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The stage is empty, still buzzing off of the energy and performance of the last act. This brilliant, fantastic atmosphere sticks around for a few minutes, just to let the crowd get back to normal. Out of nowhere, a low, spacey noise erupts out of the speakers. On the backdrop of the arena is a sepia video reel of Jason Smith, backstage at various performances. A drum roll begins, and the backdrop changes to the blood soaked words Jason Smith Project. Once that has happened, the drums fade out and the backdrop changes to a caricature of a skull. All of the current lighting on the stage grinds to a halt and the stage is pretty dark, although not completely pitch black.
Then a soothing piano melody appears and the spotlight turns onto a pale, thin man. This man is bald, but heavily bearded and with thick, round glasses placed neatly on top of his nose. All of a sudden, a powerful guitar chord, as well as a huge crash from the drums come flying into existence. The melody of the piano is still playing here, but slightly faster. Another chord comes in and another and another... continuously getting faster and faster, until eventually a familiar and gentle acoustic guitar riff plays.
As the lighting comes back on, the wacky hair and enigmatic personality of Jason Smith can be seen playing his acoustic. Unlike his usual robes and stage clothes, he wears a simple t-shirt and jeans combo today. As the crowd see him, a rapturous cheer erupts from them, provoking Jason Smith to produce a large smile. He slowly walks up to the microphone and says loudly “Hello there!”, which causes more cheers from the crowd. “I’m glad you are all here to support a really great cause, and one that is quite dear to my heart. I haven’t played solo before, so this is quite exciting. Howzabout we start with a little acoustic number by a band called The Beatles. This is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” On that note, he starts playing the riff from it and proceeds to do an acoustic version of the song. In the choruses, the crowd clap along and occasionally sing as well. On the last chorus, Jason quickly changes to an electric and his backing band is also lit up. They play a slightly heavier and darker version of the chorus here. This is received well by the crowd.
Without warning, the band go into their second song, this time an original by Jason Smith called Zyzzyx. Over the sounds of what appears to be a raging desert storm, plays a pan pipe slowly in the background. This carries on for about ten seconds, until an electronic drum machine breaks the atmospheric noise. All the noise around the drums fades out, until you are left with the solitary beat. Very soon after that, a gentle, smooth guitar layer appears on top of it and plays along. No vocals are heard yet, but another groovy bass riff is forming in the midst of nothingness. Once the vocals do start to creep in, so does the sound of another desert storm, but this time with a bit of sitar in the background. The vocals are deliberately toned down, so you can focus on the instrumentation. Around about the 3 minute mark, everything fades into just the desert storm raging again. Then a huge, chunky riff pounds its way slowly across the floor of the song. The desert storm suddenly cuts out and a huge flurry of noise occurs, almost enough to burst the eardrums of any passer by. Once it has cooled down a bit, and the riff is made clearly, the vocals are muffled and screeched, a bit like Chino Moreno of the Deftones. On the final scream of the song, it fades back into the gentle, quiet riff again and peace is once again restored. The sitar is more obvious here, but not too in-your-face that it gets in the way of the actual song. And, oh my, is that a Theremin? I think it is. Again. It wouldn’t be a product of Jason Smith if it didn’t have a Theremin in it every now and again. The song just fades out with this riff being played and goes back into nothing. The Theremin in question is played with Jason Smiths hair and the sitar is being played by the rhythm guitarist.
The crowd go ecstatic at this, even though they’ve never even heard the song in their lives. “Thank you. This next one you may have heard of. Yeah, I’m afraid I’m doing a lot of covers today, since I haven’t really got that much of my own solo stuff with me… It is one of my favourite songs of all time. This song is 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins.” Says Jason, before they descend into the cool and collected song. The crowd seem to know it quite well and sing along to it happily. The atmosphere in the place is absolutely electric. In the choruses, the almost familiar face of Daniel the Evil Clown appears and gallivants around the stage happily, singing along, as a reminder to the old fans of Mind that they have not been forsaken.
After the song finishes, the backing band walk off stage to a huge applause. On walks the remaining three members of Mind, much to the crowds jubilation. Once they’ve made themselves cosy, Jason shouts “Hahaha! You didn’t think I’d keep boring you did you?! We are Mind!” and suddenly, they went into the riff of Divine Usurper, what Jason believes is STILL their biggest hit. They pound through the song with the crowd chanting and shouting along with Jason at an extremely loud volume. The final scream is so audible, they could probably hear it in the opposite side of the Earth.
The crowd are now ecstatic. Mind proceed to play another one of their most famous songs, The Aeronaut, the first ever Top 20 Airplay Chart number one. Since it was a fairly well known song, the whole audience knew it and was singing along, even those who don’t usually follow metal. Without warning, they went into Lyophilisation (the Words and the World) straight afterwards, yet another one of Minds largest songs. These were both well received by the crowd.
“Okay guys. One more song from us, but don’t fret! It’s a biggun!” Jason chirped and with this, they went into a performance of Solar Ghost, an upcoming song off of Shattered Fairytale. Mind had almost an orchestra backing them up on this, with lap steels, saxophones, Theremins, sitars and much more as well. As they ploughed through the gargantuan, 12 minute epic, the crowd were looking on in what seemed like awe. Although prohibited, some of the crowd proceeded to stage dive during the faster paced and heavier parts. This eventually subsided and the crowd resumed to just cheering along. When the song did end, the band were so energetic they continued from the lap steel into a huge, chaotic finish with all the instruments having an extended jam session and eventually a massive finish.
“We love you guys! Have a fun time!” Jason shrieked before making his way off of the stage, along with Mind and the orchestra.
Setlist:
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Zyzzyx
1979
Divine Usurper
The Aeronaut
Lyophilisation (the Words and the World)
Solar Ghost
OOC: Sorry about the lack of songs and the rushed-ness. I forgot about it and had to put this together in about 20 minutes. |
Awards (stroking myself and thinking I'm superior): @Chaos awards:Best Band - Mind Best Album - Shattered Fairytale by Mind Technical Ecstasy - Jason Smith (x3) Best Solo Male - Jason Smith Birdies:Best Producer - Jason Smith   |
