Hold Fast

Today was the day. We were heading to Denver to play our first real show. If I had to describe how we all felt, nervous and ecstatic would both be understatements. I think I woke up five or six times last night thinking that I had overslept. Kellin was not a happy camper this morning, the bags under his eyes clearly stated how little sleep he had gotten.
Mike complained to my dad about how I shouldn’t drive and to let him do it, but my dad was stubborn. So against everyone’s wishes, I was currently driving to Denver after Tony pumped me with two or three Monsters. Luckily I didn’t get the jitters like normal people.
We met up with Kellin’s friends at some fast food place and hung out before heading to the venue. We continued security to let them in with us, seeing as they had already purchased tickets any way. The venue staff helped us unload and before we knew it, the stage was ready. We had less than two hours until the doors opened.
“You guys nervous?” Jack asked, sitting next to me on the edge of stage.
“A little, yeah.” I confessed.
“You guys will be great.” He gave me a reassuring look. “Kellin’s always going on about how good you guys are.” I chuckled. He laughed a little bit before adding. “I’m serious.”
“Oh no, I believe you.”
“What are you guys laughing about?” Speak of the devil.
“Nothing babe.” I stood and kissed him. He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t press the matter further.
“Your brother’s looking for you.” He nudged me towards Mike.
“Alright. See you, Jack.” He waved and Kellin took my spot next to him. I walked over to where Mike was and waited for him to finish talking to one of the tecs. I took this time to look out over the venue. The theater we were playing in was fairly large and looked like it could house a few hundred people. My nerves began to get to me again thinking about that.
“Earth to Vic.” Mike was waving his hand in front of my face. I hadn’t even realized that I was spacing out.
“Yeah… uh what did you want Mike?” He laughed and shook me by my shoulder gently.
“They wanted to make sure that your pedal board was set up properly and the guys and I have no idea if it is or not.” He nodded his head towards where my mic was set up.
“Oh okay.” I walked over and took a look at things. With the exception of a slight adjustment, everything was in order. Finally everything was real and we were taking the steps needed to follow our dreams.

It was time. We were all standing off stage five minutes until show time. We did this little chant thing that we had come up with in order to calm our nerves and help psych us up. I looked out towards the crowd; it was packed. I’m pretty sure it was sold out. Justin and the guys were all up in the front, looks of awe on all of their faces.
“You’ll do great.” Kellin placed his hand on my shoulder. I nervously nodded my head. He leaned over and kissed my cheek and I smiled at him. I was so grateful to have him here with us. I was sure that I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him.
“Thanks.” I gave him a quick hug before the stage manager came and ushered us onto stage with a thumbs up.
“Show time guys.” We nodded and ran out onto the stage. Adrenaline coursed through me as we began the first song, Chemical Kids and Mechanical Brides.
The sensation of singing on stage was something entirely new to me, but it was definitely something that I could get use to. I would occasionally look over to Jaime and Tony, both of them looked like they were loving this. When the song had ended, the crowd erupted into cheers. I walked over and grabbed my mic.
“Hey guys, we’re Pierce The Veil and we want to thank you for being here for our debut. This song is called Yeah Boy and Doll Face.” We kicked off the second song with a lot of energy and it carried all the way through our set. I looked over to Kellin a few times to see him smiling at us with a look of pride.
The crowd was energetic and was very supportive throughout our whole set. When we finished, I announced that we would be at one of the tables in the back if they wanted to talk to us. With that said, we left stage.
“Oh my god that was awesome!” Jaime draped his arm around my shoulders. He was covered in sweat but so was I so I didn’t mind.
“I know, that was so intense.” Tony laughed.
“I can’t believe how crazy the crowd was.” Mike ran a hand through his hair.
“Well you guys were pretty amazing.” Kellin walked up to us, high fiving Mike and Jaime. We slipped out and headed to our dressing room area and changed into fresh clothes before heading over to the table we had set up in the back of the venue.
Surprisingly, there was already a large line of people waiting for us. We spent time talking to people about who we were and our future plans for our music. It was nice to know that there were people who were excited for our us. We took pictures, signed random things, and gave out information about our contact info. All in all, it went great.
After a little while, Justin, Gabe, Jack and Jesse joined us back at the table. They congratulated us on our show and sat with us as the headliner took the stage. They were really good and sounded like a lot of the music that I listened to. I was surprised that we had never heard of them before getting our spot in the lineup. I felt really lucky to be able to have opened for this group. It was a great way to begin our career as a band. I just hoped that things would continue to go in this direction.