I Need A Minute

Chapter 1: The Show

Video attached is an actual video of Imagine Dragons playing at Caesar's Palace in 2010

"Come on guys, we need to get unloaded quicker if we are going to make soundcheck!" Ben yells at us.

We are emptying out the 'Dragon Wagon' for our show tonight, and the amp I'm carrying is particularly heavy, but it really doesn't matter because this is a big show for us.

We are playing the courtyard at Caesar's Palace and they are actually paying us $1,000 for tonight's gig. That's huge considering most places only pay us about $300.

We've got the bus parked in an alleyway in the middle of the property, this place is huge, and that's no understatement. I swear this entire place takes up a whole city block. When we got an invite to play here it was like the best news any of us have ever gotten.

I grab a few cables along with my amp and sort of waddle over to the stairs up to the stage.

"You're such a slowpoke oh my gosh." Dan teases, running past me with a mic in his hand and a guitar on his back.

"You try carrying this thing, it's a fucking boulder for Christ's sake!"

"You were the one who wanted a new amp in the first place." Platz reminds me, carrying the first of his drums up to the stage.

"The other one was starting to crap out anyways, I've had it since high school, it was time for a new one."

"I'm surprised you actually parted with it, you're so centerminted and all." Dan says, with tongue stuck out.

"It's sentimental you dweeb, and I'm just glad to have one that won't sound like a dying cow when I try to invert a chord." I say, finally getting the amp set down on stage.

"That's not where your amp goes, Wayne, what are you doing?" Ben asks, confused look plastered across his face.

"Eh, I'm trying it in a new spot tonight. This one is shaped differently anyways. and we are actually outside, so hopefully this should project the sound better."

"You are such a fucking nerd, I swear," Ben sighs, "Come on, let's go get the rest of the equipment so we can get started." He jogs back over to the stairs, back towards the bus.

+++++

"There are so many cables all over this stage, I swear one day it'll be the death of us." Platz whines.

"The wireless stuff is just so damn expensive, I'm lucky I was even able to afford this new amp. I've been eating barely anything for the past few weeks just to save up enough money for this thing."

"True, I'm just glad we're actually going to get some decent cash for this show tonight." Dan says, "I wonder if one day we will make enough to actually get out of our dingy little apartment."

"Get your head out of the clouds, dreamer boy." Ben taunts, shoving Dan lightly.

"Hey, it's just a thought." He retorts.

"Quit bickering you two and lets actually get warming up. They want us to start the show in 45 minutes and we still need to tune and check everything." I say, bringing them back to reality.

I tend to be the one who has to do that. Ben is kind of crazy, Platz too, but not as much so, and Dan always seems to have his head in another place.

The apartment is homey and all, but I agree with him when he says a bigger place would be nicer. Like it would be nice to actual have bedframes instead of mattresses just thrown on the middle of the floor in a room with one tiny dirty window.

But who am I kidding, it was a stroke of luck we got this show, no way we're actually gonna get to play bigger places.

I guess that means we really need to make tonight count.

+++++

This show is actually going amazing. We've never played for a crowd this big before, but we are getting received with as much energy as we've gotten at our smaller shows.

We have to have been playing for at least 3 hours now because we've seen the sky go from a pale blue to pink to purple and finally to the deep blue of night. These 6 hour gigs are tiring as hell, but they pay the bills, literally.

As per our deal with the casinos, we've been doing a mix of our own songs with covers that any drunk would know. I think my favourites we've done tonight have been The Killer's "All These Things That I've Done" and Brittany Spears "Toxic". I think each one lit up a different part of the crowd of at least 500 people there.

I just can't get over how many people are hear to actually see us. Us!

We finally get to a section where we can start doing some of our own material and we decide to start with a new one, "Hear Me" Dan refuses to tell me what it is about, but I feel it has something to so with us being so close, because he always runs over to sing with me during the bridge.

The song is running smoothly and sounds even better than I thought it would with my new amp, I'm just getting so into the zone because I absolutely love playing this song.

As we approach the bridge, I scoot to the right side of my mic to make sure Dan has space to sing with me when he come over here. I just keeps playing along and I get to the riff that enters the bridge, and something is a bit off, Dan isn't by my side.

At first I think he's just deciding to mix things up tonight so I move back to the center of my mic and my foot hits a round object on the ground. What the fuck was that, I think, but I keep playing.

It isn't until I realize that Ben and Platz have stopped playing that I stop myself and look down. That strange round object my foot hit... Dan's head, laying on the stage, unconscious, with what seems to be a gash on his forehead in a shape that could only be caused by one thing... my new amp.

Oh my God. What have I done...

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm back to trying to write a story in chapter format, I promise I will try not to abandon this one. I came up for the idea for it while driving around town today listening to the Dragons' EP's. Also my love desolation_tragedy gave me some ways to make this story a bit more agnsty for you guys. Trust me, there will be feels. And I hope this chapter makes coherent sense because I am writing it as my sleeping medications are kicking in so that's fun. I really can't tell as of right now how many chapters this story will be, we will just have to see. I love you all and I would love to hear your feedback on this first chapter, I know it's kind of short but its just sorta the setup for everything else. Much love to you all. <3