In the midst of the awards being doled out to all corners of the music industry, seventeen awards in total. California is humid this evening and ‘The Kodak Theater’ is buzzing with the typical enthusiasm that you’d expect from awards night, especially for this the most acclaimed awards show in the music industry. Almost anybody who’s anybody is in attendance tonight and so the pressure to perform to your very best is always quite high. Luckily those that step forward onto that stage to perform at these events are generally experienced enough to handle the pressure that may arrive in the final moments before heading onstage.

Amy: “Hey, Justin! You remember we’re doing Trading Love and Faith first, right?”

Justin: “We are?”

Amy: “Yeah and the new one and ‘A Moment, An Hour, A Lifetime’”

Justin: “I don’t see that as a promising endeavour”

Amy: “It sets it up perfectly, slow and emotive is what I want and with you and Adam on acoustic, it’s gonna be the perfect way to accentuate the lyrics.”

Justin: “What? We’re doing it acoustic now?”

Amy: “Yeah … stop worrying. It’ll be fine, you easily know every chord change in the song”

Justin: “Good god!”

Amy: “Very good god!”

Prior to the band going onstage, they’re all stood together in the wings awaiting their call to make their way onto the platform which will see them perform to practically every country in the world. Their arms are wrapped around each other as they huddle together in the final moments before being given their signal to head onstage. Amy mutters a few assertive words to make sure that her band mates are feeling up for the performance, the fact that they’re currently at the early stages of a world tour will mean that they’re in the perfect shape for the performance tonight and not at all rusty. Although this will mark a rare awards show performance for the band who performed at the 21st IMA’s prior to their big breakthrough and have since avoided performing at these sorts of events.
Despite that fact, the band have picked up a total of five awards, four of which taking the ‘Best Band’ category and the other for the ‘Best Live Artist’ at previous ‘Chaos Awards’ and ‘The Fans Choice Awards’ and they’re up for another five awards tonight.
And as the stage manager gives them the thumbs up to make their way towards the stage, the announcement for their performance comes bellowing out of the speakers surrounded by a rapturous round of applause and cheers from the audience, mostly made up of fellow industry colleagues.

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The band quickly make their way onto the stage and assemble themselves in their individual positions as the chorus of cheers run throughout the large ballroom, all with the exception of Amy. Nathan positions himself behind his drum kit and begins to play a very soft beat on the large instrument as Justin and Adam begin plucking the strings of their acoustic guitars and are backed by the steady and always solid bass line provided by Jason. As the slowly and melancholic sounds of the bands instrumentation plays, Amy slowly walks across the stage which gets the biggest cheer since their arrival onstage. Her red-hair perfectly shining and matching her pinkish-red lips, also wearing a very understated short black dress, she smiles with a childlike enthusiasm and grasps the microphone with her right hand and grasps the microphones stand with her left hand. The stage lighting is very minimal with the band deciding to use candles to add an atmospheric touch to preceding’s.
As the soft and gentle acoustics continue to play, they move from just filler into a familiar chord progression with slight changes to add to the difference between acoustic and electric driven music and Amy takes a deep breath and softly sings the opening to an album track that has recently become a fan-favourite;



And as the song continues to move forward, the chord progression changes slightly with Adam and Justin now very dominant in preceding’s, using their abilities to change up the pace of the song in perfect timing with both Nathan and Jason who both combine perfectly to keep things in check with absolute ease which makes you wonder how this group of nineteen year olds (certainly until the end of this month at least) can be so perfectly tuned to their craft at such an early age, it appears that there is not any whiff of panic within the musicians and that professionalism runs through the entire band, starting from Nathan at the back of the stage and then through Jason and Justin and finally to Adam and Amy and it comes together in one fell swoop as Amy now raises her voice, keeping it melodically beautiful but now with a power and assertive ness as she belts out the chorus in typical fashion;





The music continues to play through the final verses of the track in a similar vein and as the song ends the acoustic guitars continue but this time with a different chord pattern which indicates to the crowd that the band are moving into the next song, that indication is made clearer in more emphatic turns as Amy bellows out, “WRITTEN IN THE STARS.” and Justin takes a few brief moments of attention as the solitary spotlight hits him as he plays an acoustic riff, intricately plucking the strings of the acoustic guitar to create a moment of instrumental process and duly taking his opportunity to shine.
That of course changes as the spotlight then directs to Amy at the center of the stage, again her hands are grasped to the microphone and she’s swaying from side to side in an enthusiastic manner. As the music plays from behind her, she tilts the microphone towards her mouth and begins singing;



The band continue to back the flame-haired singer with that same professionalism throughout and Amy gives a deep stare out towards the crowd and smiles slightly before closing her eyes for the briefest of moments. When she opens them again, she holds the microphone stand a little tighter, lifting it from the ground in the process and slowly moves a little closer towards the edge of the stage, she holds the microphone stand in the air for a couple of seconds before placing it back onto the ground, tilting it towards her mouth as she begins singing once more;





As the song comes to an end, the music stops completely dead and the audience go silent as Amy remains stood center stage and takes a few moments of silence to build anticipation. It’s widely expected that the band will then roar into action but they don’t, just remaining silent. And Amy holds tightly to the microphone and begins singing acapella into the raised microphone;



And as she arrives to the chorus, the band then finally return to their duties, Nathan hitting the drums with more force while the bass from Jason becomes more prominent with a riff that dominates over the acoustic guitars in this particular song. The acoustic guitar playing is still there of course and remains noticeable but it’s the combination of drums, bass and Amy’s vocals which see the song through to it’s anthemic and heart-breaking ending as Amy repeats the song’s main chorus through and through;



SETLIST;
1. Trading Love And Faith In The Aftermath Of Heartbreak
2. Written In The Stars
3. A Moment, An Hour, A Lifetime