Obstruction

Welcome to the Jungle

-Guns n Roses, Welcome to the Jungle -

https://open.spotify.com/track/0eFvoRSTTaR2q8bSWVjwfp

- April 18th -

We were ready to go on stage at Rock Central.
A fresh batch of flyers were placed on the bar.
Courtesy of Freddy's camera, we had gotten a few photos done and I had selected a low angle shot of the three guys standing with their arms crossed and me crouched down in a low spiderman looking pose in front of them.
It had felt extremely weird to get into the pose, but the photo looked pretty good. Freddy had told me to look cat-like and I had failed miserably, looking more like a burglar than a cat. The boys were trying to look tough, but Oddball was cracking bad jokes about my ass being pointed in his direction so all three of them looked on the verge of laughter in the photo.
Friday, Simon and I had spent our free studio time on designing and copying the flyer. One version was CD-cover size and was fitted to the ten demos Oddball had made. And a big stack of flyers with our contact info had been copied to leave behind.
On the reverse of the flyer were four individual portraits of us. Freddy had directed us to stay face front but lift our eyes only in a direction, which meant that when I had put them together it looked like we were all looking at a spot in the middle. On each portrait, we had our names, what we did in the band and what we were studying.
For Ethan we had mentioned his shortlisting in the recent scolarship clntest and listed the instruments he mastered.
He was none too happy about that, but as Simon had insisted on listing me as a portrait artist and Oddball as a sound designer, he saw how it completed the flyer.

We were ready to rock their socks off.

The band we were supporting were a rather run down gang who were struggling to keep going after a semi successful album five years earlier. They were called Catnip and by the look of the drummer and guitarist, had been sampling some herbal remedies earlier in the day.
Their music matched their bandname.
Screechy heavy metal.
Even Oddball cringed during their soundcheck.

"Compared to them, we're Pearl Jam!" Simon muttered as we were sat at the bar waiting for our soundcheck.

"Tell me about it... Why do you think I booked you guys for tonight?" the manager grinned from behind the bar.

Catnip's tour manager was sat at the other end of the bar applauding like an idiot when they finished a test of their greatest hit.

I sighed in relief at the knowledge that we were too young to stay on as audience after our set. I wasn't sure if I could handle two hours of whatever it was they were doing.

With surprise, I noticed a small thumbs up between the manager and the guy in the soundbooth as we walked on.
Oddball went up to the edge of the stage.

"Hey. Could you vary the mix for each song if I give you a list?" He asked.

"Yeah," the soundguy replied.

"Sweet," Oddball said and jogged over to hand him a list of our songs and what he thought would be the best setup for each.
They had a short discussion before Odd looked at us.

"Hey. Could you do 'Welcome to the Jungle'? We need to test something," he asked me.

I nodded and picked up the maracas as Ethan picked up the guitar. I had a fair idea of what Oddball was after so I stepped up to the microphone with my sweetest, most innocent, smile towards the soundguy.

"You're in the jungle, baby!" I screamed into the microphone at top volume.
Either side of me, Simon and Ethan cracked up in laughter before they launched into the tune giving me a solid four bar intro before I started singing. Over by the soundbooth Oddball was grinning and the sound guy was shaking his head in laughter.
Oddball signalled a cut and we stopped playing.