Daron's Guitar Chronicles: Vol 4

302 REALLY SAYING SOMETHING

REALLY SAYING SOMETHING

I'd been so wrapped up in Colin's guitar lesson that I had lost track of time. I'd gotten out of the habit of being onstage noodling around and playing before the crew was ready, and given how uncomfortable Chris said it made him, perhaps that was a good thing. It only just then occurred to me that the crew might have found it annoying, too. Then again, none of them said anything, and they weren't the types to not express themselves.

I carried the guitar I had been playing with me toward the stage while Colin stayed behind to pack up the extra and move the cases.

Ziggy came with me. As we went down the hallway toward the stage entrance, he said, "I've learned more about music theory in your guitar lessons than I think I learned all those years in choir."

"Was your choirmaster not into that stuff?"

"Eh, more like he only took certain students aside for special tutoring on the piano and such."

"And you didn't get singled out?" I was surprised to think that Ziggy wasn't one of the more gifted singers in any choir.

He laughed a little. "Oh, that wasn't it. It was that he was rumored to be a pedophile and I wasn't interested. So I steered very clear."

"Where was this? Baltimore?"

"Yeah. Actually, I guess I was only in that choir for a year. Then there was New York, but it wasn't the same..." He shrugged. "Anyway, it's kind of neat to hear you put into words what kind of goes on instinctively in my head."

We had reached the stage. I plugged in and stood on my mark behind my microphone. "So what do you guys think about doing 'Cross to Bear'?"

"Point of order," Bart said. "Do you mean right this second, or in the show?"

"Possibly both, if we play it now and we like how it sounds." I turned to Chris. "Everyone gets a say. I just thought we haven't played it in a while and I still like it."

Chris twirled a stick. "Yeah, we could go for it."

"The motion carries," Bart said.

"All right. Then that's today's song."

Of course, we didn't play it right away, because the crew wanted to get some levels checks on the bass and guitars before we played together, but we got to it eventually.

After soundcheck, Carynne and I sat on a couple of chairs all the way in the back of the venue while Megaton did their check, talking in between bursts of sound.

"Everyone seems relatively okay today," I said.

"Maybe everyone just needed a night off?" she speculated.

"Did Ziggy have you call his doctor?"

"Yeah. She thinks it's not a huge deal and adjusted his dosage downward, and said to check in next week if he's still not sleeping or having panic."

"So, by 'not a huge deal,' she's not, like, worried he's going to get suicidal or something."

"The only reason Ziggy would attempt suicide would be to get attention," Carynne said. "I think he's getting plenty of that night after night."

"True." We had to stop talking then for a bit, while a very loud, bottom-heavy metal song was played. Which was what they specialized in.

When they had another break, I said, "They really aren't half bad. It's just too bad they're jerks. Or their managers are. It would've been nice to get along with them the way MNB got along with us."