![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzieIt just happened that the sound in Bran's head would snap Laurie's guitar strings.
"It's not a week and a half," Mission said suddenly. They turned to look at him. "The Underworld show. It's a week."
"That's stupid," Lea said.
"What was I supposed to do?" Bran demanded. "It's a gig! A gig's a gig. We'll be fine. I figure we should try and get in two more rehearsals before that, but if we only have one we might still be ok. How's Tuesday for everyone?"
"Can't," Laurie said. "I'm taking Danny to see Book of Fish at the Pig. Extenuating circumstances." He caught Lea looking at him strangely. "What? It's important."
"I didn't think you knew what 'extenuating' meant," she teased, grinning. Laurie stuck his tongue out at her. "Don't stick that out at me, I don't know where it's been."
"Or who it's been in," he finished. They'd been trading that particular barb for so long that he'd started using it on other people.
"Oh I know who it's been in."
"Do you now."
"I don't want to know where it's been in him...."
"Kids," Bran interrupted, "if we could finish this?" Laurie and Lea turned to him innocently, looking like ten-year-olds pretending they really hadn't done anything that they should be punished for. "So Tuesday's out. Wednesday."
"I have to work that night," Lea said. "I traded shifts with someone." Usually she worked normal daylight hours.
"I can't do it either," Mission added.
"And I think I've got a dinner shift," Laurie finished. Bran looked like he was trying not to pitch a fit. It was kind of funny, actually.
"Thursday!" he cried, exasperated. The other three band members all shrugged, which Laurie figured meant they were all free. "Wait. I can't. Dammit." Lea giggled. Laurie repressed a snerk. Mission managed a noncommittal face. Bran was just all colors of frustrated now, you could tell from the way his hand tightened on the neck of his guitar and the way a vein in his forehead started to pulse.
"Fine. Fine," he fumed, "we'll have the one rehearsal on Saturday again." He seemed to have forgotten that this whole problem was his fault for committing them to a gig before checking to make sure they'd have time to prepare for it. Laurie wondered idly how long it would be before someone reminded him of that fact, and how big a fit he was going to throw when they did. "We're going to suck. We have got to straighten out a good practice schedule for the show on the 30th, though. We have to be fantastically good for that one."
"This wouldn't be happening if you hadn't said we'd play a show in a week," Lea pointed out reasonably. There it is, Laurie thought. He waited for the explosion. "Besides, what kind of crossover do we have with Mintyfish fans? They're all, like, alt-rock college kids."
"So are ours," Mission said.
"And probably half the people there will want to see Fifteen-Cent Solution, and they're emo."
"Don't let Pennell catch you saying that," Laurie said. "He bitched out a music reviewer from the University paper for calling him emo." Personally Laurie thought that was a dumb move on Pennell's part. The guy had admitted his musical influences included Dashboard Confessional and Promise Ring, and you couldn't get a lot more emo than that. Besides, any earlier reviews of the band's performances and albums made mention of their sensitive-emo-boy look and sound, and he'd never been upset before. Nothing about them had changed, except Pennell's perception.
"It's a gig!" Bran said, annoyed, breaking into Laurie's thought processes. "It's exposure. It's money. It might be a whole new bunch of fans. I wasn't going to turn them down, they'll stop asking us to play."
"Who asked you if we could fill in, anyway?" Laurie asked. He didn't think Fifteen-Cent Solution would be so bent out of shape if Bran said no, they couldn't fill in, they wouldn't be ready in time. "Underworld or Pennell?"
"Underworld. I don't want them thinking we're unreliable."
"But it's ok for them to think we're unprepared," Lea said.
"I didn't think it would be so damn hard to schedule two rehearsals!"
"In a week? Are you on crack?" Bran glared at her.
"We can do the same set we did Thursday," Mission said calmly. "People seemed to like it."
"They sure did." Lea leered at Laurie out of the corner of her eye. He grinned back. He knew she was thinking about Rian the redheaded groupie he'd taken home. It was only fair - HE was thinking about Rian too. The kid was cute and appreciative and energetic and a lot of fun.
"We won't have time to work up 'Peake,'" Laurie said, trying to sound disappointed for Bran's sake. Bran still looked peeved, though. He probably thought they were ganging up on him. Well, it was his own fault for his reckless scheduling. Although to be fair, he did have a point, and a gig was a gig and they could use some exposure. Not that they were such a small unknown band, but the more people they played for the more fans they could potentially get, and the more fans they had the bigger they'd be, and hopefully they'd be able to parlay that into, say, a major label deal, or a decent tour, or something. Laurie liked playing local clubs for local music fans, but sometimes he wanted more. He wanted to be bigger.
"Ok, ok, fine," Bran conceded resignedly. "We've got tonight and next Saturday. We might be ok. What'd I say we get, an hour and a half?" Nods all around. He retrieved a pen from inside his guitar case and flattened a piece of paper across the back of his guitar, which had been resting on his lap this whole time. That was the only way you could tell he wasn't going to get up and storm out in the middle of an argument. Sometimes Bran could be a real drama queen (or king, technically, since he was almost painfully hetereosexual), but he usually talked out his arguments and didn't huff off in the middle. And he could be professional when he wanted, which was a good thing right now, otherwise they'd just keep chewing over set lists and bad scheduling and who knew what the hell else until it was midnight.
"We can do 'Winter White,'" Laurie said, "that sounded really good, and 'Red Army Blues' was a little shaky but not too bad. That was my fault anyway." He'd temporarily forgotten the middle of the bridge because he'd been thinking about the redhaired kid in the audience who'd had the hots for him, the redhaired kid who turned out to be the good-looking and very tasty Rian. Laurie made a mental note to try and not get so distracted at Underworld. Futile, but he had to try. "I don't want to do 'Wide and Clever,' I don't have a grip on it yet and it's not worth it to beat it into shape now. Maybe for the show at the Pig."
"And 'I Love Rock and Roll,'" Lea added. Bran scribbled on his piece of paper. "That's just three."
"I want to do 'The Boys from Rome,'" Mission said. Lea turned and raised an eyebrow at him. It was one of the songs off their EP and they rarely played it live, now that they had a growing store of newer, better, more representative songs. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's a good song. We never play it."
"Which is why we shouldn't at Underworld. I'm not sure I remember all of it."
"I can go get the CD."
"We can do that on the 30th too," Bran said almost absently. "We've still only got three songs so far, and I don't care how much you love 'Rock and Roll,' Laurie, you can't drag it out into a half hour singalong."
"'In the Cut' is sounding pretty good," Laurie volunteered. It had a really interesting guitar part, a little flashy but really cool.
"Yeah, but me and Mission can't stay with you when you go off into the solo," Lea said.
"So? It's a solo. We could rewrite it so you don't have to play that part at all. Just me and a spotlight." He grinned broadly. He was mostly teasing. Lea rolled her eyes at him.
"I don't think so."
"Can we finalize the set list so we can get on with the practicing?" Mission said. "So far we've got an hour and a half to play 'Red Army Blues,' 'Winter White,' and Joan Jett. I don't think that's going to endear us to the Underworld booking guy."
"'Chasing Opal,'" Bran said. '"Little Shiny Thing,' 'Titus,' 'The Girl in the Coffeeshop,' 'Bluesky,' 'The Last Slam,' 'Swallow Hard and Smile,' and 'Sweet and Low.'"
"You want to end with the sex song?" Lea said, grinning evilly. "That's a hard act for Mintyfish to follow."
"That's the point. I didn't take the gig to support them, I did it to show us off. Have some faith." Bran hadn't looked up while he was scribbling on his piece of paper, but he sounded a lot less ticked off. In fact he almost sounded happy. Laurie didn't get him at all sometimes. Either he was pissed that you were arguing with him or you thought he'd done something selfish and stupid, or he was all smiles and light and agreement. Maybe he was bipolar. Or possibly he'd just switched into professional mode, where he took things a lot less personally.
"That's eleven songs," Laurie said, ticking them off on his fingers. "That should do us fine. And we've got most of them down. We can just run through them to make sure they all sound ok."
"And that we remember the bridge," Lea pointed out.
"If the world didn't throw eager boys in my way I'd be able to concentrate a lot better."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"You got any cute boys to throw at me?"
"Not at the moment, no."
"Mintyfish has a big female following," Bran interrupted. "I don't think you'll have much of a problem at the show."
"But by then people will know we're playing," Laurie said. "So there should be at least a couple samples of eye candy."
"Just keep your big head on the gig, ok? You do too much thinking with your little head anyway."
"And you don't? Jeez, Bran, you're as much a guy as I am - "
"Kids," Lea broke in, "fight on your own time." She gestured meaningfully to her watch. "We got the set list, now let's practice it. I kinda wanted to be out of here by eleven."
"You'll make it," Mission said. Bran opened his mouth, apparently to argue, but Mission pointed a drumstick at him and said "I'm locking the garage at eleven. If you're not done you'll have to stay here."
"Lightweights," Bran muttered. "That's the problem with bands in this city, no professionalism."
"We're here, aren't we?"
"Yeah," Lea said, "Laurie could be out getting some." She grinned at him. He couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at her again, even though he knew what she would say to it.
"Let's try 'Red Army Blues' first," Bran said, putting his professional face back on. "Make sure Laurie knows what he's doing." Laurie shrugged, plucked at his guitar strings to make sure they were all tuned properly, and swung into the intro. It sounded good to him. Yeah, he knew what he was doing.
words: 1929
total words: 11,159
"It's not a week and a half," Mission said suddenly. They turned to look at him. "The Underworld show. It's a week."
"That's stupid," Lea said.
"What was I supposed to do?" Bran demanded. "It's a gig! A gig's a gig. We'll be fine. I figure we should try and get in two more rehearsals before that, but if we only have one we might still be ok. How's Tuesday for everyone?"
"Can't," Laurie said. "I'm taking Danny to see Book of Fish at the Pig. Extenuating circumstances." He caught Lea looking at him strangely. "What? It's important."
"I didn't think you knew what 'extenuating' meant," she teased, grinning. Laurie stuck his tongue out at her. "Don't stick that out at me, I don't know where it's been."
"Or who it's been in," he finished. They'd been trading that particular barb for so long that he'd started using it on other people.
"Oh I know who it's been in."
"Do you now."
"I don't want to know where it's been in him...."
"Kids," Bran interrupted, "if we could finish this?" Laurie and Lea turned to him innocently, looking like ten-year-olds pretending they really hadn't done anything that they should be punished for. "So Tuesday's out. Wednesday."
"I have to work that night," Lea said. "I traded shifts with someone." Usually she worked normal daylight hours.
"I can't do it either," Mission added.
"And I think I've got a dinner shift," Laurie finished. Bran looked like he was trying not to pitch a fit. It was kind of funny, actually.
"Thursday!" he cried, exasperated. The other three band members all shrugged, which Laurie figured meant they were all free. "Wait. I can't. Dammit." Lea giggled. Laurie repressed a snerk. Mission managed a noncommittal face. Bran was just all colors of frustrated now, you could tell from the way his hand tightened on the neck of his guitar and the way a vein in his forehead started to pulse.
"Fine. Fine," he fumed, "we'll have the one rehearsal on Saturday again." He seemed to have forgotten that this whole problem was his fault for committing them to a gig before checking to make sure they'd have time to prepare for it. Laurie wondered idly how long it would be before someone reminded him of that fact, and how big a fit he was going to throw when they did. "We're going to suck. We have got to straighten out a good practice schedule for the show on the 30th, though. We have to be fantastically good for that one."
"This wouldn't be happening if you hadn't said we'd play a show in a week," Lea pointed out reasonably. There it is, Laurie thought. He waited for the explosion. "Besides, what kind of crossover do we have with Mintyfish fans? They're all, like, alt-rock college kids."
"So are ours," Mission said.
"And probably half the people there will want to see Fifteen-Cent Solution, and they're emo."
"Don't let Pennell catch you saying that," Laurie said. "He bitched out a music reviewer from the University paper for calling him emo." Personally Laurie thought that was a dumb move on Pennell's part. The guy had admitted his musical influences included Dashboard Confessional and Promise Ring, and you couldn't get a lot more emo than that. Besides, any earlier reviews of the band's performances and albums made mention of their sensitive-emo-boy look and sound, and he'd never been upset before. Nothing about them had changed, except Pennell's perception.
"It's a gig!" Bran said, annoyed, breaking into Laurie's thought processes. "It's exposure. It's money. It might be a whole new bunch of fans. I wasn't going to turn them down, they'll stop asking us to play."
"Who asked you if we could fill in, anyway?" Laurie asked. He didn't think Fifteen-Cent Solution would be so bent out of shape if Bran said no, they couldn't fill in, they wouldn't be ready in time. "Underworld or Pennell?"
"Underworld. I don't want them thinking we're unreliable."
"But it's ok for them to think we're unprepared," Lea said.
"I didn't think it would be so damn hard to schedule two rehearsals!"
"In a week? Are you on crack?" Bran glared at her.
"We can do the same set we did Thursday," Mission said calmly. "People seemed to like it."
"They sure did." Lea leered at Laurie out of the corner of her eye. He grinned back. He knew she was thinking about Rian the redheaded groupie he'd taken home. It was only fair - HE was thinking about Rian too. The kid was cute and appreciative and energetic and a lot of fun.
"We won't have time to work up 'Peake,'" Laurie said, trying to sound disappointed for Bran's sake. Bran still looked peeved, though. He probably thought they were ganging up on him. Well, it was his own fault for his reckless scheduling. Although to be fair, he did have a point, and a gig was a gig and they could use some exposure. Not that they were such a small unknown band, but the more people they played for the more fans they could potentially get, and the more fans they had the bigger they'd be, and hopefully they'd be able to parlay that into, say, a major label deal, or a decent tour, or something. Laurie liked playing local clubs for local music fans, but sometimes he wanted more. He wanted to be bigger.
"Ok, ok, fine," Bran conceded resignedly. "We've got tonight and next Saturday. We might be ok. What'd I say we get, an hour and a half?" Nods all around. He retrieved a pen from inside his guitar case and flattened a piece of paper across the back of his guitar, which had been resting on his lap this whole time. That was the only way you could tell he wasn't going to get up and storm out in the middle of an argument. Sometimes Bran could be a real drama queen (or king, technically, since he was almost painfully hetereosexual), but he usually talked out his arguments and didn't huff off in the middle. And he could be professional when he wanted, which was a good thing right now, otherwise they'd just keep chewing over set lists and bad scheduling and who knew what the hell else until it was midnight.
"We can do 'Winter White,'" Laurie said, "that sounded really good, and 'Red Army Blues' was a little shaky but not too bad. That was my fault anyway." He'd temporarily forgotten the middle of the bridge because he'd been thinking about the redhaired kid in the audience who'd had the hots for him, the redhaired kid who turned out to be the good-looking and very tasty Rian. Laurie made a mental note to try and not get so distracted at Underworld. Futile, but he had to try. "I don't want to do 'Wide and Clever,' I don't have a grip on it yet and it's not worth it to beat it into shape now. Maybe for the show at the Pig."
"And 'I Love Rock and Roll,'" Lea added. Bran scribbled on his piece of paper. "That's just three."
"I want to do 'The Boys from Rome,'" Mission said. Lea turned and raised an eyebrow at him. It was one of the songs off their EP and they rarely played it live, now that they had a growing store of newer, better, more representative songs. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's a good song. We never play it."
"Which is why we shouldn't at Underworld. I'm not sure I remember all of it."
"I can go get the CD."
"We can do that on the 30th too," Bran said almost absently. "We've still only got three songs so far, and I don't care how much you love 'Rock and Roll,' Laurie, you can't drag it out into a half hour singalong."
"'In the Cut' is sounding pretty good," Laurie volunteered. It had a really interesting guitar part, a little flashy but really cool.
"Yeah, but me and Mission can't stay with you when you go off into the solo," Lea said.
"So? It's a solo. We could rewrite it so you don't have to play that part at all. Just me and a spotlight." He grinned broadly. He was mostly teasing. Lea rolled her eyes at him.
"I don't think so."
"Can we finalize the set list so we can get on with the practicing?" Mission said. "So far we've got an hour and a half to play 'Red Army Blues,' 'Winter White,' and Joan Jett. I don't think that's going to endear us to the Underworld booking guy."
"'Chasing Opal,'" Bran said. '"Little Shiny Thing,' 'Titus,' 'The Girl in the Coffeeshop,' 'Bluesky,' 'The Last Slam,' 'Swallow Hard and Smile,' and 'Sweet and Low.'"
"You want to end with the sex song?" Lea said, grinning evilly. "That's a hard act for Mintyfish to follow."
"That's the point. I didn't take the gig to support them, I did it to show us off. Have some faith." Bran hadn't looked up while he was scribbling on his piece of paper, but he sounded a lot less ticked off. In fact he almost sounded happy. Laurie didn't get him at all sometimes. Either he was pissed that you were arguing with him or you thought he'd done something selfish and stupid, or he was all smiles and light and agreement. Maybe he was bipolar. Or possibly he'd just switched into professional mode, where he took things a lot less personally.
"That's eleven songs," Laurie said, ticking them off on his fingers. "That should do us fine. And we've got most of them down. We can just run through them to make sure they all sound ok."
"And that we remember the bridge," Lea pointed out.
"If the world didn't throw eager boys in my way I'd be able to concentrate a lot better."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"You got any cute boys to throw at me?"
"Not at the moment, no."
"Mintyfish has a big female following," Bran interrupted. "I don't think you'll have much of a problem at the show."
"But by then people will know we're playing," Laurie said. "So there should be at least a couple samples of eye candy."
"Just keep your big head on the gig, ok? You do too much thinking with your little head anyway."
"And you don't? Jeez, Bran, you're as much a guy as I am - "
"Kids," Lea broke in, "fight on your own time." She gestured meaningfully to her watch. "We got the set list, now let's practice it. I kinda wanted to be out of here by eleven."
"You'll make it," Mission said. Bran opened his mouth, apparently to argue, but Mission pointed a drumstick at him and said "I'm locking the garage at eleven. If you're not done you'll have to stay here."
"Lightweights," Bran muttered. "That's the problem with bands in this city, no professionalism."
"We're here, aren't we?"
"Yeah," Lea said, "Laurie could be out getting some." She grinned at him. He couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at her again, even though he knew what she would say to it.
"Let's try 'Red Army Blues' first," Bran said, putting his professional face back on. "Make sure Laurie knows what he's doing." Laurie shrugged, plucked at his guitar strings to make sure they were all tuned properly, and swung into the intro. It sounded good to him. Yeah, he knew what he was doing.
words: 1929
total words: 11,159
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-11-06 07:02 am (UTC)