Disasterpiece

My back ached a little as we pulled the last t-shirts out of their box and placed them on the table against the back wall. It was after midday and we had spent the last hour helping the rest of the merch crew set up the tables and display board for tonight. My breath had almost been taken away when we had walked out into the empty arena, it was huge and I could barely believe that that many people would pay to come and see my brother and his band perform. I was so amazed and excited, at least until I realised that I’d be stuck out in the foyer selling merch the whole way through their set.

“Starscream to apple-butt-cheeks, come in apple-butt-cheeks,” Sid’s voice interrupted Josie and I high-fiving for a job well done. Her face flushed scarlet as she grabbed the pink Barbie walkie talkie from her jeans that Sid had run out and bought from the local toy store so they could keep in contact.

“That was not my code name,” Josie hissed into the device, turning her back to me. I laughed, picked up the empty cardboard box and chucked it over the table onto the large pile we had going on.

“We have no record of any other code name,” Sid replied, micking an official ‘Houston-like’ voice, Josie growled.

“What do you want, Starscream?” she asked impatiently.

“We have confirmation that lunch is being served back here, this is your official invitation,” Sid said robotically, Josie looked up at me questioningly as if asking if we would go, so I gave her a thumbs up.

“Ok thanks we’ll be there soon,” Josie replied.

“Starscream out,” Sid ended. Josie rolled her eyes, shoving the walky talky back into her jeans.

“So...apple butt cheeks huh?” I joked, cackling. Josie slapped me across the arm with a huff and pulled me towards the doors. We walked through the arena which was now having its lights tested out and watched in awe as roadies swarmed the place, tying lights above into position, playing with knobs on the mix desk and moving boxes of music equipment around the stage. It was amazing just how many people it took to put on a show like this. We climbed the stairs by the side of the stage, flashing our passes at security and walked down a long hallway into a cafeteria style room where all the guys seemed to have congregated.

“What’s on the menu?” Josie yelled across the room. They all glanced up and acknowledged us bar Sid who jumped to his feet and ran over to Josie, flailing a sandwich around.

“Pickles!” Sid squealed, knocking Josie to the ground he shoved his sandwich in her face, doing his best to squash it into her mouth as she screamed. I laughed to the point of almost falling over as she tried to fight him off; she hated pickles with a passion and I had a suspicious feeling that he had loaded up that sandwich with them especially for her.

“Dick!” she gasped as she pushed her knee up into his groin. Sid screamed, dropped the sandwich and rolled off her, clasping at his injury. I decided that was my queue to leave them, and made my way over to the others.

“The food’s over there,” Corey said as I approached, pointing over to the right where there was a table lined with food.

“Sweet,” I replied. Walking over to the table I grabbed a plate and ladled it with salad and grilled chicken. I walked back over to the guys and found a spot between Shawn and Corey...it was also conveniently across from Joey, who smiled welcomingly at me.

“Having fun with the merch?” Corey joked, obviously knowing that it wasn’t the most interesting job on tour.

“It’s not too bad...but I better not sell any of the lingerie or I’ll puke,” I shuddered, referring to the women’s line of clothes they sold that involved g-strings. Corey laughed and patted my back.

“You can blame that lot on Shawn,” he said. I turned to Shawn and jokingly shook my fist in his direction.

“The ladies love it,” he replied with a wink, I rolled my eyes playfully and turned back to Corey.

“What do you guys do for the rest of the day?” I queried, thinking it would be pretty boring to sit around doing nothing until they played.

“Interviews, sound check, meet and greet,” Corey listed through a mouthful of food.

“Lovely,” I said in fake disgust as little bits of food flew out of his mouth.

“Are you going to watch the set tonight?” Joey asked me from across the table, I looked over and gave him a fake pout.

“I wish...we’re stuck behind the merch desk all night,” I told him sadly, I was more than bummed that I couldn’t see them play. Not only would it have been my first time seeing them, but also an important landmark in mine and Corey’s life journey, I mean who wouldn’t want to see a member of their family finally achieve and exceed their wildest dreams! Joey looked a little dejected too.

“That sucks,” he said, to which I nodded vehemently in agreement.

The time had almost come to open the doors and let the crowd tear inside; I was riddled with nervous anticipation as I stood behind the merch desk with Josie. The only benefit to come out of today was that we got to watch the guys do sound check...though, exciting as it was and as amazing as they are, sound check is really just playing a couple of songs through to test the instrument levels. There was none of that fire you would see on stage if they were up there masked and belting it out to a roaring crowd.

“Doors open in 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1,” came the count down over the loud speaker. All of a sudden the glass doors were pushed open in front of us and a deafening scream was heard. Security was yelling and trying to keep everyone in an orderly line as the fans showed their tickets and rushed in, many running straight past us and into the arena to claim the best spots.

“Show time!” Josie squealed, squeezing my hand quickly as the first onslaught of customers approached.

Two hours was more than enough for me; my head was spinning painfully from having to concentrate really hard just to hear the order over the crowd. And there was no end to the line, if you could call the gathered group before us a line that is. I handed over a medium t-shirt and took the money from a girl, just as she was replaced by another two girls.

“Oh my god!” one of them screamed excitedly. I looked up into their faces, my eyes cloudy with a beckoning headache when I realised who they were.

“You were at the signing yesterday!” the other one pointed out obviously. I shuffled uneasily on the spot and shrugged, not really in the mood to deal with all of this right now.

“You never told us who you’re related to! Who is it?” the first one probed zealously.

“I don’t think it’s really important...do you guys want some merch or I really need to serve someone else,” I replied tiredly.

“Oh come on, please just tell us, we’re dying to know!” the other one begged. I could see this was going to get nowhere fast, and without the ability to have security step in (they had more important things to do) I sighed and relented in frustration.

“I’m Corey’s sister ok? Can you please order something?” I answered, half annoyed, half exhausted. They turned to each other and screamed, sending my headache into overdrive.

“Oh my god everyone, it’s Corey Taylor’s sister!” the first one screamed at the rest of the crowd.

“Mother fucker,” I growled under my breath as an excited buzz started to erupt in the crowd. Josie popped up at my side, grabbing my hand as everyone tried to get a better look at ‘Corey’s sister’. I could see the word was spreading fast because the aimless people who were just standing around before were now drawing in closer.

“Let’s split,” Josie yelled in my ear, knowing there was no way we were going to be productive to merch sales now when all anyone wanted was a glimpse of Corey’s sister...and I imagine some others would try for more. We informed the head of merch what was going on and she found a security guard to escort us backstage.

“My head is fucking killing me,” Josie whined once we were safety behind the closed side-stage doors.

“Tell me about it, worst job ever...and I’ve worked in a bar for three years!” I agreed, grabbing at my pounding head.

“Let’s find some water,” Josie said. I had no objection to that idea so we started to walk down the hallway in search of water, but that was when a loud roar erupted from the arena and some menacing guitars and drums kicked in. Josie and I stopped, staring at each other with wide-eyed excitement.

“Oh my god...we can totally catch their set now!” Josie squealed, jumping up and down before grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the stage. We found the side of the stage and stood next to John who grinned at us wickedly. There was a tonne of people standing around watching them, from roadies who were waiting to run out and pick up anything thrown on stage, to the support band who looked on excitedly.

On stage the guys were killing it, I was completely in awe and my headache lay abandoned in bad memories. Josie and I held hands through the whole set, unable to move or take our eyes off the guys. They were amazing, and that wasn’t just a biased thought, it was utterly true. I had been right, sound check was nothing...this was Slipknot, this is what those fans screamed about and willed death for. I couldn’t believe how they completely owned the stage, like it was their birth right. My focus was broken between Corey and a certain drummer; I almost wished they knew we were here watching them so they could feel the exhilaration pulsating through us.

The only time I moved from my spot was during Joey’s drum solo, which gave me a heart attack at first because I had no idea what was going on. He rose up on that platform, belting away, the floor beneath him turning a complete ninety degrees and then spinning around. I was stunned that it was physically possible for someone to do that and afraid that the seatbelt wasn’t secure enough and he would fall. But he didn’t, and it was mind blowing.

When they finished they exited off the other side of the stage. Josie and I turned and faced each other, just staring with no words being able to be passed between us.

“They’ll be heading to the dressing room,” John told us before walking over to some roadies and beginning to coordinate the pack up. Josie and I said nothing as we walked to the room; I think both of us were lost in our own thoughts and replaying the scenes we had just witnessed in our minds. Josie pushed open the dressing room door and we walked in to find the guys high fiving, massive smiles plastered to each of their black make up cacked faces.

“Holy fuck dudes,” Josie said to them as she headed over to receive a massive bear hug from Sid. I walked over to Corey and hugged him, a little disgusted by the amount of sweat he had produced, but feeling the need to congratulate him with a hug none the less.

“I can’t even say how amazing you are,” I said to him, he laughed and ruffled my hair.

“I can’t even say how much I need a shower right now,” he joked back, I grinned and let him go off into the showers to get clean.

“I thought you weren’t going to see us play,” came a voice from behind. I spun on my foot and found Joey standing there shirtless with a towel around his neck; his long hair was completely drenched and his blue eye blazing, it was a completely swoon worthy moment.

“Well I’m glad that changed, I wouldn’t have missed that for the world,” I replied with a grin. “And you have to be the best drummer in the world...that solo was, well it was scary as fuck,” I gushed with a laugh, Joey sniggered and held his arms out.

“You’re funny...mind if I give you a sweaty hug?” he asked, I chuckled and shook my head, stepping forward I fell into his tight grasp happily. I’ll be merch girl a million times over if it means I get to see the guys do this every night.