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29 Temmuz 2022, 21:10
"All in favor of killing Becky, raise their hands?"Four hands shot up instantly."It's agreed, we kill the bitch. As soon as possible."Oh, don't worry, dear reader, we're not really planning on killing someone. We'd like to, but we're not that violent or bloodthirsty. Becky is, or was, I should say, our bass player in our band, the Pastels. So named because of our love of 80's new wave, power pop and we all dress the part with big hair, pastels, etc. I play guitar and sing lead, Deanna plays lead guitar and sings, Kim plays keyboards, Violet plays drums and sings, and Becky had been our bass player who also sang some leads. The bitch had been very reliable until she got a boyfriend who also played, and she'd sat in with his band, and now had taken a regular gig with them leaving us in the lurch. We also had our biggest show coming up on Friday night at a decent sized club, and no bass player. At one point we'd been a power trio with me on bass, but I can't sing that well while I'm playing bass, and our material was too complicated now to even try."I can do some of your guitar parts, could we maybe minimize some of it?" asks Kim.I shake my head as does Deanna. "Too much to change, and face it, maybe 5 songs we could pull off like that, everything else requires all of us." We'd developed a pretty good set, and we'd worked damn hard at getting tight and polished. Now Becky's betrayal was going to hurt us, big time. You bail on a big gig, kiss any hope of getting more of them goodbye.Deanna is lost in intense concentration."Earth to Deanna, come in Deanna!" I call.She looks up with a smile. "I have the answer. Khaos."Khaos works at the Hot Gear Warehouse. He knows.....every musician within a hundred miles. He's weird, he has a lazy eye, and he'd ogle the shit out of all of us, but he'd know someone who could fit the bill. The guy's a creep, but he is pretty useful in these situations. He hooked me up in my first paying gig five years ago because he remembered that I'm a huge Matthew Sweet fan and knew all of his stuff. We decide to stop on by. Hot Gear Warehouse is not a fence, it's legal, but the name sounds good and it's best place to buy if you're on a budget, and if you know the people well, they'll help you find some great stuff, my Rickenbacker 325 was bought there as was my Telecaster.Khaos mans the counter, and he leers as we come in."My favorite colors, but y'all are missing one, where's Teal?" He named us after the colors, which we hadn't thought of, so we all coordinated our outfits to go with it."Teal, aka Becky, has gone bitch on us and bailed for her boyfriend's shitty grunge band. We are now fucked unless we find a bass player that we can get set up on our set list by Friday and make a good show of it." I tell him. "Who is floating around in that incredible brain of yours that can do the job, oh wise one?" A little flattery never hurts.He looks me up and down, looks Deanna up and down, and decides that Violet is the most ogle worthy in the band and checks her out pretty intently. Despite being the youngest, she's pretty sharp and she takes something out of her pocket kaçak iddaa (http://www.champavo.com/) and drops it."Ooooops. Dropped that. I'll have to get it." and she slowly, and exaggeratedly bends over to pick it up and gives Khaos a great view of her ass and legs as she's wearing shorts. His breath catches and as she stands back up she winks at me."Sooo...do you know of anyone that can help us, you sweet man?" she asks him with her most air headed look and voice. Khaos is putty in her hands."Bass, backing vocals, fast study, knowledge of most 80's stuff, and cute would be good, right?" He keeps these categories in his head somehow, with no written record or computers, he's actually pretty smart."We'd settle for a Labrador at this point." says Deanna. "As long as we can take the stage without a problem.""How's your Dutch?" he asks."Our Dutch? What does that have to do with it?""She's Dutch, but she speaks good English and knows a LOT of material, so language shouldn't be a problem, but it never hurts to ask, does it?""Okay, is she cool, sharp and is she a druggie? You know a few drinks are cool, but we're a drug-free band.""She's clean as a whistle, very nice, funny and a recent transplant from Rotterdam. I think you'll get along all right, except she's not going to fit your look, she's got short hair.""Pfft!" says Deanna. "As long as she can play, who cares about her hair? Give us the number you-""Well, thank you so much, could you please give us her number se we can make our big gig this weekend? You're so sweet to help us." Violet's got this guy all figured out. He rapidly scribbles out a number on a post it note and hands it to her. She caresses his hand softly as she takes it, as if to hint that she can't wait to see him again, although she's most likely revolted by him. "Thanks again Mr. Khaos, you're such a huge help, will you be at our show?""Uh yeah, yeah, I will, you playing Circus?""Oh, we're at Dante's House, I'll put you on the guest list!" she purrs.We leave him grinning like an idiot and for once, he only eyes one of us instead of all of us.The second we are out of his view she mimes puking. "Yeah, he'll be on the guest list, just below my boyfriend, who will most likely snap him in two. Ewww! Let's just hope this chick can play!"I punch in the number and hope. It rings three times and a very pleasant voice answers. "Hallo! Wie is dit?..Wait. I am sorry, who is this please?""Hi! My name is Kayla, and I play guitar for a band called the Pastels. Our bass player quit on us and we have a big show on Friday night. Khaos said you might be able to help us out and he said you were pretty good.""He is very nice, but he...looks at me funny. He said he does knows lots of bands though." She spoke with a bit of accent, but it was charming. "What type of stuffs does your band play?""We play mostly 80's new wave and pop stuff. Sometimes we play originals, but not this weekend.""Is, um, sorry, are you the only girl in the band? Or are all of you girls?" she asks."All girls, and we're all pretty nice. You want to give us a try?""Okay, I tries it, where do I go, and please give me nice directions, kaçak bahis (http://www.champavo.com/) my family has only been here three months, and I gets lost easily."I give her directions and a brief set list and we agree to meet up in three hours. We head back to my house where we rehearse and get ready to go.Two hours and 38 minutes later there's a knock on the door. Liese is about five foot two, with a pixie cut hairdo, and she's slim and in good shape, and she's got big blue eyes with long lashes. We've found our Jane Weidlin! We head out to my garage and Kim helps her get her amp out of her car. We're already tuned up and set, but she opens up her case to reveal her Rickenbacker 4001, which is finished in neon green, and she's tuned up in less than three minutes. We're impressed.She does a quick check on her mic, and stands ready. "Okay, I don't knows which keys we're in so tell me, or just start and I'll pick it up. I'll try the singing as we go, is that all right?""Sounds good Liese, we're starting off with "Goodbye To You"."We launch into it and there's a few seconds as she adjusts to us and then we start to click. She's very solid and she watches us closely to see if we make any changes, and she kicks in her vocal at just the right spot with the rest of the girls, and makes a lightning quick adjustment as she's on the same note that Deanna is, we finish up and we all look at her with respect."Very nice, Liese, good catch on the vocals. You want to try 'One Thing Leads To Another'?"She nods and grins. "It's one of my favorite, you know, lots of bass!"We start up and she does know it well, and I realize she's better than Becky was, a more fluid, natural style compared to Becky's overly tight playing. I'm surprised as she takes a deeper note on the background vocals, but it sounds good! The rehearsal gets better and better, and now she's dancing a bit as she plays, and throws in a few heavy metal moves with me as Deanna blasts out her solos. We offer her a chance to sing lead on two songs and she does them well enough that they go back into our set, and in between songs, she and Violet obviously work well together as they jam little bits and pieces.We finish up and she grabs a notebook out of her case and jots down all sorts of information. "Is it okay if I make a few cards with notes so I get all the keys right?" She laughs when Kim holds up her little notebook/cheat sheet and shows her.We take a short break and she tells us a bit about her family moving from Rotterdam for her father's career."I am old enough I could have gotten my flat and stayed, but to see America? To not have to get a job for six months because father and mother want me to see all of this? I say 'Let's go!', and now I can play here, too?""Actually," I say, 'we may have to look into you not actually being officially part of the band just yet. Are you allowed to work on your visa?""I'm not sure yet. Let me check with father on that. Now let's get back to work. Can we try some stuff I likes?" She suggests a few songs and we give them a try, they sound good and so does she. She's also very cute. She'll fit the look, and illegal bahis (http://www.champavo.com/) I wonder if I can snag some of the stuff from Becky as far as the clothes so she can be our new "Teal".We're done for the day, and she makes a list of songs she wants to really get better at, even though she wowed us completely. Violet, Kim and Deanna head out to grab some pizza and see a movie, and I offer Liese dinner as I'm getting ready to cook."You play guitar, sing and cook? You're very talented. Mother is not happy that I can't cook well. She says all girls should know, but I tell her restaurants were made so we don't have to cook. Thank you, I will be happy to have dinner here. I can't cook, but if you need me to set table, or wash up after, I can do that."I laugh. "No, I'm not exactly a great cook, just having some pasta, sauce and a salad, and I'll put it all in the dishwasher afterwards. Um, I didn't even think to ask, how old are you?""I'm 23, why do you ask?""Have to make sure you can play in the club, you have to be at least 18 to be in the band. Also, there's some wine in the refrigerator if you want. I'm having a glass, or there's soda, or juice or water or....nope, I think that's it." "I'll pour the wine then. Where are the glasses?"I tell her and she pours as I get dinner cooking. We toast to new friends and talk. She wants to be a fashion designer some day, and I tell her my dream of making it big as a musician. I tell her about my four previous bands, and the lone CD I've written, and she asks to hear it. I put it on and she's impressed. She tells me her musical experiences and the two previous bands she was in. We eat a leisurely dinner, chat more, get to know each other, compare influences and I find she's a big fan of several of mine. In short, she's very charming and sweet, and I see the band being much better with her in it. We finish dinner and I toss everything in the washer and we head into my living room. Mom and Dad retired to Florida three years ago, and offered the house to me and my older sister, rent free as long as we take care of it, and it's a good deal. My sister is currently vacationing with her boyfriend in Mexico, so I'm all by myself for the next three weeks, and I'm already a bit lonely.She sees my acoustic guitars on their stands and asks if it's ok if she plays one. I tell her to pick whichever she likes and have fun. She grabs my Ovation and I grab my Takamine and we sit down on the giant twin bean bags for some jamming. She knows a ton of stuff and we have a blast as we have a little more wine, and I notice that she's very, very good on guitar."You're just as good on guitar as you are bass. Have you ever played guitar in a band?""I have to concentrate too hard to play guitar in a band. Like this? Sure, I'm relaxed, put an audience in front of me? I am so nervous I almost pee my pants!" she says with a giggle. "Bass is easier, and I can dance along with the groove, unlike guitar."Dance she did. She looked good doing it, too. Why am I thinking about that? She's really, really cute. Why is that in my head? I'm not gay. This is getting weird. I offer to show her some of my stage clothes and we head to my bedroom. Why did I offer to show her? I...do not know."This is my main outfit, I call it my Madonna set up, and it looks the part, and we all try to match it up.