Marney in Chains

5

The show was set to start at 8. The guys were out drinking and I was setting up and mingling.

"So your brother's in the band?" The one girl, Jamie, asked. She worked there. She seemed fairly nice, a little bit of a dough head but otherwise pleasant.

"Yeah! He plays bass." I said imitating a bassist.
-
It was 2 hours to the show and the only dude I could find was Layne, who was in an alley right behind the venue. I had no idea what he was doing so I went to check on him. Boy that was a mistake.

"Layne?! What the fuck?!"

"Oh-uh-Marn-Ma-Marney hey!" He said he sounded high. Really high. It wasn't pot-high, it was something else.

"What are you doing? We have to get ready for the show!" I said as I approached him. As I walked closer I could now tell what it was.

-

7:37 pm

The show was on its way to starting. I had finally found all the guys. Mike and Jerry were shopping and Sean was apparently in the bar somewhere. But the one thing that was bugging me was that whole occurrence with Layne freaked me out and just made me wonder how he started. When he started. It was really bugging me. I'll end up talking to him later I guess.

8:00 pm

The show had begun! They opened with 'It Ain't Like That' and then continued with songs off of Facelift and other demos that weren't released. It was a good turn out. I sat at the bar with the girl, Jasmine, from the record store earlier.

"Good turn out!" She said. "I haven't seen so many people at a Seattle bands show. Is it like this in Seattle? Packed shows? Drinking?" She seemed eager to know. Like a reporter or something.

"Well yeah. In Seattle, they're all friends. You'd go see your friends bands and your friends would see your bands. In Seattle, there's stage diving, moshing, jumping, all that jazz. It's really great. One day, you should come up there, and we can hang out and I'll show you around." I said. She seemed excited. She also seemed like the person who doesn't really have many friends. But it's okay, I didn't either.
She gave me her number, as a friendly gesture and I did the same.
-

The show was coming to an end. They ended it with 'Love Hate Love'. I was headed backstage so we could get everything packed up and get going on to the next city. Backstage, there were all kinds of people. There were a lot of girls too. They were mostly there for Jerry and Mike. They were the real go getters. Sean too but not as much and Layne, not at all, since he has a girlfriend, Demri. She's so amazing. She's going to meet us on the tour in San Fransisco. We're pretty good friends. Xana La Fuente introduced us in '88. It was love at first sight I guess you could say.

-

They wrapped up and went backstage. Layne seemed out of it.

"Hey Layne" he looked up. "Um, can I talk to you?" He got up and walked over.
"You've been acting weird. And I mean, really weird. You have been unmotivated, tired, sad.. You seem to be on some kind of drug. Are you okay?" I said. He was nodding out. He lost his balance and I carried him to the bus. He wasn't that heavy. We were the same height and weight. As I tucked him in, I noticed needle marks on his arm. I was so hurt. Now I knew for sure what it was, probably like an anti-depressant.