BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER, PLEASE READ THIS NOTE!
Hey guys! This is kind of a long chapter, but I'm so excited about it! From here on out, the songs that are mentioned in the fic are actual songs. For example, Ember plays "Love is a Battlefield" by Pat Benatar. I will put the names and artists of all the songs listed down below after every chapter! It really helps to listen to the songs as you read to get the feel of how the music progresses with the story. Also, I feel like Frozen Ghosts would sound like the real-life band Muse, so all of their songs will pretty much be by them. When Danny grows up a bit and is out of his awkward teen phase, I imagine his voice will have matured enough to sound like Matt Bellamy's. If the story gets popular enough, I'll put up mixes of all the songs that are used on 8tracks or something.
Thank you for reading! Please review if you like it! :D
The dark room was buzzing with excitement. The Amity Slam was heating up – both literally and figuratively – and the dimmed lights created an easy environment to settle down in. Faint indie rock played over the crisp speakers. More and more people filtered into the already crowded venue until it got to the point where bouncers had to stop letting people in. The few tables and chairs in the very back were all occupied, as were the seats at the bar at the back wall.
Vlad Masters sat comfortably leaned against the bar with an Old Fashioned in his right hand. The ice slowly melted in the glass, creating beads of water on the surface of the glass. The amber liquid made the droplets outside look like drops of honey against his palm. Vlad took a quick sip before checking the time on his watch.
'7:03… shouldn't they be start-' his train of thought was interrupted by a man running out on stage, skidding to a stop, and whipping the mic stand close to his wiry frame.
"Alright everybody! You guys ready to have a good time tonight?!" The man announced, his pompadour swinging with every sharp movement. Vlad watched with amusement at the man's antics and placed his glass back onto the bar. The background music began to fade as the announcer's eyes scanned the crowd.
"Our first band features a blue-haired babe on guitar and the mic, a beefy drummer boy, and a keyboard techno-master performing a cover of the classic song 'Love is a Battlefield' and an original called 'Future in my Hands'! Give it up for Electric Hunt!"
The three members took the stage and quickly got settled with their instruments. Ember slipped her silver guitar strap over her head and checked the tuning while Skulker twirled his sticks. Technus set up his two keyboards on the stand, one on top of the other, and chose the sounds he needed. The two looked to Ember to see when to start, and when she finally turned around to give them a nod of approval, they gave her an excited grin. She returned the expression if not more excitedly, turned back to the mic, and addressed the crowd.
"Hey everyone! We're Electric Hunt, and we're real excited to be up here! So get ready to rock!"
She turned around, yelled "1, 2, 3, 4!" and the crowd erupted into cheers.
Backstage, Danny shuffled from one foot to the other and tugged on the black plugs in his earlobes. The crowd was going crazy for Ember, screaming her name in between jumping and pushing against one another.
"Tell me who you love!"
The audience burst into cheers of 'Ember!' and Danny felt his heart sink. How were they supposed to compete with that? Sure his band was good, but the crowd would be so pumped after Ember, they might not be so responsive to what Frozen Ghosts had to offer. This could be their best chance of making it big in the music industry, and they could already be losing it! What if they couldn't stay in time together? What if the crowd started booing? What if-
"Danny… We're going to be awesome, okay? Don't be intimidated by her. We're going to kill it out there!" She rubbed his hair affectionately and Tucker punched him in the arm lightly.
"Yeah man, no worries, alright? We've got this in the bag!" Tucker said, reaching around to loop his arm around Danny's shoulders. Danny felt a surge of gratefulness for his friends and pulled them into a side hug.
"Thanks guys… I really appreciate it." He smiled and opened his mouth again, but was interrupted by Ember's shout of "Thanks for the love, babypops! Have a rockin' night!" She strutted off stage with a bounce in her step, her bandmates throwing up the sign of the horns to crowd and following closely behind. Once backstage, she high-fived her friends and squealed in excitement.
"We did it!" She practically vibrated with elation over their performance, "We were awesome! Good luck trying to follow that one, dipsticks! We're total shoe-ins for the trophy!" Ember lead her group further backstage to exit and chat with the audience.
Sam and Tucker looked over at his friend to see him as white as a ghost.
Vlad looked up at the bluenette on stage and the other two unmemorable fellows with her, vaguely impressed by her performance. She had talent, but it wasn't quite the spark he was looking for. He wanted something new, something fresh… something that could stand out from the massive crowd of pop-punk and alternative bands that had developed over the past few years.
The audience seemed to really enjoy the music, but how long would that last before someone similar with more spunk took the stage and stole the spotlight away?
Vlad took the final sips of his drink and returned the glass to the worn countertop.
She bid the crowd a good night and sauntered off stage, admiring the confidence in her step. The audience settled down a bit, still loud, but not violent because of the lack of something to thrash to. A few moments later, the announcer returned to the stage to introduce the next band. The man moonwalked to the center of the stage and again yanked the mic stand over to himself.
"Alright, how'd you guys like that?! Remember, that was Electric Hunt, so if you like it make sure you submit your ballot to the official Amity Slam Battle of the Bands app at the end! The more votes, the better chance they have at taking home the trophy! But don't send them in quite yet, cause we've got a couple more bands in store for you guys… The next one up features a strapping, raven-haired young guitarist, a gothic gal on the drums, and a technogeek on the keyboard. Today they'll be performing two of their original songs 'Muscle Museum' and 'Follow Me', so welcome to the stage Frozen Ghosts!"
The trio made their way across the stage and plugged in their instruments. Sam twirled her purple sticks and made sure everything was in perfect reach for her while Tucker set up his two keyboards and double-checked the settings. Danny scooted the second mic over from Tucker's side, brought it to the front, and put it next to the main mic. He shoved the plug for the second mic into the guitar amp next to the plug for his actual guitar and cranked up the volume. Vlad squinted to see what exactly he was doing. Didn't he know to leave it plugged into the speaker it was in before? Why plug it into the guitar amp?
With a fluid motion, Danny slung his worn black leather guitar strap behind its neck and rolled his shoulders back. He attempted to glance out into the far back, but ended up squinting from the bright lights. After everything had been checked over, Danny looked back with a nervous grimace and had bright smiles and thumbs up returned to him. With a deep breath, he turned to the crowd and ended up bumping his nose into the mic.
The speakers squealed in protest and everyone, Danny included cringed at the sharp feedback. "Uh, hey everyone! We're Frozen Ghosts, and we hope you like our stuff!" he all but shouted at the end. Vlad smirked. The kid clearly had to work on his stage presence. Danny took another deep breath and shouted "1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!" before the keyboard began to leak out a dripping, bassy synth followed by a steady drum and a nearly squeaky guitar on top.
Vlad looked up, interested in what he heard. This sound was different than what he'd been hearing for so long, and as the song was brought to the chorus, the underlying power beneath each note hit him like a wave. The song progressed until after the second chorus, the singer suddenly switched mics. He howled in the second mic plugged into the amp and Vlad's eyes widened with understanding. The idea was absolutely genius – something he'd never even thought of before. The young man had plugged the mic into the guitar amp to make his voice have the qualities of an electric guitar; the gritty noise imitated the instrument flawlessly¹.
The crowd was growing more and more wild with every screech he pounded into the mic until they were screaming and chanting so loudly, one could barely hear the ending piano notes. Danny whipped his head around to give his friends an excited smile which was returned full force. They had to wait a few moments for the crowd to settle down before they could start on their final song.
As the audience quieted Danny looked out from the stage and scanned the crowd before speaking.
"Alright, so we're all really excited that you guys enjoyed that song, but this next one has kind of a different feel… So be prepared, alright?!" He seemed to have gained more confidence as time passed, Vlad noted. At this point, he would sign them in an instant, but he wanted to see how this next song panned out.
A soft, ambient string sound resounded from one of the keyboards, Danny's voice following soon after. As his voice slid up and down to meet with the deep strings, the crowd became increasingly entranced. The plucky synths layered on top of the warm strings created a sense of subtle strength and foreboding, a strength further enforced with the introduction of the drums. The crowd shouted with every beat, and erupted into cheers as the bass dropped in the chorus.
Vlad found himself bobbing his head with the heavy beats and letting his eyes slip closed to absorb all the music pouring through the speakers. As he looked up at the singer's face nearing the end of the song, he could swear that despite the light in his eyes and the crowd separating them, the singer looked out directly at him.
Vlad knew, from that moment on, that they had some kind of connection. Something Vlad had never felt before, but was so strong, he could almost touch it, feel it throbbing between their two entities. He needed to sign that band, there was no question about that. But something about that singer… there was definitely something special about him, Vlad was certain of it.
The synths faded into nothingness, as did the guitar, and the crowd continued to wail in awe of the music they had just witnessed.
"Thank you so much everyone! Goodnight!" Danny managed to shout over the crowd's hollers and scurried backstage, hugging his friends and jumping with glee over the overwhelmingly positive reaction to their songs.
"We did it guys! You were right, we totally killed it!" Danny shouted as he and his friends struggled to catch their breath.
"We were amazing! There's no way we won't win!" Tucker breathed, wrapping his arms around his friends' shoulders. The trio grinned from ear to ear and took a minute to calm down before deciding to go out, meet some fans (perhaps it was cocky to think they had fans now, but they didn't care), and maybe even run into someone from a record label.
'Like Vlad Masters…' Danny thought. Having him backing up their band would be a one-way ticket to success, but the chances that he would actually be here (despite the rumors) were incredibly small.
After packing their instruments into their van and cleaning up a bit in the performer's bathroom, the three band members stood in front of the door to return to the audience area. With a deep breath and a collective smile, the three opened the door, excited for whatever awaited them on the other side.
Phew! 1,962 words later, and there we have it! This took a while to write, but I had so much fun doing it! I feel like there are some things I should edit, but if I notice any major errors, I'll fix it later on! Hopefully I can find a beta soon to make sure I'm all good, haha! As promised, here are the songs used in this chapter!
Performed by Electric Hunter:
Pat Benatar – Love is a Battlefield
Aimee B – Future in my Hands
Performed by Frozen Ghosts:
Muse – Muscle Museum
Muse – Follow Me
¹ Matt Bellamy, the singer for Muse, actually does this! If you listen to the song, what sounds like a guitar starting at like 3:16, is actually him singing… When performing live, he has two microphones that he switches to when the part comes, just like Danny did.