Jem…chapter 156

*Before…

I’m getting things and we’re all setting up and I’m taping down cords and setting marks and I’m starting to hum and Brooklyn looks at me and she smiles and we both actually start to sing.

“A very good friend of mine….”
“Told me something the other day…”
“And I’d like to pass it on to you.”
“Because I believe what he said to be true.”

Rayne and Kimmie and Mike and some of the bar staff actually all chime in with us all acapella with no back up.

“We’re here for a good time!”
Rayne back sings soulfully… “For…a good time.”
“Not a long time.”
Rayne comes in with… “Not a looooong time…”
“So have a good time…the sun can’t shine everyday…!”

*And Now…

That’s one of those things about when you’re singing an old school old time rock and roll song in a place that’s really made for old school old time rock and roll songs and that’s it gets in your blood really fast.

And it’s Trooper being sung in an Ontario bar.

Unless you grew up under a rock you’ve heard this song for most of your life and that’s like true for a lot of the staff here because they’re kind of singing along with us as we’re all setting up with Josie sort of setting things off and Dad actually chiming in with Mike and Uncle Mitch.

“And the sun is shining….”
“In this crazy city…”
“Ooooh ain’t it a pity…”
“And every year has its share of tears.”
“And every now and then it’s gotta rain….”

And then it’s just like ten or twelve of us all singing acapella as we’re setting up and getting ready for opening and it’s lifting the mood of the place.

“We’re here for a good time!”
“Not a long time.”
Rayne sings out soulfully with the second. “Not a looooong time!”
“So have a good time, the sun can’t shine every day!”

And Brooklyn’s ready and it might not be exactly the same instrument because she’s using her guitar but she’s playing the instrument bridge of the song and we’re getting ready and we’re grooving with it all and as we’re sort of done and ready to get into costume or rather the outfits for the show people are being let in and there’s some whistles and cheers at the door as their doing coat check and they heard all of us doing all of this from outside.

That feeling of them happy and eager to have a good time and the atmosphere being like already set is definitely changing the mood and we wave to them and Brooklyn’s whistling back with Roxy really loudly and we head out back as Jake and crew are starting handling the crowd.

We can hear the bartending staff doing The Amsterdam cheer thing already and the crowd is doing it back.

Dad’s grinning. “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.”

I smile.

I get it though. It’s been a long time since you even heard of places being those sort of places that were cool. That had that extra something that made people talk about them and be proud of those places and to like brag them up.

Seriously I can’t really remember anything like that in my life except sort of The Wildcatter and that’s not like old school famous that’s like teenaged and college famous. It’s like if this was Buffy then The Wildcatter would be The Bronze.

Then we’re into Carmen’s hands as she does the clothes and hair and make-up and tonight we’re doing our old school rock kind of show here so it’s boots and bootcut stretchy fade colored jeans with the holes in them and my bustier corset set up under my band t-shirt and the shirt’s actually new and it’s a white tee with the SLB logo in pink so that it matches me. I’m still wearing the inserts and I’m all secured up and I get lift for my boobs.

And then there’s the whole effect of that mixed with my general look and there’s my signature hair style with the whole fluff-spiked look sort of in that 80’s and 90’s sort of old school big hair way and that actually works with the Jem make-up and then I’m done.

Rayne’s dressed in black again which still really suits her with her still being the semi-goth and she is in black faux leather pants and her heavy boots and she’s wearing her bustier along with a black band SLB tee over that and her studded leather cuff bracelets and her rings as well as he make-up being pretty amazing too with the winged eyeliner along with a smoky eye and this really, really sexy deep blue and plum shimmery lipstick that really, really makes me want to kiss her and see what she tastes like.

I really, really want to taste her lips.

Want to feel her lips on mine and that sexy, odd lipstick on lipstick mixing glide over each other and then I’m feeling and then…oh…oh ow and yay…I don’t really have that lower ow going on it’s kinda going on but…

My nipples are hard, like actually really hard in the girl ow-yay way and it’s not when Rayne’s been doing things to them it’s just by the sexy thoughts.

Which in actually pretty darned exciting beyond the sex-exciting thing.

Because like it’s happening.

And that’s pretty cool.

I head over to Rayne and we’re kinda doing that looking deeply at each other and holding hands before we go out and Brooklyn’s in the chair getting done out with her hair teased out to that Amanda Marshal style of long willowy wisps and fast blonde clip in highlights and Carmen even has braided lengths of the same color red as she has naturally and she has them actually fall from in front of her ears to loop and link up behind her ears. And then she’s adding in earrings that actually set off the look even more with a lobe dangle set with a gold colored spike and two red stoned studs that set it off and she has this make-up job with a red brick smoke over the eyes look but in a band sort of like what I wear and then there’s this other stuff she did that makes Brooklyn’s green eyes just pop.

Combat boots and fishnets and a mini-shirt and a push-up bra with a band shirt that’s done in the red version.

She looks hot and we look like we’re really rocking too and then it’s Roxy’s turn and that starts actually with her clipping in some serious extensions and she teases it out some and actually makes her this pretty wicked top-knot that is held in place by a scrunchy that has a little moogle figurine attached to it.

Then a whole new shirt that is black but with a logo that’s like the happy face one but with moogle ear points and our signature sort of eye make-up on it and under the face is SLB written in that marker signature looking font in pink acrylic and it’s got all of our printed signatures all over it.

Torn jeans with the featherings and wrist braces she’s got some make-up on but nowhere near as much as we do because she’d sweat most of it off really fast.

She takes some selfies and she drinks a red bull and grabs a water having a few sips as she heads out on stage first and there’s some cheers and whistles and she yells at the crowd. “Pointers!?”

“ROCK!”

And more… “POINTERS!”

“ROCK!”

“WHAT!”

“ROCK!”

Kimmie’s found herself a niche and that’s sharing that contagious energy of hers and getting the crowd worked up.

Kimmie starts in on the cymbals doing this chink-chink and then a thump of the snare over and over and Brooklyn hits the base riff as Raven and I take the stage and we have a crowd actually in front and center way more tonight and it’s likely from earlier in the week but this is Friday night and this is The Amsterdam and they really want a show tonight.

I grin and take the mic stand in my hands and head bob for a few beats and I start it hard right off from the start tonight.

“Gimmie an R!”

The crowd loses it and this is so iconic that there’s people that are instantly just singing along, yelling along with us right from the start…and it’s one of those young and old songs, like everyone kinda knows. *Rock You* By Helix.

“R!”

And I’m like. “O! C! K! What you got?”

“Rock!”

“And what you gonna do?”

I mic the crowd. “ROCK YOU!”

It’s a rock anthem song and it’s a band song too where it’s always sort of been the band singing stuff together and not just the lead singer but done right it’s really, really interactive too when it gets down to it and those songs are great songs to get people rocking and rolling and dancing and singing along with us.

And from hard rocking to hard rocking we shift right from this into *I Love Rock and Roll* By Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

And that has just about every girl and every woman with us either dancing and singing along with us or just sort of guitar-bopping with us as we wind them right up tonight.

I stop and I wave at everyone and shout into the mic. “Hey everybody! Happy Friday!”
“Are you all ready to have a heck of a good night tonight!?”

They’re crying out and there’s some cheers and whistles.

“I see everyone’s pretty darned excited!”

More yells and cheers are going on.

I grab my water bottle and hold it up and I start The Amsterdam chant and it’s a very ‘Whoa…’ moment when it’s picked up by like not just the front and center crowd but by the others too and the staff and there’s drinks hoisted.

I toast with my water and I set it back down on my folding chair and I start to play the opening chords and Brooklyn joins it and then Roxy and Raven as we do another Joan Jet and The Blackhearts song *AC/DC*

That’s such a hit with the girls, it’s kinda a lesbian and bi girls song and it’s still very much a girl anthem tune and well it’s Joan Jet which is always popular and the women and girls are dancing to it up front and center and it’s getting the play right into the mood and we go from that into *Raise Your Fist* By Starlight Butterfly and the response is really, really good for that one tonight and I have to admit with the stuff that’s happened the last couple of days we’re sort of still right there in the mood for this jam.

And then we slide from that into doing *Stone Cold Crazy* By Queen and I like the song and the band but as a singer there’s the lyric speed rush at the first and then as a musician there’s a whole lot to like about this song and the best part as a performer is that in a line up it’s a free player.

Which means you can jump into anything that’s fairly close in the rock genre.

And this time it’s. *Don’t Wanna* By Starlight Butterfly and then we go into a song the Brooklyn likes a whole lot.

And we’re doing *We’re all Crazy Now!* By Slade or well that’s the version that we like as opposed to Quiet Riot’s which has a different feel to it too screamy for us while Slade’s take really gels well with the whole combined girl vocals.

And the “Drink my whisky like you do…” line is really great stuff for a bar and the whole tune in jump up and down rave like worthy especially when I start it and hold out the mic for them to sing for us and they’re all singing the courser as they’re bouncing and dancing.

And dancing like that makes you sweat and burns calories and it makes you want to drink and that’s good for a bar and that’s like part of the aim really. I want it to be a really good thing when there’s people that hire us.

And we speed it up again with a really good fast dancing song that’s pretty well known and fits us pretty good and that’s. *What I like about You* By The Romantics and then that is a right seamless fit for us to do *Raise a little Hell* By Trooper.

Then we go into *Fortune Favors The Bold* By Starlight Butterfly and from that we go into us doing our hard rock version of *Forever and Always* By Starlight Butterfly and that’s two of ours in a row so we go from those into us playing.

*Come on Feel the Noise.* By Slade again instead of QR like we used to because they do have a better style for us to cover and we go from that to. *Rock this Joint.* By Alannah Myles. And then *Whole Lotta Love* By Led Zeppelin but with Raven taking the vocals for this one and her just kicking butt with her sexy deep power vocals.

Then it’s us switching back to cover. *Rockin in The Free World.* By Neil Young.

And we end the set for the first half with *Everything* By Starlight Butterfly.

That’s like fifteen and live and stuff songs are longer so we’re like two hours plus in. and everyone’s sweaty and charged up enough and tired enough that the slow dancing session and stuff will be like welcome and people that aren’t into the slower stuff are likely going to hit the bar and the booths and tables.

“Thank You Pointers!”

There’s a lot of cheering at that. It’s definitely becoming a thing here too. People like having their own things, bars names for folks that live in their town and things like that. It’s this whole sort of pride thing and as far as I’m concerned it’s actually a great thing these days because there’s really not a lot to root for honestly that’s not on the internet.

Like ask any millennial college kid or teen even, it’s pretty bleak out there.

And it’s more than a great feeling being here and hearing the crowd of the regulars and the staff doing their thing now. And that there’s others here learning it and seeing it too… the whole fun and pride of having something for ourselves, for themselves is like a so real thing these days.

And I yell “Pointers!”

And they yell “ROCK!”

“Pointers!”

“ROCK!”

I yell it back with them as they’re cheering and the girls and I peel out of our band tees to reveal the rest of our outfits underneath and the crowd’s just losing it as we toss the shirts we were wearing out to the crowd and it’s really more than cool to see them wanting that so much.

I flash a peace sign at some of them and Roxy fires off her drumsticks and we head back stage and it’s the usual of us getting drinks first water and juice and then going to use the bathroom backstage and getting washed off really quick after that. Two and a half hours singing and being under the stage lights rocking out heats you up and makes you a sweaty mess so it’s definitely getting cleaned up.

And then by the time I’m out of there and done there’s a hot strong green tea there waiting for me with a little lemon and honey and there’s a whole small table of stuff for us to eat.

I try a slider that’s there and it’s like a bratwurst styled sausage patty with pickles and there’s some pickled red onions too and then there’s a mustard with that and some coleslaw and a small onion ring.

That was good… it’s like sausage and pickles with coleslaw and all those things that just really go together in like a slider just for here. And honestly cheap too, you can get ground pork cheaper than beef and the rest is pretty easy too cost wise but they’re really good.

Dad always says if a place has a signature thing that’s better than fast food people will go there for it.

And the fries are good too, cut right here and skin on with a really nice deep flavor. You know that you can live or die on your fries when serving food.

And these come with a house dip that’s kind of like aioli but there’s this flavor in there that reminds me of like apple cider vinegar and steak sauce in the and a lot of fresh ground black pepper.

It makes me thirsty and wanting sips of my tea but at the same time it’s really good too and I have a good sized helping of both before it’s my turn in the make-up chair.

Carmen does my make-up over and plays with the kinda dampness in my hair so to make the “wet look” kind of look more on purpose and intense and then I’m done and Rayne’s next and I’m looking out into the main part of the bar and the floor and it’s actually packed with people and there’s a lot of folks at the bar and our band table is busy with a steady stream of things and people are all having a good time and I go and get my mug of tea and head out through that stage side door and over to our table where our stuff’s being sold and there’s a whole bunch of excited voices.

“Angel!”
“Jem!”
“We love you!”
“You’re here; you’re like really like down here!”

Okay that girl she’s staring at me like she’s never talked to someone from a band before and I smile at her and I offer her my hand.

“I like to come out to see everyone sometimes while everyone else is getting ready. Hi I’m Angel Benton.”

I shake her hand and she’s shaking some and I step in and pull her into a mini-hug. “You think it’s cool for you I’m the skinny chick that somehow actually has fans, you all just blow me away.”

She’s all squeaky hyper. “Really?”

“Totally, I mean take off the stage make-up and the cool clothes and stuff I’m just like the rest of you all.”

“But…you have like a band and like all these cool songs.”

“I’ve got some cool friends and a girlfriend with a band that needed a lead singer and the rest in just going for it.”

“Going for it?”

“Heck yeah, there’s enough people and enough of stuff that goes on in society that keeps saying no that to me it’s like they already decided that you’re going to fail.”

She sniffles and she nods and I’m holding up a shirt and she’s nodding at the one that I picked out. I sign it and ask. “What’s your name hon?”

“Perry…it’s after the like stone.”

“Like Peridot? Like Steven Universe?”

“You watch Steven Universe?”

“Totally, look Perry if they think that you’re going to fail and it seems like the world is waiting for it then really you don’t have anything to lose. Art, writing, singing, dancing, math or mechanics or like just being whatever moves you or like everything and anything that moves you…just do it.”

She’s nodding and I give her the shirt and she’s clutching it to her chest and she thanks me over and over and I have another mini-hug with her and I spend another five minutes signing things and shaking hands with people and even a few mini-hugs as I head back through to backstage and drop off my mug and get another bottle of water and have a few sips.

Carmen’s looking at me and she’s smiling as she touched me up. “You really like going out there and doing all of that stuff don’t you?”

I smile. “Yeah, it’s something that I think is pretty awesome and it’s not like the spotlight from the good press is going to last forever and I kind of want to set like a code.”

She looks at me. “A code?”

“Yeah, I’d love for the way that we treat the bars and clubs and places we do gigs at to be the sort of standard. So like it’s a good experience for the places, for the bands and especially for the people coming to these shows.”

“That’s a tall order; people are kind of like assholes Angel.”

“People are a lot of things and there’s going to be some folks that’ll notice that venues and fans will have to say a lot about how we do a show and hopefully that’ll catch on.”

“Still Angel it’s just cool that you bother, some folks as popular as you’re getting to be would be like all up in the air with stuff.”

I smile and hug her. “No worries Carmen, I’m a down to earth kinda girl.”

She hugs me back and we head back out on stage and into the lights and they’re already cheering as we’re coming out.

I step up to the mic and lean with it a little out to the crowd and grin at the all.

“Heeeeeey everybody!”

“Hey Jem!”

“Everyone having a good time!?”

There’s cheers and sharp whistles and a couple of yells.

“Good! ‘Cause we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969…..” I sing that little bit and yeah I so stole that line from dad’s little thing earlier and the crowd actually loves it.

I mic them and there’s no instrument playing just them and they’re singing. “Welcome to The Hotel California…!
“Such a lovely place…such a lovely place!”
“Plenty of room at The Hotel California!”
“Any time of year…!”
“You can find it hear…!”

I put the mic under my arm and I clap for all of them and so are the girls and there’s more clapping and cheering with them all getting into it and I grab the mic and smile as I’m shouting back at them.

“Oh my god that was amazing you guys! That was just, well hell that’s just like proof that Pointers!?”

“ROCK!”

“Pointers!?”

“ROCK!”

“And What do you want to do with your life!?”

And they get it, they get it right away and there’s this big wave of them shouting out at us as I mic the crowd.

“I WANNA ROCK!”

That’s actually the start of the second set as we launch into a girl rock band version of *I Wanna Rock* By Twisted Sister.

And they’re already worked up with the booze and the fun and the chanting and the Eagles thing that we or rather they did and they’re right into it singing and shouting along with us hard.

God it’s such a good song full of full power anthem and big fast lead singer rapid fire stuff that gives you this lift and it works really well with a girl band too with us blasting it out and it’s sort of right in that rebel-chick music that we like with The Dolly-rots and Pink, it’s a really great song for this and everyone knows this.

God bless Ontario and it’s radios stations that still lovingly play a lot of great old tunes.

And the crowd’s bouncing and screaming and they’re shouting out the words with us and it’s that big a thing we actually turned up the volume on our gear.

And from that crowd blaster we slip right into a super guilty pleasure but another one that a whole lot of people still love. *I want to Rock and Roll All Night!* By Kiss.

Yeah a lot of people my age don’t really like or think of Kiss but Dad and Mom had like a lot of their records and I can remember Dad making barbeque and Mom putting this album on that actually unfolded into this three panel picture of the crowd that they were like playing in Brazil or something and I was like really little but it was something that just stuck.

And they made Beth and they made God gave Rock and Roll to You…so there’s some really seriously good stuff in there too.

Plus I mean it’s got great chant lines for the crowd and it’s got this really hooky drums in it and it has Gene’s part and Raven’s singing that and she’s our dark gothy girl part of the band and it just fits so much that the crowd just is soooo into it and that’s two songs with them so charged up and dancing that the place is just absolutely bouncing.

Like seriously I can feel them dancing on the floor and it’s vibrating through the stage.

And it just continues as we go from that into us doing *Do You Wanna Touch* By Joan Jett and that’s another one that the crowd is loving and rocking out too and it’s a great tune really one we should do more often and because of the other night and how everyone had reacted to it we go from that into *Wild Thing* By The Troggs.

And as soon as the first notes come out they lose it all over again because the song is loved by everyone and the crowd here at The Amsterdam is really a great crowd for it with the older generation of rock lovers in it.

And I belt out the start with that heavy girl rock voice like as if Pink was doing it and I can feel the vibrations of them bouncing to it right through the floor and to the stage.

“WIIIIIILLLLDDD THIIIIIING!”

And there’s a huge explosion of. … “YOU MAKE MY HEART SING!”

And it keeps going like that with them just going like crazy with everything and there’s people bouncing and there’s camera and phone flashes going off.

And it’s like that all the way through the song and we were going to slip into something else but there was several screams and calls out from the crowd. “Twist and shout!”

I ask them into the mic. “What was that?”

“TWIST AND SHOUT!”

I look at the girls and they nod and we start to open into the chords for that and I start singing that and trying to do my best girl singer version of Ferris Beuller because that’s actually my favorite version of that and they’re shouting and there’s whistles and they start dancing to it and like not just the rock concerty dancing that they’ve been doing but dance floor sort of dancing mixed in with it as there’s a lot of people that are up and dancing to this as they’re singing along with the words.

I know we’re doing a whole lot of covers now but we’re not a hard rocking kind of band with some of our own stuff.

Seriously I need to sit down with the girls and write us some good hard old school rock and roll songs for us to use during sets like this.

That’s definitely going to be a thing.

And I’m actually looking forward to trying and I let the thought sink it as Brooklyn starts the guitar going for *Johnny B Good.* By Chuck Berry.

That’s a really good song and I’ve loved it ever since the whole scene thing at the dance from Back to The Future.

And we go from that and we shift down gears just a little with *Rock and Roll Hoochie-Coo* By Rick Derringer which is a good dance tune and then we do some classic Canadiana music with us doing *Isn’t it Ironic* By Alanis Morrisette and then we head directly from that into *Big League* By Tom Cochrane and that’s the last song for the set and we’re all singing along to that because it’s literally one of those national fabric songs really.

One of these days I’m going to see if we do shows with enough Canadian content for like the CBC or something.

I take the mic and some water and drink then say to the crowd.

“We’ll be back every one after another break and we’ll take things down nice and slow so we can get some of the sweet hearts out there and some of these first time dates a chance to dance.”

I put the mic back and turn to have Raven take my hands and she gives me a nuzzle and then a kiss right there on stage in front of everyone all soft and sweet and it’s one of those over and over kisses.

And there’s a whole light show of camera and phone flashes as she’s dancing with me without any music in the background for one…two…the…times around the stage before she leads us backstage with her hands up to my face and she’s kissing me over and over and I’m walking backwards.

Oh wow…oh yay…Simply Outrageous.