How Many Times Can You Race Around the Tree Before You Catch Me?

I hung out with them well into the afternoon. The guys had gone and done their meet and greet and signing early and around two they asked me to come back to the bus. They had seen our headlining set and asked me what my opinion was about doing some cover songs.

“Cover songs?”

“We want to show case you….” Nikki said calmly.

“Why would you wanna showcase me?” Mikey, Christian, and Nikki just stared at me.

“This is your first show and we want people to be amazed by you… “ Christian frowned.

“Why? It’s not important.”

“It is, we want you to be confident and we can do that by letting you do what you’re good at. We figured that if you did it like when we were younger… like when we played in Jake’s garage…” Mikey, Nikki, and I smiled at the memories. Christian smiled as well because he had been around then, just not in the band.

“Alright, yeah, uh… I have no idea what I would play though….”

“Well, why not do some shout outs to some friends? We get five more songs.” I thought about it…

“Well we already have the Amity song. If it were up to me I would say one motionless song, one Chelsea song, ADTR, Sum 41, and Bring Me?” The all nodded.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” My eyes widened at Mikey.

“You guys can have a say too if you want….” he chuckled.

“We already say today was about you.” Christian confirmed.

“So you tell us what you want and then that will be it.” Nikki finished.

The smile on my face was all that I needed for confirmation.

“Well then let’s do Fat Lip, Fatal, Sleepwalking, don’t ask or cheyne and instead of ADTR let’s do something different from all of those.” They all gave me an odd look.

“I mean, you’re ribs are still fucked so I don’t recommend Cheyne and why not do an old My Chem song?” I chuckled at Nikki’s suggestion.

“Really? If we were gonna do something in that category I’d rather do something like The Used.” They nodded.

“Nah, what about like an old ETF song?” My laugh couldn’t be contained.

“Really? That’s what you wanna do?” Nikki shrugged.

“I mean I’m just throwing out suggestions.” I sat back trying to think of one more song for the set.

“What about an Avenged song?” I perked back up at that suggestion.

“Is this the crowd for that?” They all seemed to shrug.

I looked out the back lounge window and saw the kids gathered around the fence. It was the time of day when kids were getting tired and started to find whatever shade they could. It was also raining buckets now. Whatever poor unfortunate soul was still stuck in the rain was probably enjoying it at this point.

“Let’s just do wax from ADTR. I’m gonna go talk to some people about warm ups. Might wanna break out the 7 and 8 strings boys.” My fingers were still swollen and i planned on icing them for the remainder of the day to get them do to a size I could play with.

“Just to clarify,” Nikki stopped me,” We’re gonna open with the usual, Sleepwalking, jonestown, view, fatal, don’t ask, Namesake, Weigh Down, Wax, Mobile, and end with Fat Lip?” I swung my head to each side before nodding.

“Sounds good. I’ll be back around seven.”

Everyone from Motionless was in their bus lounging when I walked on. Vinny immediately jumped up and tried to hug me.

“I haven’t seen you all day.” He kissed my cheek and I winced.

“What happened?” He looked closer and my face and then removed the aviators from my face.

“What the fuck?” He gently grabbed my jaw and moved my face to get a better look.

“I’ll explain later. Chris,” He piped up from where he and Sabrina sat on the couch,” Warm up help please?” He smiled and kissed Sabrina’s cheek before standing.

“I’ll be back after my set. If Josh doesn’t mind the guys said you are welcomed onto our bus when ever you want.” I kissed his cheek before leaving.

Chris lead me out of the bus and down the lot.

“Where are we going?”

“I have someone else that wants to help.”

That someone else turned out to be Alex from CG. Both him and Chris spent a few hours teaching me warmups and a few techniques before I had to go back to the guys. It all went so fast. Before I knew it, James and Mark were standing there with our instruments. I was taking deep breaths and trying calm down like Alex and Chris had taught me. My hands were balmy from all the icing I had done to them. As if on a timed clock, They would need to be wiped on my skinny jeans or my ripped tank.

“Nervous?” Mikey asked. If looks could kill, he would have been 6 feet under.

“You’ll be fine. James already said he would take the bass if your fingers started hurting. There won’t be any kids on stage, We are a no escort band until further notice.” I nodded and went back to taking deep breaths. Over on the next stage I could hear Bowling for Soup ending, my time was about to come and I was in no way prepared for it.

“Are your in ears good?” James came over with my bass. All I could do was shake my head yes as BFS’s last song ended.

“Alright,” Mikey brought everyone together,”This is a little different for us, just remember to go out there and do our best. No one go show boating, let’s do this one for Jake…” Everyone put their hands in as the intro music started.

“For Jake. 3,2,1….” We all chimed in before Christian walked out.

The cheering started. There were thousands of kids in front of this stage. My heart started racing and my breathing became labored. The guys were already out there and I was the last one they were waiting for.

“Hey,” Vinny popped up next to me,” You can do this. Deep breath.” I listened to him and started playing the intro from behind the stage.

“You can do this, I’ll be right here for you.” I smiled and kissed him before going on stage.

Not very many people cheered when I got on stage but that was understandable. All I could do was walk up to the mike and do what I was supposed to. Whatever I did must have worked because I had won that crowd over before the end of that first song. My nerves faded slowly as we flowed into our cover of Bring Me The Horizon's Sleepwalking. Tons of kids knew that song and sang along loudly and with heart. I took a chance to look back and make sure Vinny was there. He was, along with his band, Chelsea Grin, Of Mice and Men, and quite a few bands that I had toured with in the past. Looking back out at the crowd I was surprised to see just how many people our performance was attracting. Kevin was even standing in the back watching us. With that knowledge I carried out the rest of the song before looking over at Mikey. Him and I had worked out joint vocals for the next cover, but I had a minute to talk while they switch guitars.

“Hi everyone, how many of you know who we are?” Hands shot up faster than I could have asked for them to and the screams were deafening.

“Well for those of you that do not know who we are, we are Have Fun Trying To Get This On The Flyer from Bum fuck Arizona.” There were more cheers.

“If you’re a fan, you know that Jake and Andrew can’t be here with us. I am here as their temp. My name is Jax, to my left we have Mikey, my right in Nikki, and behind me in Christian.” I took a breath and wiped the copious amounts of already dripping sweat from my brow. Mikey and Nikki were good to go.

“We’re gonna play some more songs for you guys if that’s ok.” The crowd cheered.

“Good, this one’s called In The Heat of Jonestown.”

We played through Jonestown and View from Below flawlessly.

“Wow, you guys are just so awake for us. Thank you so much for sticking around,” The crowd cheered as I motions to them,” You da real MVP…s” I heard some chuckles and cheers.

“Well I’m gonna let you guys in on a little secret. Before today I had never played in from of a crowd of more than 50 people.” They cheered again as I took a second to check my surrounds again. Set up crew had joined Kevin in the back.

“I owe me being up here today, confidently and properly, to quite a few people. One of them is a singer in a band we share this very stage with. So in honor of them we’re going to play some covers.” I motioned for Mikey as I turned away from the crowd.

“Let’s do Burned at Both Ends instead of Fatal.” He nodded and took his guitar off switching with me before going to tell the other guys.

“If you know the words sing along.” I started it off and the crowd went nuts. I turned my back to wink at Chris before turning back to the mike.

Mikey and Nikki jumped in for the chorus’ and we rocked through that song. I kept checking on the motionless guys out of the corner of my eye to see what they thought. Emotionless in Black is what I would call that. The song ended with several cheers and I stepped up away from the mike again while I started the intro for Chelsea Grin’s Don’t Ask, Don’t tell. Mikey helped me out and poured some water in my mouth before I had to go sing causing quite a few cheers from people in front of and on the side stage.

The energy and confidence I felt carried me through the song perfectly. I even aced the solo while walking around the stage looking at everyone and everything. Mark must’ve been ecstatic. During one of the last high screams, I dropped to my knees in front of the riser. Mikey took over the guitars while I did it and I felt my nose start bleeding. Doing a mini back bend, I made sure Mark got the shot. Ending that song, I heard everyone cheer. The crowd was a huge confidence boost. I used my shirt to wipe my nose before someone saw it.

“That song goes out to it’s singer, he helped me out today in a big way. Ready for more?” The crowd cheered.

“This one’s called Namesake.” Mikey took the guitar and switched both the bass and guitar out while I took a drink of water.

To my right I heard some whistling. I smirked at Vinny and lift my shirt a bit causing some cat calls from the rest of his band and a few others that were there.

“Take it off!” Vinny almost punched Ryan, I took it literally.

I ripped my shirt off leaving me in just my sports bra, thankful that I had put some makeup on my side as well to cover the bruises there, and threw the shirt to Vinny. He fake swooned and fell against a laughing Chris. I chuckled as Mikey brought me back the bass.

We ran through that song perfectly. That’s when my fingers swelled past being able to play. I felt bad having to call James over but it I hadn’t the show would have suffered. I made sure to drink more water before addressing the crowd.

“This next song is by one of my best friends and my favorite bands. It’s called Weigh Down.” Nikki started the different intro we had and I smiled at the cheered.

“Buffalo, you’ve inspired me. I’m gonna come down and visit you with this next song,” more cheering happened as the intro picked up,” Let’s do this.”

My leg was up on the riser and I leaned out for the intro screams. This was one of my favorite songs and Jake and I jammed it several times. I walked back and took a small drink of water before going back to the mike and unwrapping the cords.

I changed the line ‘I’ll fatigue’ to ‘I’ll fight for Jake’ before I jumped out in the crowd. Mikey took over the chorus while I ran back to the drum riser.

“You guys better catch me.” The cheered as I leaped straight into the crowd. Catch me they did, they sent me right back to the barrier and I stayed there with the kids until the end of the song before I got back on stage. My side was killing me and I had to motion to Mikey to talk.

The guys side stage barely moved fast enough for me to get to the trash can in the trailer. For the first time forever in my life, I threw up from pain. Vinny was by my side in an instantly.

“Are you ok?” I shook my head.

“I’m in blinding white hot pain.” Mikey kept him talking and James rounded the corner with a water and tried to check on me.

“Do we need to end it?” I shook my head. Christian started the drums to get the kids riled up. They cheered knowing this song.

“Have Mikey start the song. Vocals on him.” I took the water bottle and rinsed out my mouth as fast as I could before finishing the bottle.

“You don’t have to.” I shook my head at Vinny.

“Don’t blink…” I heard Mikey sing. Immediately I pushed through the crowd and got to the mike just in time to do the screams, nearly slipping in the process.

I ignored the white hot pain in my side and took every break I could without drawing suspicion to my actual pain. My saving grace was in the break down. James was waving me down like crazy and when I acknowledged him I saw what the stink was about. Mike Hranica was standing there with the extra mike. I gave a thumbs up. He jumped on stage, earning quite a few excited shouts from fans and giving me time to try and breath.

It didn’t work. The pain was getting worse and fast. When the song ended, Mike came over and hugged me.

“Are you ok?” He asked in my ear over the crowd.

“No, but thank you so much for coming out.” He smiled and gave me a thumbs up before leaving.

I needed to give Mikey, Nikki, and James time to switch out guitars.

“That song goes out the band that first brought me out on tour. They are some of the best guys. And a big thanks to Mike from The Devil Wears Prada.” I took a breath.

“We have two more songs left. Thanks again for sticking around this long to watch us. Ten years ago I would have never hoped for this band to be here and doing what we do. Thanks to you guys. This song is called Mobile Bones.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t rush through that song. I needed something to preoccupy me so I had James bring me back the bass.

“This is our last song, thanks again for watching us. We’ll see you in the fall, make sure you spend all your money before you leave and have a good night.” I started the intro and everyone went ballistic.

What really made the song was when Set up crew, Motionless, Chelsea, and a few other bands rushed the stage the sing and jump along with us. the song ended with a bang as confetti cannons went off.

My body wouldn’t let me stick around. James grabbed the bass from me as I ran off the stage and down the ramp. The end of the ramp had a cooler filled with ice and monster. I did the thing I knew would help. That was meant to be sarcastic.

I dropped to the ground while simultaneously knocking the cooler over so ice went all over my torso where the pain was. Soon, the pain started to subside and everyone came off stage to find me laying in melted ice.

“Now what do you say to the doctor?”