It was a cold and dark night in Glasgow when people were gathering in a local bar to either get drunk or to get away from the bad weather outside. Outside the bar is a poster that says, "The Return of Acronym Stone: One Night Only". one passerby wonders out loud who or what Acronym Stone is while a group of teenagers wearing black shirts and hoodies beside him just keep silent as they walk in. The scent of drunk men and cigarettes filled the air as the bar slowly got filled up with more and more people, usually 19 year old kids wearing black clothing with one kid holding a flyer of Acronym Stone in his hand looking very excited for what was going to happen. The stage was very simple, two Marshall amplifiers, a pedalboard with at least 4 pedals, two microphones with the other one having something hooked up to it,a synthesizer keyboard and a laptop. The bar patrons looked confused on what was happening in the bar and one man asks the bartender on what was happening, the bartender replied with a smile and told the man to just wait and see. It was 10 o'clock and just as it was said in the poster, the show was about to start. Suddenly from out of the crowd, a man wearign a black hoodie goes on stage and hooks up his telecaster before going near the mic.
"Are you ready kids?", says the man wearing the black hoodie. The people in the bar respond with applause and some howling from the rowdy men at the back.
Acronym Stone click something on his laptop and a drum sample starts playing, then he starts adding some more beats and a bass line before he plays a familiar tune on his guitar. The kids start bopping their heads to the minute long intro of the song and the man on the stage flashes a smile to the bar patrons at the other side of the room. Acronym Stone starts playing with his effects pedals, making beautiful noises which the kids seem to like. Acronym starts singing in his high pitched and very familiar voice, one of the bar patrons exclaims to his friends.
"I think I know who this guy is." The bar patron says as he brings out his camera phone and joins in the crowd of kids wearing black leaving his mates behind. The rest of the patrons slowly started to recognize who the man on the stage was as Acronym continued playing his song to the crowd of kids who started to get louder and louder by the minute. Suddenly as the song broke down to a really hard and explosive chorus filled with heavier beats, a stronger bass line, and Acronym's distorted guitar, the crowd went wild and the bar patron started jumping with the crowd too. The once quiet and mysterious group of young people have let go of their silence and started banging their heads to the song. The bar patrons at the back now realized who Acronym Stone was and joined in with the kids, no one was left sitting or drinking hard liquor, everyone was now banging their heads and going wild to the song.
Acronym Stone finishes the song with some extra distorted sounds from his laptop as he laid his guitar down. He took of his hoodie and revealed his true identity to the crowd...
"Isn't this great?" says Acronym Stone or rather, Troy Mascenon to the audience. Turns out that after his touring of the world, Troy went back to the recording studio and remixed some of Reckoner's greatest hits like Catalyst Analyst (the song he had just played), Lock N Load, Oxygen Thief, and Negative then released an EP under the anagram Acronym Stone to avoid the media.
"It's nice to be back on the stage performing for loyal fans, but I did imagine you all to be much more.. older", Troy chuckles at his joke as the crowd applauds. Troy steps on his delay pedal and starts making beats again in his laptop.
"This next song is sort of new, wrote it a few months ago and I hope you guys would like it but I do warn you, it's not what you are used to. It's called Peripheral", Troy starts to play an echoing riff on his guitar as the fast beats and bassline start to confuse the audience, it was so different from the last album Reckoner made, but there was a part of it that sounds familiar to them, like it was something Troy had made previously. Troy uses the second microphone which has a megaphone sound and starts to sing in his signature "angry" voice. The confused crowd slowly got used to the new sound that Troy introduced to them and some started slow dancing even though the drums were fast paced. Troy never got old in his style of writing lyrics that were abstract and sometimes meaningless but very catchy and enticing. When the song shifted to the chorus, Troy stepped on his distortion and changed to the clean tone mic singing with a lot of passion into it and the crowd started to sing along even though they never knew the lyrics. Troy started to dance on stage while playing a very catchy riff as the people started to dance with him. The strobe lights in the bar emphasized on the mood and everybody started to go wild and it turned to a semi house party. The song started to lighten up when Troy stopped playing his guitar and let the beats finish the song up, this was followed by a large applause from the crowd.
"You guys are really great, never knew you would like that song, hahaha!", Troy spots a video cam somewhere at the back and pointed at it, telling the kid to tape the next part and to post it on Youtube.
"Make sure you get my good side kid", the crowd laughs as Troy looks straight into the camera.
"So I'm here to make an announcement, and that announcement is my return to the music business. It's been a long time since the Reckoner break up but sadly I cannot reunite with the rest of the band members since most of them are busy with new projects, and JC declined my invitation to reunite due to his illness. But the good news is that I would be returning as a solo artist and that I would be returning really soon. Remember this: 10/31/11. Now here's another new song for all of you, and it's called Beauty and the Beez, with a Z."The song has no beats accompanying it, just pure vocals and a synthesized keyboard. It features one of Troy's best vocal performances ranging from a low G2 in the verse as the piano complements the song's sentimental vibe. Troy walks away from the keyboard on the prechorus and clicks something on his laptop, suddenly a string ensemble starts to play with arpeggios that have an 8-bit sound, Troy goes back to the keyboard and his voice soars up to a high F4 proving to his critics that his voice has never gotten old and that he still has that magic sound. In the song's outro, the strings get louder and a military drum beat starts to play, the most amazing part of it though is Troy's C5 note which stuns the crowd since it's been years since he last sang something that high. The song is followed with a large amount of applause and an even greater amount of cheering from the crowd.
"Why thank you" Troy takes a bow and proceeds to his next song.
"Now this next song is something I am really proud of, it's one of the band's most famous songs and fans seem to love it even though it actually cashes in on the darkest moments of my life, how ironic", Troy moves away from the mic and laughs as he clicks something on his laptop producing a light arpeggio sound. The lights go out and the song starts to play.
The next song was Blackout, a dark track from the album Everything X which talks about Troy's darkest moment in life, drug addiction. The song featured light guitar arpeggios, a string ensemble again, and some echoing voices in the background. The crowd started to sing along to this song as Troy convinced the audience to bring out their cell phones and light up the room. It was a beautiful moment for everyone in the bar and everyone who was drunk only a few minutes ago became sober and joined in the sentimental moment as they all sang together while waving their phones from left to right. Troy started playing a piano improvisation of the arpeggios which finished the rest of the song as the lights went back up.
"Thank you everybody, it has been such a wonderful experience to be here and I would love to see all of you soon in future shows. Sadly I have no time left since I have to attend a meeting in the studio just outside town, really important and so I leave you all with a familiar song from the album Backstabber, it's called Falling Down, thank you all and have a good night"The song started with a slow piano tune and Troy started singing emotionally since the song was really talking about a huge problem in society, prostitution. Everyone in the bar knew the song and started to sing along with Troy as he sat alone playing the piano. Troy could see from where he was, the tears in the eyes of the young audience he had. Most of them were probably tears of joy in seeing him perform or maybe because the song was naturally sad. He played soulfully and it was obvious that he played with all his heart, the crowd could feel it too and they sang along with all of their heart. Troy ended the song by singing in a Capella before getting out of the stage and going to the crowd to bow right in front of his fans. The people applauded Troy and the closest to him even shook hands with him before he grabbed his coat. He left the bar to the sound of the crowd's applause.
