Girl At The Rock Show

COULDN'T WAIT FOR THE SUMMER AND THE WARPED TOUR

Today marks the first show of The Warped Tour and the hype could not be more real. Tons of bands and artists were preparing their sets for months to grace the stages across North America for punk rock's biggest collaborative tour. For the headliners, this was just another chance for them to play for their fans. But for up and coming artists it could be a chance to introduce themselves and gain exposure.

For Riley, this was her dream. She was named a last minute addition to the lineup for a few shows to fill in as an opener for groups who couldn't perform on those specific dates. Although it wasn't much, it was definitely her golden opportunity. And luckily for her, friends from her home country were also joining the same dates so she felt some comfort.

As she walked through the artist tour bus areas anxiously looking to meet new people to talk to she was interrupted in thoughts by her good friend Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan.

"Riley! What the heck are you doing here?" he asked, giving her a big hug.

"I got called to come in for a few dates, what are you doing here?" she asked. Simple Plan was getting ready to drop their debut album and just had their first hit on the radio in Canada. So they were up and coming and bound to find success in the US too.

"Apparently we were really liked last year so they asked us to come back," he laughed.

"Where are the other guys?"

"Not too sure. When are you going on stage?"

"In like 40 minutes. I'm just trying to calm my nerves," she laughed awkwardly as crew members walked by her with equipment and instruments.

"I promise you, you'll be fine. I'll definitely come check you out when your on, and I'll drag the guys too. They'd love to see you."

Luckily for Riley the Canadian music industry was small so everyone who was struggling to launch their careers were very well acquainted by going to the same auditions, festivals and dive bars and recording studios. Simple Plan was one of those bands she always seemed to run into and they eventually became decent friends who often appeared at the same places whether they intended to or not. And despite fighting for record deals under the same labels and in the same genre, Riley never looked at them as competition.

"Good. You better come see my whopping 5 song set," she stuck her tongue out. She was interrupted by her manager and started getting pulled away.

Pierre just yelled, "good luck!" and gave her a thumbs up.

Riley ran to her trailer to get changed into her outfit. She settled on a white tank top with camo floods and a ton of bracelets. Her brown hair was pin straight and covering her face as she didn't want people to see her teary eyes. She was so excited at what was to come and couldn't contain her gratitude and excitement.

Sure enough she walked up the stairs to the side of the stage to patiently wait to go on and saw the boys of Simple Plan on the other side cheering her on. By the time she went on the noise of the crowd excited her to the point where she forgot about her nerves.

Her 5 songs consisted of her songs "Losing Grip", "Complicated", "Basket Case", a Green Day cover, "Mobile" and "Sk8r Boy". Her four original songs were picking up traction in the Canadian music scene so she had hoped that a US label would hear them and would pick her up. So far she only had an ep but was anxiously awaiting the release of a legitimate album. If it weren't for her rising popularity in Canada she wouldn't have had this opportunity.

As she performed her last song of the set she looked to the side of the stage and noticed three other guys staring at her along with the group of friends she had cheering her on. She only glanced for a minute but prayed it was someone who could help her move along in life.

Meanwhile off to the side of the stage quite a few bands formed to check the new girl out. The fact there was a girl on the tour was one thing, but one with her kind of sound and lyrics to not even be known or heard of was another.

"Who is this chick?" Mark Hoppus asked, approaching the guys of Simple Plan who were the first ones there. Mark was from the band Blink 182.

"Her name is Riley Paige," David answered. "She's a good friend of ours."

"Where's she from?" Mark's bandmate Travis asked, approaching behind them.

"Canada," David answered.

"She's pretty rad." Everyone nodded in agreement as they watched her in awe.

Upon finishing her set she ran off and gave her manager a huge hug. "Troy, I freaking did it!" she cried.

"Let's go to the tent, we need to celebrate."

Backstage a tent was set up for the artists to decompress immediately after performing. It wasn't like one white tent, but more like a village of them mixed with a maze. The boys of Simple Plan met with her to congratulate her.

After she hugged them all and told her how great she was Pierre asked to sneak her away for a bit. She nodded nervously and followed him into another tent through the maze. Thankfully the band has already done a Warped Tour before so they understand the flow of how it works. When they got to the destination her jaw dropped by who was in front of her.

Holy shit, it's blink-182.

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Here's the first chapter!  This is an old story I wrote years ago (probably at least ten+ now?) and I love that I can re-share this on here! Let me know what you think!