Girls Who Play Guitars

🎸•best slider gig. ever•🎸

~ONE WEEK LATER~

~A DIRTY BUT SHIT-HOT BAND VENUE, MELBOURNE~

~CAPACITY: 500 SCREAMING SLIDER FANS~

Due to the success of their album in Australia, Brenin had been forced to book a not so "secret" gig for Slider in their hometown of Melbourne. It was in a grimy venue just outside the city in one of the working-class verging on just-gentrifying suburbs the city was known for. With a capacity of only 500, Ellie was sure the place was overfilled. It was ready to spew its walls open into the surrounding streets when she looked out across the jammed in crowd from under the spotlight.

Ellie, Kim and Meg nearly did knock the roof off with their sonic boom of a band. As the crowd jumped up and down, the plaster on the roof shook and cracked and the bottles of spirits hanging in the bar at the back rattled precariously.

Meg and Ellie glanced eagerly at each other as they tore through their album numbers. The energy was electrifying. The crowd was hyped and spirited. They knew every beat, every word, every expression and intonation Ellie sang. They knew exactly where Kim's solos were and when Meg's foot stomping bass was going to take charge.

"Let's do that Glue number," Meg egged Ellie on with a nod from her spot on the stage before they launched into one of their final songs. "They'll go sick for it!"

"Okay," Ellie laughed, wiping the sweat off her face with her t-shirt.

Meg dropped her head. Her long hair fell over her face as she teased out the notes to Glue's number one song on the thick strings of her bass while Ellie briefed in Kim over the drum kit.

Just as Ellie turned back to the audience, her eyes caught Daniel standing in the wings, grinning at her. Next to him was James. And Gav. And Brenin.

Shit.

Weren't they supposed to still be at the venue packing up after the Glue gig?

Meg's fingers had already started working James's bass notes into her own style and the crowd caught on to what they were doing. They started cheering wildly, jumping in time to Meg's droning, repetitive chord progression.

Ellie had to admit it sounded insane. She also had to admit she hadn't planned on Daniel and Glue coming to the gig to see them play their chart hit for laughs.

It was too late to stop now.

Double shit.

She had to get it over and done with.

Ellie stepped up to the mic, let out a throaty bellow and launched into the first verse, searing the edges off Glue's perky pop-driven guitar song, flipping it over in the fry pan so it became a flaming, smoking, punk-rock riff.

Meg grinned at Ellie as Kim's drums burst over the top of them, hard and fast like hail on a tin roof.

For an entire two-and-a-half minutes, the crowd went absolutely mental. They knew every word of the song too and screamed along with Ellie's guttural vocals, heads bobbing. Some dude climbed onto the stage and before he dove headfirst into the crowd, gyrated his hips next to Ellie and she kicked him away playfully.

As the song came crashing to a final, sudden ending, Ellie dropped her guitar onto its strap and clutched the microphone with both hands. "You fuckers enjoyed that one, huh?"

There was a thundering roar and Ellie briefly worried her hair might blow off.

She glanced over at Daniel and saw the dumbfounded look on his face.