The band began to warm up, a few discordant notes thrumming through the air to reach the unkempt singer's ears. He inhaled deeply, lungs filling with the heavy smoke of his employer's cigar, and took a sip of his low end scotch. He let the sharp taste linger on his tongue for a moment before swallowing and set the glass on top of the speaker. His crimson eyes squeezed shut as he raked a hand through his jet-black hair, mentally preparing himself for the night's set. A few regulars sat scattered about at the tables sucking on ciders and cigarettes, some looking up at him but most staring tiredly down at their glasses. A handful of overdressed girls stood in a huddle by the bar, glancing at him and giggling over their drinks. He sighed and closed his eyes again, wishing the band would start playing soon if only to drown out the conspicuous noise of their presence. The youngest one, a little slip of a thing in a deep purple dress, couldn't have been older than seventeen. He grasped blindly for his scotch, nearly knocking it over in his haste to bring it back home to his lips. He took a deeper draught this time as visions of another wispy girl in violet danced – no, stormed – across the inside of his eyelids.
He felt the beginning of tears tingling in the back of his throat and he washed it down with the rest of his scotch before handing the glass off to the waitress for a refill. It was part of his contract – he never came in to work before six in the evening and he got as much complementary scotch as he needed to get him through the night. He spared a glance backward at the band, almost tuned and ready to play, before looking bleakly upward at the exit sign on the other side of the dim and dingy room. The waitress returned with his scotch and a judgmental look and he snatched the former away from her while pretending to ignore the latter. Finally the band plucked and thunked its way back into silence and the bassist gave the signal to start the set.
The singer held up a finger and took a swig of his fresh scotch, wincing as it burned down his throat and heated his chest, spiking through his innards like so many crystal shards and oh god if she ruined liquor for him too-
He slammed the glass back down, sloshing its contents onto the speaker as the band began to play the intro. His eyes flickered involuntarily to the girls at the bar and he was rewarded with one horrific moment of eye contact with the girl in the violet dress. He suppressed a violent shudder and gripped the microphone as the guitarist's chords trudged their way to his cue. Finally his moment had come and he began to sing.
"I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord…"