Brooklyn - Taylor Swift

Part 4

"I say we just do it; I know it's risky, but it's a fan favourite with the Bills, and with you two looking identical, it will work amazingly. I mean, the last time you two looked this identical was when we filmed the music video for this, so that was like what five, six years ago. It was so long ago I can't even remember, but that's my point. So, what if it's eight minutes long? It will be visually amazing, completely different from our standard sets." I try my best to persuade them all as they look at me blankly.

"You two can change super quick while I do a little chitchat and fiddle with the guitar, and then Teddy can be wheeled out and strapped to a hospital bed, and we can have it tilted upright so that he is basically standing in it so that everyone can see him and stuff. Then when it is your turn, Mick, you can be wheeled in on a chair and in restraints. All very traditional mental ward vibes, like the music video is. We can have the whole place dark and use spotlights so we can only see one of you at a time; I can play the piece in the dark." I kept going, smiling, when I saw them starting to consider my pitch.

"I don't even care that I will disappear into the back. It is one of my favourites, and I hate that we have never done it live. We can cut the little talking bit at the end, so it won't even be the full eight minutes if that is what you guys are worried about," I try and get everyone on board to perform Hi Ren (Ren).

It is a song that was on our third album and was a single, but we have never performed live. It is more story based than musical, so it's been forgotten since when performing, we are all about the music rather than dancing or anything. But I was scrolling through Twitter last night and found a Bills page basically begging us to play it live, and who am I not to do that?

"I mean, if you guys want to do it, we can make it work," Tony shrugged; he is our tour manager and is looking calm at our request to add another song two days before our last show, let alone one that has more complexity than our typical thing which is to hop on stage and play. To be fair, he has been on our last three tours with us, so he has become somewhat used to this behaviour. "Lanie?" Teddy asks, looking up from his drumsticks, which he has been playing on the floor, to Lanie, who is sitting a few feet away. She just gives us a thumbs up, seemingly on the phone with someone as she agrees to our request. However, something tells me Lanie needs to pay more attention since she has always cautioned us away from performing Ren, not wanting us to have to explain who Ren is.

She doesn't know that the three of us spoke about it, and we are ready to talk publicly about Ren if it ever comes up. We are done hiding that from people. Although I doubt anyone even cares about who Ren is. For all the public knows, it's just a song, nothing more profound. I find it funny how fans can read so much into some artists' music, such as Swifties decoding Taylor Swift's songs, yet dismiss other artists' work as just words. Believe me, all our songs have just as much personal shit in them as Taylor's does; they just bounce around between the three of us.

"If we are doing Hi Ren, then I don't think we should do Rule #21 (Fish in a Birdcage); they're two similar in style," Mick spoke up, finally looking up from his phone, making Teddy and I nod in agreement. "I think we should start with Cowboy Casanova since we went all cowboy at the Met last week, and it's fun and upbeat, and probably everyone there will know it, plus it's a cute little easter egg for Cowboy Killer (Ian Munsick) which comes out in like what a month?" I offer, waiting for everyone to agree before writing it down.

In typical fashion, we have waited until the last possible minute to confirm the setlist.

"Can we follow it with Acting my age (The Academics)? It's my favourite off of the new album. But Andy should sing it. I know that on the album, Mick sings it. I think she does it better live," Teddy asks, making me hum, figuring they could work back-to-back after we do our quick chitchat, trying not to gloat to Mick, who just nods, clearly agreeing with what Teddy was saying.