Bradie
I dropped Mia off at her house and smiled, she really knew how to have fun even in dark times. When I got back to my house I saw Shaun and Andy putting their guitars in our tour truck. Today was my last day home before we started touring with Good Charlotte. This wasn’t the first time we were touring with them, and they were such nice guys. I ran out to the garage where I kept my drum kit when we weren’t on tour and started taking it out to the truck bit by bit. When I packed all of my drum kit and everything else I’d needed with it, I walked to my room and packed my little spiderman bag, and my backpack. I had pretty much everything together within around over an hour and noticing the time I decided to head off to bed. It was only about 6 but I was pretty tired, not to mention we were going to be leaving around 5 in the morning.
I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, letting dozens of thoughts run through my mind as I slowly drifted into sleep.
I shot up from my bed and leaped for my phone to shut it up, I didn’t want to wake up my parents or Chris because it was so early. It was still dark, causing me to stumble around my pitch black room half asleep in attempt to turn the light on, while trying to not trip over my bags that I left somewhere on the floor. As I flipped the switch I scrunched up my eyes from the sudden change in lighting sending pain to my eyes while they readjusted. I heard Andy walking down the hallway and decided I’d go out and get him to help me wake up Shaun and Jumpnow who decided to stay over last night. I gave him a look while glancing at the two on the couches and he got the hint, walking into the kitchen to grab a cup of water. I didn’t think to splash water on them to wake them up, but it was a better idea then yelling something in their ears. Andy used his fingers to indicate a count down from 3 – 1, then at the same time we splashed the two of them with the icy cold water.
“What the fuck?!” Shaun screamed as he shot up,
“OH MY GOD MY HAIR!” Jumpnow yelled. Andy and I lost it laughing; I guess my plan to not wake everyone else in the house was a bit of a fail. Shaun and Jumpnow both rushed off the couches and chased Andy and I out the front door and all the way down to the end of our street, Andy and I both giggling in the process. When they finally calmed down and we were all back at the house we started loading the last of our bags into the tour truck and jumped into our vans and drove off to the airport to meet up with everyone else. Chris, Trevor and Luke were waiting at the terminal with the second support band that would be touring with us, New Empire. Soon our flight to Brisbane was called and we all hopped onto the plane eagerly. It had been so long since I’d last seen the boys from Good Charlotte and I was beginning to really look forward to catching up with them. I took my spot on the plane next to Shaun while Andy did the usual and filmed for Short Stack TV, I swear he’s practically glued to that camera.
After a few hours of a plane trip and some driving around, we were at the venue doing sound check. I could hear people outside as I bashed my drums, checking to make sure they sounded right. Shaun was checking the microphones; honestly I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word ‘check’ so many times before. He told us to play ‘Disco Honey’ to make sure everything sounded right, so I sat back up at my drum set, Andy went and got his bass, Luke stood over at the microphone behind Shaun with his guitar in his hands, and Clarke stood over at the keyboard and synth ready to go.
After we played, New Empire came on and played a song for sound check, I have to admit they are a pretty good band. Jeremy, their singer, had a good singing voice, and he really knew how to have fun while performing. And their drummer Kale had some good moves on the drums, and he did vocals too, unlike me. I mean when we recorded tracks for our albums I did do backup vocals, not that it’s really noticeable that it’s me, but I won’t really sing for anything else, not even acoustic shows. I don’t know, I guess I just don’t like my singing; Andy gives me enough crap saying I can’t sing, reasons of which I don’t. When we were back in the green room I heard the loud chatter of hundreds of people starting to come in, and the banging of teenagers feet hitting the ground as they ran to the front of the mosh pit. I became a little bored and softly hit my drum sticks on my knees to the rhythm of Planets. Within about half an hour or so it was time for New Empire to go on stage. They walked over to the side of the stage where they couldn’t be seen and waited. The lights dimmed and the crowd cheered, louder and louder as one by one the band took their places up on stage. They absolutely rocked the place out for their half hour, and everyone in the crowd seemed to love them by the way they were dancing and cheering. It had been a while since I last performed in front of a crowd and I was starting to really look forward to it. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the cheers I was hearing, being cheered to us. As the boys finished up on stage and ran back into the green room with all of us, the lot of them covered in sweat and jumped around with excitement.
“Man, that crowd is HUGE!” Jeremy exclaimed with a smile. The excitement in me started to grow more and more. Of course the crowds were HUGE at a concert for a band like Good Charlotte, the numbers in the crowds they pull off is more than double what we could ever get into a venue, and it was great to perform for them knowing half of them probably had never even heard of us; that gave us a chance to get our music out there for others to hear. Granted we’re not the best live, but then again we use to be a lot worse, I hoped some people would give us a chance and check us out, maybe get a liking in some of our songs. The next half hour passed with music playing through the venue to keep people entertained. I could hear American Idiot starting to play; knowing Shaun probably picked that song, and listened as hundreds of kids sang along to it. Well sure there was most likely a bunch of people singing that weren’t kids, but the majority of them sounded young. When it finally time for us to go on stage the lights dimmed, with our track The Cannons beginning to play with its continuous chant
“This ain’t no, god damn disco
This ain’t no, god damn disco
This ain’t no, god damn disco”
As it continued to chant we came out on stage and the screaming erupted even louder, piercing our ears with their cheers. I ran up to my drum kit and sat patiently as the keyboard filled the room with the beginning of our song We Dance To A Different Disco, Honey; and somehow the cheering became even louder.
“We dance alone tonight because,” Shaun began to sing, Andy joining in chime, me beginning to bash my drums,
“We dance to a different disco honey!”
Everyone in the mosh pit began to jump and dance like it was the last time they would walk.
“Honey, forgive me for I have sinned, and I don’t believe in you so, We’ll murder this dance floor because we’re all done for, we dance to a different disco”
Even though I had ear plugs in my ears and a loud set of drums before me I was bashing on I could still hear the crowd sing along with Shaun. I was pretty surprised; I didn’t expect too many people at this show to be fans of us.
The night went on and we continued to play through some of our old songs, and a few of our newer ones, all until our time on stage was up. Then when Good Charlotte finally took their place on stage, man did that crowd scream! And I thought they were loud for us! I sat down on a bench in the green room and thought to myself, how amazing it would be to one day have a crowd like that to see just us. I mean I knew we have a similar amount of fans throughout venues Good Charlotte would be playing at, but worldwide, nationally, that’s what I want.
