Julian was nervous. Peter could definitely play, he proved that in his audition, but he wasn't exactly the epitome of stage presence. He seemed very shy with his playing, insisting on wearing sunglasses and draping his long hair over his face. Not the door-kicking, whiskey chugging badass he'd imagined his lead guitarist to be when he formed Broken Butterfly. But his technique was infallible, and even Julian had to admit that he made them sound much better. He could play in a way that complimented the music as a whole, not like Ben who was always turning his amp up so he could be the center of attention all the time. Julian looked at his watch, 5 mins till they were due to start.
"Not much of a crowd huh?" Julian turned and Peter handed him the end of a cable "could you plug that in over there? cheers."
"You going to be alright tonight?" Julian asked
"Yeah, I just gotta get into the moment you know?" Peter replied without looking up, he was just finishing the setup of his effects loop.
"Just you seemed kinda nervous the other day, and that was just us, this is a lot more people. I just want to make sure you're not going to freeze up or something." Julian said
"Nah, I'll be ok, like I said, once I get into the moment I'll be fine, trust me" Peter looked up and smiled. Satisfied, Julian left to round up the others, leaving Peter to wonder how he would actually react on stage...
The members of Broken Butterfly took to the stage, a few onlookers watched them do their final equipment checks, but the majority of the bar's patrons were unfazed, just another pub band to them. Cassie glanced over at Peter, she was worried, he'd been real shy at practice, she hoped he wasn't doing this just to get to know her. She remembered how badly she used to be affected by stage fright, she didn't want to put this guy through it too. Too late now though, Matt was already counting them in...
Keyboard fades in, a smooth-as-silk synth opening. A long bent guitar note opens into a slow melancholy melody, Peter's finely crafted lead tone cutting through the synth and pulling the attention and heartstrings of the audience. Head begin to turn towards the stage. By the time the bass and drums kick in there is already a crowd growing at the front of the stage. Cassie begins to sing, her soft, clear voice falling delicately about the room, intertwining and harmonising with the guitar lead lines. Julian looks over, Peter seems fine, sounds amazing, but he's still almost motionless, wearing dark sunglasses and his hair like a shield. The band finish the song, and then proceed to play three more, with Peter barely moving an inch from his starting position, except to hit different effects pedals.
Julian walked over to Peter in between songs.
"You're doing great dude, they love us" he whispered "try loosen up a little bit, have some fun yeah? you haven't moved all night"
"YOU SUCK!!!" came the heckle. great timing asshole Julian thought. He turned and saw in the crowd former guitarist Ben, red faced screaming abuse at Peter.
"YOU SUCK MAN, WHAT'S WITH THE SUNGLASSES?! IT'S NOT SUNNY IN HERE! YOU LOOK LIKE A DICK!"
"Ignore him man, that's Ben, the dude you replaced. He's probably just.." Julian started. Peter took his sunglasses off, and flicked his hair out of his face. He tapped a few effects pedals and then without breaking eye contact with Ben began to play. What followed was a fret-burning display of sheer technical skill, sweep picking, complex timing changes, tapping, artificial harmonics and much more combined into one short effective solo. He finished and raised his arm high. The bar erupted in screaming and cheering. Peter then lifted his guitar off himself and held it out with one hand whilst beckoning to Ben with the other, a challenge. Ben went red and looked down, the crowd jeering at him.
Julian was stunned, Peter had done a total 180 in just a few minutes. One moment self-conscious and still, then next shredding and screaming at the crowd for not being loud enough. The band continued the set, to an almost overly enthusiastic response by bar patrons. Bouncers were relocated to the front of the stage to keep things controlled. When the band announced the end of their set the cries of encore lasted for 20 mins before the bar owner permitted the band to return to the stage and chants of "Broken Butterfly, Broken Butterfly" continued on and off throughout the night.
Much later as the band were packing their gear up Julian approached Peter.
"Hey... I meant to ask... Where the hell did that come from?!"
Peter smiled "Like I said earlier, just had to get into it a bit I guess. Hey, thanks for coming over when you did tonight, I think that helped me a lot."
Now it was Julian's turn to smile, "Don't mention it, if I get that kind of reaction every time I do expect me to do it more often! See you Wednesday for practice?"
"Wouldn't miss it, see you then!"
Julian turned and left. He was dead tired, and couldn't wait to get home.
Peter threw the last of his cables into the back of his car and closed the boot.
"Hey Peter, wait!"
He turned at the sound of Cassie's voice. She always made him nervous, she was almost too pretty and he found it all too easy to get lost in those enchanting green eyes...
"You were great tonight! the way you shut Ben up, it was amazing, where were you hiding that!?!" She tilted her head slightly and looked up at him.
"I don't know really, I guess it just took a while for me to relax. Julian helped a lot. Pointed out the crowd was liking us, helped me get into it a bit more." he was getting lost again.... damn those eyes!
"Whatever it was, it was amazing... and the crowd loved it, I don't think we'll have much trouble getting gigs at this place again" Cassie was having trouble thinking straight, she both loved and hated the effect he had on her.
"Yeah, well that's true, and once we have a good reputation we could probably get gigs loads of places around here" Peter said, fighting the urge to kiss her.
"Yeah definitely!..." fuck, running out of small talk, why don't you kiss me already?!
"Well... I should go, do you need a lift?" Peter said, cursing himself what are you doing? talk to her more! ask her out! kiss her! do something! don't just leave!
"Oh, no it's OK, it's not..."
Cassie was interrupted by Peter as he stepped forward, and wrapped his arms around her waist. Their lips met and they kissed there in the moonlight.
"OK... a lift would be nice actually..."
