Jem…Chapter 142

*Before…

It’s the new cover and Kimmie starts first with big drums and as Brooklyn starts the guitar with Raven on bass the place start’s to cheer because everyone knows this song and I’m doing this harder version of it with a long start in that almost Joan Jett if she sang this song. *Wild Thing* By The Troggs.

“W..iii…lllll..dd Thing!”

And the whole place just loses it and scream-sings back loud enough I think the windows had to have shook. “YOU MAKE MY HEART SING!”

Me… “You make every….thing…Grooovy!”

Them (And I mic the crowd.) “WILD THING!”

*And Now…

Raven and Roxy hit that bass and drum part…dun…dun…dun…dun.

Raven leans into her mic. “Wild…thing, I think I love you…” all smoky and seductive.

And I belt out… “But I Want To Know For Sure!!!”

Raven sings… “Come on hold me tight…”

And… “I love you.”

Then we’re back to the chorus and then whole place is jump surging with the song as they’re singing the words without being prompted at all and I’m singing along but it’s just me because I’m mic’ing the crowd and it’s just amazing.

“WILD THING!”
“YOU MAKE MY HEART SING!”
“YOU MAKE EVERYTHING GROOVY….!!!”
“WILD THING!!!”

I grab my Keytar and I start playing that whole 60’s sort of funk-organ like sound since we don’t have a flute and they seem to dig it and I get into playing it myself as this is such a throwback instrument really that you never really see too much of these days.

Then Raven’s in with… “Wild thing I think you move me.”

And I’m in belting it out again. “But I Want To Know For Sure!!!”

And back to Raven… “So come on hold me tight…”

And she does soft and sultry… “You move me…”

And then we’re into the final chorus and they are right back to crowd surging and singing along with us and we’re all singing.

“WILD THING!”
“YOU MAKE MY HEART SING!”
“YOU MAKE EVERYTHING GROOVY….!!!”
“WILD THING!!!”
And then it’s both Raven and I in the same mic.

“C’mon, C’mon Wild Thing.”
“Shake it, Shake it Wild Thing…”

We don’t wait, there’s those last ever so perfect lines that are in this song that have this absolutely perfect play drift over to the next song and this was actually Brooklyn’s idea when we were thinking about this and it was one of those total no brainers really.

They start to cheer as the guitar chords are starting as it’s instantly recognizable.

I’m smiling a lot as I start to belt out.

“WELL SHAKE IT UP BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Shake it up baby.”
And now me but the crowd too and they’re dancing with it. “TWIST AND SHOUT!”
The Girls… “Twist and shout!”

And I’m seriously mic stand grabbing and singing into it.
“C’MON, C’MON, C’MON, C’MON NOW BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Come on baby.”
Me… “C’MON AND WORK IT ALL OUT!”
The girls… “Work it all out.”

Me… “WELL WORK IT ON OUT HONEY!”
The girls… “Work it on out.”
Me… “YOU KNOW YOU LOOK SO GOOD…”
The Girls… “Look so good.”
Me… “YOU KNOW YOU GOT ME GOING NOW…”
The Girls… “Got me going.”
Me… “JUST LIKE I KNEW YOU WOULD.”
The Girls… “Knew you would, woo!”

Me… “WELL SHAKE IT UP BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Shake it up baby…”
Me… “TWIST AND SHOUT!”
The Girls… “Twist and shout!”

Me…“C’MON, C’MON, C’MON, C’MON NOW BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Come on baby.”
Me… “C’MON AND WORK IT ALL OUT!”
The girls… “Work it all out.”

Me… “YOU KNOW YOU A TWISTY LITTLE GIRL!”
The Girls… “Twisty little girl.”
Me… “YOU KNOW YOU TWIST SO FINE!”
The girls… “Twist so fine…”

Me... and I get right to the edge of the stage. “C’MON AND TWIST A LITTLE CLOSER NOW!”
The Girls… “Twist a little closer.”
Me… “AND LET ME KNOW THAT YOU’RE MINE.”
The Girls… “Know your mine…wooo!”

Then we’re into the whole instrumental parts and we’re dancing and twisting some with Raven and Brooklyn doing that guitar twist thing but I’m just with the mic stand and I’m twisting along with the crowd and we actually get to this whole thing where we’re actually or most of us are twisting in the same directions.

It’s really cool because I’m not That coordinated.

Aaaaaaaaaaah…” Bass notes. It’s me at first and then they’re doing it too.
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…!”
“AAAAAAAH!!!”

And yes there’s seven of them in the song and they’re supposed to go every so much up in like enthusiasm until we hit that belting it back out shouting as we hit the next set of lyrics.

And we’re screaming it and the crowd is screaming it and they’re getting so excited that they’re actually at a place that’s doing these songs and these are sing along all the time, every time kind of songs for most of us.

It’s like as loud as any show that I’ve ever see before as they sing along with us all.

Me… “WELL SHAKE IT UP BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Shake it up baby.”
Me… “TWIST AND SHOUT!”
The Girls… “Twist and shout.”

Me…“C’MON, C’MON, C’MON, C’MON NOW BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Come on baby.”
Me… “C’MON AND WORK IT ALL OUT!”
The girls… “Work it all out.”

Me… “YOU KNOW YOU A TWISTY LITTLE GIRL!”
The Girls… “Twisty little girl.”
Me… “YOU KNOW YOU TWIST SO FINE!”
The girls… “Twist so fine…”

Me... and I get right to the edge of the stage. “C’MON AND TWIST A LITTLE CLOSER NOW!”
The Girls… “Twist a little closer.”
Me… “AND LET ME KNOW THAT YOU’RE MINE.”
The Girls… “Know your mine…wooo!”

And I’m right there still at the edge of the stage as close as the girls that are on the dance floor part and they’re dancing and I’m singing it right to them to work them up more and more. I love it, they love it…because…well because a lot of this doesn’t happen as much as it should.

“WELL…SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT! BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Shake it up baby!”
“WELL…SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT! BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Shake it up baby!”
“WELL…SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT! BABY NOW!”
The Girls… “Shake it up baby!”

Aaaaaaaaaaah…” And one last time….starting low and rising.
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah…!”
“AAAAAAAH!!!”

And then we finish with that whole excellent drum beats that Roxy gets to do and that seems to have a few girls that are sort of air-drumming with her.

Like I said female drummers are rare and there are girls that want to drum like in rock drumming.

We stop for a second and a sort of breather and a quick drink of water and the crowd is screaming and they’re yelling and there’s camera phone flashes going off and I see some hand held cameras recording us and I grin at the crowd and say. “Well now that I’ve had my Ferris Beuller moment.”

Someone screams out. “Do Danke Shoen!”

Roxy does a rim shot on her drums.

There’s laughter and I take another mouthful and I go into *Don’t Wanna* By Starlight Butterfly and I’m surprised because it’s a sort of middle popular song but a decent chunk of the crowd are apparently fans and they’re singing along.

And we keep going with that and we go into *Raise Your Fist* By Starlight Butterfly and they’re rocking with it and they’re trying to sing along with that one and while we’re on the run of the harder rock stuff we play. *I Love Rock ‘N Roll* By Joan Jette and from that one we go into actually doing *Rock Your Little Heart Out* By AC/DC and that is really a perfect rock drift to get us into *AC/DC* the hot girl song by Joan Jette again.

See what we did there?
Then we break it up by tossing in one of my faves and that’s *What’s Up* By Four-Non-Blondes.

There’s a lot of guys that don’t know this song or this group that well but a whole lot of the girls know it. Linda Perry is a genius actually; she’s the songwriter behind Beautiful which was written for Christina Aguilera and a whole lot of other songs.

And the girls are sort of group swaying along and they’re singing along with the chorus of…

“And I said Hey….hey…hey…I said hey! What’s going on!?”

Four-Non-Blondes has a sort of funk rock to it and it’s a great mood drift from that to us doing *Can’t Stop* By The Red Hot Chili Peppers and that’s got a great drift into *Soul Sister* By Train.

And Raven surprises everyone by getting out and actual Ukele to play this time for the song.

They’re into it and that’s actually a decent song for leading into *Please Don’t Go* By Starlight Butterfly and that’s semi popular too and I take us from that into *Forever and Always* By Starlight Butterfly and that can be sung a bunch of ways but I’m going for that closer to a Heart kinda rock style than the really slow sort of sad song it can be too.

Then we break.

I talk to the crowd. “Alright we’re going to take a break so you all have some fun have a bite and a drink and while we’re away get ready for some softer and slower dancing to settle in the awesome food…”

One of the waitresses brought me up a little thing from the tapas bar and it’s a little eggroll like bite and I eat it right there on stage and I do a little yummy dance. “Mmmmmm barbeque cheese burger bites…oh right on…” I leave them with that me eating and into it sort of drooly thing and we head out back and first thing is first to the bathroom.

The bite is extremely good and inventive too it’s an eggroll wrap around what is smoked ground beef filling and a tomato based bbq sauce and there’s a nice little melty chunk of cheese in there and they didn’t just seal the wrap they actually rolled it in corn meal before they deep-fried it.

Carmen is there already and she has some containers and some hot water and as soon as we’re done having a pee she’s helping us de-make-up and wash up and then there’s some food and there’s water and juice and there’s a mug of green tea for me and I sip at it and I look out at the crowd.

“That’s a lot of people.”

Carmen says. “They’re waiting on people outside and no one’s really left I don’t think I saw a lot of them outside still and I think that some of them were singing alone out there.”

I shake my head. “I’ve seen things blow up on Twitter and online but this is pretty serious stuff tonight I think we have some press out there.”

Molly nods. “I saw several kind of in the scene bloggers out there that I’ve seen in other places. I know a couple of them.”

“Are they good reviewers or bad types.”

She makes a sort of unsure face. “That depends on the show; they’re a kind of a mixed bag usually.”

I look at her. “Should we go talk to them?”

Molly’s thinking it over and she shakes her head no. “No, if they come to you that’s okay but you don’t want to seem like you’re kissing butt for a review.”

I nod. “Okay that sounds right.”

I look outside again. “I should go help dad for a few minutes, Carm can you give me a shout when you need me to re-do my make up?”

She nods. “Sure, you and Rayne if you want and I have a stop-gap make-up thing for while you two are out there.”

“Oh?”

She passed each of us a pair of those cheap wire framed glasses with the colored plastic lenses that you get at The Dollar Store mine are pink and Rayne’s are a light blue and we grin and put them on and I look at her. “We’re definitely getting you a budget.”

We both leave the backstage and I take my tea and my food with me and there’s some cheers and we wave and we head down the steps and I stop and I take my things and I set them on the edge of the stage and I pull off my band tee and I toss it into the crowd and several people jumped for it and there’s whistles as I’m in my corset top and everything and I get my stuff and I head over to our sales table and I sip my tea and Rayne’s with me and we sit and we sell our stuff while talking with the fans and signing things and we’re helping Dad and Josie who’s there helping and she’s putting in fliers for her place and cards too.

Hey I’m cool with that and that has me with ideas too. “We should do up some fabric shopping bags and some plastic ones too and maybe a flier for Lucky’s and for The Amsterdam that we can put into the purchases.”

Josie beams at me. “That’s a lot more stuff.”

I look at her. “Can you fill them; we’re likely going to be hit with online orders too?”

She’s adding things in her head. “Yeah, I’ll need some help but that’s cool. It’s nice to have the business to hire some people back.”

I grin really big and we fist bump.

I think that there’s people digging that.

I’m digging that and if she’s doing stuff for us and Mr. Walker and if we can get Charlie on board for Lucky’s and I’m pretty sure Jake’s on board with her that’s a big deal and a lot of stuff for a small print shop.

I sign a lot of stuff and talk to the crowd and even offer them some of my tapas bites and some of them take some and that’s kind of cool in itself actually and I do a few fast hugs and handshakes as we leave when Carmen comes to get us.

I hear some of the people saying as we’re going. “They actually came out and spent their break with us, that’s like really cool.”

I hear someone else say. “It’s smart it sells their stuff and like no one else does it.”

That, that’s exactly why I’m still always going to try and do that.

Especially if there’s like a big venue and stuff.

Because the fan girl in my own head would think that seeing someone like Joan Jette or anyone else walk in from the back of the stand selling their stuff and did that it’d be really, really cool.

Carmen is fast getting our stuff on for us and Brooklyn and Roxy are both already on stage and they’re warming up by Brooklyn playing and she’s singing *Easy* By Sheryl Crow and that’s unscripted for the show and people are sort of starting to filter into the dance floor and there’s a few expressions in the crowd of oh wow she can sing too.

I’ll have to fill in the cover prices for doing this when we get home.

It’s a really good tune and it’s very much guitar and drums and it just goes to show just how in synch that Brooklyn and Roxy are with each other that they have their own songs.

Raven and I get onstage and we just play back-up I walk to her mark for the duration and we let her stay exactly where she is and then when she takes the guitar lead and her and I walk switch marks and we go from that into *Black Velvet* By Alannah Miles with Raven singing it and I take a break for that song and I just play except for the shared chorus bit we do and I move from there to my keyboard and not the guitar and I start the opening and start singing *Drops of Jupiter* By Train.

I love that song as it is loose and free and it’s romantic and it lends really well to having a woman sing it too.

And people are dancing and some with each other and some with themselves in that sort of a group sway and I take us into *Everything* By starlight Butterfly and then we go from that into *Washed Away* By Starlight Butterfly and that’s a really good song drift into us covering *Shine* By Collective Soul.

That’s a great song and again it translates actually better with girl singers for it and there’s that really decent drums as a mainstay in if for Kim and then the guitar and the really decent bass for Raven.

Raven does the “Yeah’s” but she does it in this hard breathy way instead.

And there’s some fast guitar there too but that just icing on the cake for Brooklyn and it’s a really good and technically skilled song to cover and do it right. The trick for me is to go higher when he goes deep.

There’s people doing the zombie bounce dancing of that just dancing and going with the music and it’s such a good place for us to go into *Invisible* By Starlight Butterfly.

As soon as we start into the song we hear some cheers going up and a lot of clapping this time and someone actually happy sobbed!? We’ve never had that before and as I start to play and I start to sing there’s lights and glowing smartphone apps up in the air and there’s a whole lot of voices singing along with us.

It’s one of those really, really into it sort of moments and one where this song id something really close to me and it seems a whole lot of other people too.

*Invisible…* By Starlight Butterfly.
“Day after day….it’s always the same.”
“Waking up cold…on a bright sunny day…”
“Breakfast’s cold coffee and three cigarettes…”
“Why do I even bother….?”
“No one will notice…”
*chorus “Because I’m Invisible…”
“Why can’t anyone see me…?”
“Because I’m Invisible…”
“Why can’t anyone hear me…?”
“I’ve been screaming and shouting but nobody cares…”
“Because I’m Invisible…”
“I’m Invisible……And I’m fading away…”
“And the shower can’t wash away the pain…..”
“Another day…of not this again…”
“And the soap’s not what’s making me cry…”
“I close my eyes to the razor’s lullaby…”
“Why should I bother…?”
“Will anyone notice….?”
“Will anyone miss me…?”
* Chorus again.
“And is the knife my only friend…?”
“And will these pills take me to my end…?”
“And will anything be there at the end of the line…?”
“Or like everything else is it a big waste of time?”
“Why should I bother…?”
“When Nobody loves me…”
“When Nobody sees me…”
* Chorus twice more.

There’s a lot of us out there that feel Invisible… and while we’re feeling it I slip into *I Will Remember You* By Sarah McLaughlin.

And when I’m done that I keep playing on the keyboard doing the piano sound as Raven starts to sing *Billy Holiday*

I’m surprised and I’m not surprised at the fact that there’s people swaying and singing along to that one too. I know it sells well on our I-tunes singles but I want like really thinking of just how much that’s gone around since it came out and we first started.

…. We get done that and there’s shouts from the crowd. “Oncology! Please!”
And what chokes me up a little…. “Please my sister is on the other line!?”
I nod a couple of times and we start into it and it’s one of the hardest songs I’ve ever heard and Raven sings it and she is just.

*Oncology* By Starlight Butterfly.
Let me sit close to you to say goodbye…
Don’t mind the tears here in my eyes…
Because they’re not sad tears…
Because I love you…
I’ll love you forever…
(Chorus)
Let’s savor the times we had together!
Savor those words we pledged forever!
We both still have love, we still have love!
It can’t take that! It can’t touch that!
Let me sing to you a lullaby.
It’s one last song, it’s one last try…
To see that light, to see that smile…
Baby I need this.
I hate all this suffering….
(Chorus)
Oh close your eyes and rest your head.
On the cool steel of that hospital bed…
You look too tired yet so serene…
You can let go…
Let our tears flow…
Let’s talk together one on one…
About all the things we’ve seen and done…
And all those good things…those great big little things.
Before it became…
Before our life with cancer…
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
Hey; We’re not over, we’re not done…
There’s one more shot, there’s one more try…
Because I’ll see you, forever after…forever after…
In that sunshine…
I’ll be there…
Just wait for me…

Summer you have no idea who you left and who you hurt and how just breathtaking and amazing she is.

And I play and I cry and I don’t wipe the tears away as I’m playing, it’s my keyboard I know where everything is even when it’s blurry and we end it fading off into the end of the show.

My voice is a little tight with emotion and I lean ahead and I talk into the mic. “Well that’s the first show girls and guys we’re going to take a thirty minute break now while we get refreshed and the staff here can get ready for the bonus show. And if I don’t see some of y’all in thirty then have a great night and don’t forget we’re on Facebook and Youtube and Twitter.”

I look to where they’re leaving and the guys are helping out and Dad’s folding up the goods table and he mouths. “We’re all out.”

Wow…I give him the thumbs up and head out back to get really refreshed this time.