check. I didn’t have a clue what I was meant to do, so I enlisted the help of one of the tech guys from the venue to help me out. A few more times and I thought I would have the ‘which cord in what plug’ scenariodownpat.
I was standing on stage all rock ‘n’ roll like with my beloved black sexy-as-hell Epiphone slung over my shoulder playing the opening bars of ‘Walls.’ Frank was singing, “Why are we waiting, slowly dehydrating,” and Chris was banging his head against his microphone as we waited for Dee to hurry the hell up and tune his new Gibson. The side door opened, letting the harsh daylight into the dark and dirty room. Of course, we all looked up at that moment, because who wouldn’t? We saw two of the four members of The Stabs walk in like they owned the joint. I saw a shock of curly hair, and for whatever reason, I rolled my eyes. Chris winked at me, and I flippedhimoff.
“When you’re ready, pansy boy!” Frank yelled at Dee, who was oblivious asusual.
When he was finally good to go, we got on with the sound check, and I could feel nervous energy tingle through my veins. I didn’t open my eyes the whole time we played, the chords so familiar my fingers just flew over the strings as the words tumbled out of my mouth. I was on autopilot, and when the song ended, I could scarcely remember playing itatall.
“Zo Zo,” Frank called out to me, snapping me out of my haze. “Get up here, sweetness.” He patted the top of the bass drum. “Gotta make sure it doesn’tfallover.”
I jumped up on the step, stood on top of the drum, and gave it a little wobble. “Steady asshegoes.”
It was Dee’s idea to amp our show up a little for this tour. Up until a few gigs ago, I’d pretty much just stood on stage and played, hardly moving a meter away from the mic. We closed our set with a fast and dirty rock ‘n’ roll song, and there was a perfect lull right before it ended where he said it would look pretty sweet if I jumped up onto the kit and played the last few bars upthere.
He’d been right, of course. Dee was like a rock god and knew all the best moves. A photo had been published online, and to my surprise, I kindalookedgood.
One of the tech guys came along as I wiggled the bass drum around, and Dee eyeballed him. “Move this kit and you’re dead. She falls off and breaks somethin’,you’remine.”
“Take a chill pill, Dee.” I smiled apologetically at the guy, and he shrugged. I handed him my guitar and jumped back down onto thestage.
We unplugged all our pedals and guitars as the drum kit was rolled off the stage on its little platform so The Stabs could do their thing, but they didn’t seem to be in any hurry as they loitered in front of thestage.
Two had become the complete set of four while I’d been balancing on top of the kit. I could feel them watching us, but I did my best to ignore them for now and concentrated on what I was doing. Truthfully, I kind of felt intimidated. They were on album number three, so they’d been around for a long time already, and we’d just started. This was familiar territory to them, while I felt like I was making every rookie mistake inthebook.
When we wandered off the stage, they came up to us and introduced themselves. Thankfully, for now, Will Strickland was absent. They all seemed very nice and welcoming and offered to give us some pointers if we needed anything. Pete was their guitarist and vocalist. He was tall and wiry, and his dirty blond hair hung in his eyes, pushed forward by a black hoodie that seemed to be perpetually over his head. Sticks was their drummer, and he reminded me a lot of Frank. He was just as muscled and rough around the edges, but he smiled and was nice to talk with. And Louie was their other guitarist. He had a slick haircut combed back into a quiff, so he and Dee had a lot to talk about, and there were various tattoos on his arm and one on his chest, which peeked out from his V-neck T-shirt. Where mine were Japanese style dragons and flowers, his were traditional roses, pinup girls, and what looked like an eagle on hischest.
We made ourselves scarce from the backstage area and sat together on the stairs toward the back of the room while they set up. As they did their sound check, I leaned my chin against my hand, letting my fringe fall into my eyes. As a complete set of four, they looked quite good together. I watched them run through a few songs just like we had earlier, and my gaze didn’t miss a beat. As they adjusted their equipment on stage and tested mics, I took everything in…even Will Strickland’s ass when he bent over. It wasrathernice.
Dee elbowed me. “They’re quite efficient, that lot,” he said as theyfinishedup.
“They’ve been doing it for awhile.”
“Do you still have a crushonhim?”
I almost choked on myownspit.
“I’ll take that asayes.”
“I never said I did,” I hissed. How the hell had he worked it out? I thought I’d been quite clever andstealthy.
“Well, you had better figure it out,ZoZo.”
Ifrowned. “Why?”
“Cos he’s comingthisway.”
Before I could do anything, Dee jumped to his feet and walked away as fast as he could, leaving me in the lurch. I swallowed hard and glanced back toward the stage. Will was walking toward me, and I mean, it was just me. Everyone else had bailed—probably on purpose—and I wondered if I really was thatobvious.
I stood as he approached, determined to get through this with my dignity intact, but he was just too good looking, and the way his hair was falling intohiseyes…
“You’re…”
