With Pick in Hand

With pick in hand, it strikes the strings of the guitar; a power chord shakes the stage.  The distortion fed through the amps is overdriven to the point that the notes sound quite indistinguishable from each other.   The low dense bass line rattles the lights on the wall; the audience felt it in each breath.  Drum kit on a high-rise, James is destroying the bass drum with his quick feet and double pedal, while he hits quite an assortment of crashes, rides and symbols.  The sweat is starting to bead on my forehead, dripping down my bangs that swoop in front of my eyes, smearing my vision of the neck of my guitar.  Lucky for me I don’t need to look; I could play this song in my sleep.  Jordynn, one of my best friends is here in the front row.  As we make contact with our eyes, I wave to say hello, which is the best I can do from this distance.  She brought her camera with her and promised to take some photos of the band.  I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye.  I knew it was her as I avert my gaze.  She’s only 90 pounds or so, battling in the front lines of the mosh pit, trying to get some decent pictures of the band.   Looking at the expression on her face as some fat and sweaty character pushes up against her; I began to regret asking for the favor.  It’s now the end of the set, I turn off my amp, and wave one last time to the crowd “Goodnight.”  I can’t see Jordynn anymore but she probably went backstage to congratulate us on the show.  Once backstage the band and I begin to pack our equipment and load it into our vehicles outside.  “Still no sign of Jordynn” I said.

“She’s probably still inside, let’s go get her.”  Chance said.

The handle of the door was cold, I only touched it for a second, but I swear I got mild frost bite from it.  After 20 minutes of searching the floor for her, we saw her flattened on the floor, trampled by the crowd.  She’s dead.  And from that moment on, so was the band.  In a year everything changed.  Chance and James graduated from high school and left me behind.  Nobody had time for practice anymore and the whole band thing disappeared and was replaced with women and drinking.  Ah yes, the perfect remedy for any depressing situation.