Animal Attraction

“Alright, this is our last song, so let’s make it count!” the shirtless lead singer of Reckless Love shouted into his mic. He then said something in his native tongue, Finnish, and then the drummer counted them in. They launched into the song ‘Back to Paradise’ and I automatically bobbed my heat to the good beat. I was holding onto a microphone stand with a red microphone on top, and my favourite guitar was slung across my shoulder. She was a beauty; red and black smoky patterns, silver angel wings as the fretboard inlays, and in my pocket was a stash of my custom white picks, which also silver angel wings on them. I enjoyed the upcoming band’s music until it was my time to join in.

Purely Trouble always made a debut for one of the opening band’s songs, and this time I was the member who had been picked, and it was going to be for the last song. About a week before our concert, I had gotten in touch with the band’s guitarist, Pepe, and we had chatted about my guest appearance, so everyone knew what they were doing. I was kind of excited. The thrill of going on stage was not comparable to anything else, and it was always great to give a popularity boost to a new band.

“Take me back to paradise baby, back into your wonderland,” I sung for the first chorus, staying off stage so the fans didn’t know who was going to make the appearance. Yeah, they could probably tell from the voice who it was, but the suspense was great for them; it always got the fans more pumped up for our show. “Take me back to paradise baby, now, forever.” The crowd went crazy with the sound of a female’s voice, which made me smile. Judging by how much noise they made, I knew that tonight was going to be a good show. They went straight into the second verse, but that was over soon enough.

I picked up the mic stand and rushed onto stage while slightly dancing to the beat, singing into it the same lines. I took care to hold my guitar with my left hand out of the way so I didn’t hurt my precious baby against the metal stand. Slowly I passed the bassist, then the lead singer, then stopped by Pepe, propping my mic stand just to the right of his. This close up of the guys made me realise just how good-looking they were... The singer got everyone clapping to the beat as I whipped out a pick from my pocket, then Pepe and I started doing the guitar solo that he had sent me the tabs to. We worked perfectly in sync and I nailed every part of it, which just made the crowd scream even louder.

I kept on smiling alongside Pepe, threw the pick into the crowd, then pulled the mic off the stand. I walked back to the drummer and sung the chorus to him, and the topless hottie just grinned back at me while enjoying playing. To keep my presence on the stage, I kept on moving my hips to the beat, taping my foot, and moving my left arm if my guitar wouldn’t move too much. I then spent a little bit of time with the bassist, then went to centre stage with the cute as can be singer. We did a little bit of dancing while flashing each other suggesting looks as we sung together. It was flirty and fun, which I absolutely loved. The song was soon over and the audience filled the hall arena with their appreciation for this band’s music.

“Thank you so much!” the singer shouted, again adding something in Finnish afterwards. Man their language sounds complicated…

“Come on everyone, show some love for these guys!” I said enthusiastically. I got the response I wanted, so I backed away from the front of the stage to let the band lap up the reward for their good performance. They all stood at the front of the stage, arms across each other’s shoulders, then took a few bows together.

“Goodnight!” the singer said into his microphone before they all walked off stage. I clapped in their direction as they exited, then everything went dark. A few seconds later, a white spotlight came on me and I walked up to my microphone, moving it slightly to my left to where I’d be performing for the whole night.

“Alrighty… How is everyone doin’ tonight?” I asked as some dimmer lights shone onto the crowd. I scanned them, seeing a lot of red hair and black clothes. They all screamed back at me and I smiled a little. “Did everyone like Reckless Love? Yeah? They’re pretty awesome right?” This earned a bigger response from them, and I could barely hear the sound of a machine turning the drum stage around. It was rotating to replace Reckless Love’s drums with Scream’s, and I knew she’d already be on that stage, all ready to go. I also knew that behind me there were stagehands running everywhere, replacing the normal microphones with our very own red ones, changing settings, and whatever else they had to do. We liked to get on stage ASAP, so our team worked extra hard. “You guys know you’re our last stop on our tour, right?” Not that many people cheered that time, but the shouts I heard were pretty passionate.

“Aaaaangeeeeel…” a voice called and the crowd shouted at the top of their lungs. That was the sound of none other than our feisty Fire, and a spotlight followed her as she walked onto stage, strutting her stuff with her left hand on her bass. “I hope you’re not boring everyone.”

“Oh, I would never!” I retorted jokingly, putting a fake shocked expression on my face, which made Fire giggle.

“I think you are,” another voice echoed in the arena, soon followed by our fans screaming. Then the drum set lit up to reveal Scream, all ready to go. “I think I might shut you up.” She started up a good beat so Fire and I started clapping above our heads, which got the crowd into it. Then, Fire started a great tune, keeping up with Scream. I kept on clapping until another twelve beats had passed. Then, after getting another pick, I grabbed onto my guitar and started up a riff which caused our fans to go crazy as they realised what song it was.

“Finlaaaaaand!” I heard Starr shout as she ran onto stage, another spotlight following her. She took centre stage, up on one of the speakers, and posed for the crowd as they cheered for her. “Alright, let’s get this show started, shall we?” Again, they reacted so amazingly, so Starr started singing. And the rest, as they say, is history.