Out of the Morning and Into the Night

The lights dimmed for the third time tonight. The sound of an organ piano flooded the venue as the curtain rose on the stage, and the crowd went crazy. It was dark, but as Brian and Zacky strummed their guitars, the lights flashed on, causing Roxine and I, along with a couple thousand fans, to scream louder than before.

The intro to Critical Acclaim had finished, and Matt was now screaming into his mic by the organ. As I screamed again, tears started falling like crazy down my face, causing my makeup to run.

Shh, quiet, you might piss somebody off. Like me motherfucker, you’ve been at it for too long.

The tears continued to fall down my face as I screamed the lyrics to the first song of their set. Roxine’s grip on the banister we had been leaning on hadn’t loosened since the beginning of the concert, and now that she was shaking with excitement, so was the banister.

Once my tears quit falling, I got a chance to examine the band in full.

I love how Zacky’s socks are showing from underneath his gray skinny jeans, as well as his tattoos arms from his sleeveless black tee . And ooh, Brian’s wearing a black v-neck, it looks nice on him. Look at Matt and all his…buff-ness. Johnny’s gotten better looking since the last time I’ve seen him on the internet. Awh, damn. The stupid speakers are in the way of Jimmy!

By the time my analyzing of the band was done, Matt was talking to the crowd. I was really hoping they’d play Second Heartbeat, but they ended up playing Eternal Rest and Chapter Four instead, making up for not playing the other song. They played a few more songs, my voice getting weaker and weaker from screaming, until the entire band left the stage, leaving only Brian standing by himself.

“It’s time to get drunk as fuck!” he announced, leaving the crowd to go crazy as he played a guitar solo. Roxine leaned over to me, shouting, “this is the longest and most pointless guitar solo I’ve ever heard, but it just means I get to see ‘mah man’ on stage for longer!” She giggled at the way she said ‘my man,’ as I shook my head at her and continued staring at Brian, who looked up and waved halfway through his solo.

Did he just wave at me? I wondered to myself. That’s when I saw him staring at Roxine, and I immediately smacked her and told her to look at Brian. She looked down at him, smiling bigger then I have ever seen her smile before, and just as I looked down, he was wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. This was enough to send Roxine over the top in a screaming fit, as I watched Brian’s face brighten up a bit as he continued playing.
Suddenly, I heard someone playing the drums.

“I didn’t even see Jimmy come back on stage!” I shouted to Roxine, who turned and looked at me.

“Me either!” she slightly giggled.

“Of course you didn’t,” I prodded, “you were too busy thinking about that look Brian gave you!”

She blushed a bit, and turned back to the stage, noticing Zacky walking out, making his way over to Brian. Brian said something in Zacky’s ear while motioning in our direction. Within moments, Zacky was looking up at us, smiling. I screamed as loud as I ever have, causing him to chuckle a bit, or at least that’s what it looked like. Just then, Matt and Johnny made their way out onto the stage again.

“We’d like to dedicate this next song to all you Vegas girls out there. This one’s called Scream,” Matt announced, smiling and winking at the crowd. We were relieved to see no half naked women dancing at the back of the stage like there had been at Long Beach. We sang along to the familiar song, keeping our gazes locked on Zacky and Brian, who looked up at us from time to time.

We were having an amazing time at the concert when Matt called out to the crowd, “thank for coming tonight, we really enjoyed playing for you guys, we hope to see you all at our next tour, goodnight everybody!”

The crowd went wild, screaming ‘encore, encore!’ Within minutes of leaving, the band came out for an encore, playing A Little Piece Of Heaven. This song had been Roxine’s favorite song since the release of their self-titled album, so she screamed the lyrics as loud as she could. I stood there, laughing at her and singing at the same time, waiting to see what she’d do next.

I’m surprised she hasn’t jumped off this balcony and onto the stage yet.

As they finished up the song, Roxine started crying, not wanting tonight to be over. The band said their final goodbye’s to the crowd, and announced where they’d be going after the show.

We decided to leave right then so we could beat the crowd at the merch tables. Of course, we thought we were geniuses for leaving early, but soon realized that other people had the same idea that we did.

We made our way over to the disorderly lines, pushing and shoving people aside to get to the front as quickly as possible. When we reached the front, Roxine bought a shirt with tour dates on it, and I bought a shirt with a death bat pattern and their faces on it. The merch workers quickly grabbed us our shirts and our change, and we were on our way.

Remembering we had to pick up our belts, we took our time walking over to the bell desk, talking about the concert on the way there. There was a door just a few feet from the bell desk with a huge line forming outside of it. Wasted Space, I read above the door, that sounds oddly familiar. Where have I heard of Wasted Space before? That’s when it hit me.

“Roxine, we’re going into that club right there after we pick up our belts!” I shrieked, earning me a weird look from her.

“Uhm, alright. Why?” she questioned, wondering why I had a sudden urge to go clubbing.

“Remember at the end of the concert, while Matt was talking? He told the crowd where they’d be going after the concert. That club, Wasted Space, is where they’re going!” I barely got out before realizing I forgot to breathe.

“OMG! WE’RE SO GOING!” Roxine freaked as we picked up our pace to go get our belts. I checked my phone while we were in line at the bell desk.

12:15 am. Who cares, it’s Sin City. I put my phone away as we reached the front of the line, handing the same worker the redemption stub for our items. He came back and handed us our belts without a word. We quickly laced them through the belt loops of our jeans and scurried over to Wasted Space. We flashed our ID’s to the bouncers at the door, who willingly let us in.