GTFO of My Head

Chapter 10

Will hadn't argued when he'd said he wanted to start the tour in Vancouver. He had wanted to try to book a bigger venue but even the Arcane Angels weren't an arena band in most big cities. They were a mid-west band that was big in college towns. In Edmonton or Winnipeg they might sell out the bottom half of one of the smaller hockey arenas. In Vancouver they played theaters, and he liked the Vogue. It was a nice old theater with a cool vibe and great acoustics.

Most of the guys in the band had played here before so they knew their way around and no one blinked an eye when they dispersed as soon as the bus pulled into the alley and the crew started to unload. He couldn't as easily blend into the crowd unnoticed, so Brady had developed a routine that kept him in the venue or on the bus doing phone and zoom interviews, but he always tried to get out for a little while.

He'd been touring since he'd dropped out of highschool so he had a list of comic book stores he frequented in every city. Fortunately in Vancouver his favorite one was in walking distance from the venue. Unfortunately the ex-cop, ex-military muscle that Will had hired as security for the tour wouldn't let him walk the couple of blocks to get there alone, or at all.

The big black SUV with the darkened windows that followed the bus for this purpose pulled up in front of the theater and Brady pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his ballcap as he walked across the sidewalk that, at mid-day, was full of workers from nearby high rise office towers heading out for lunch.

He slid into the back seat of the luxury SUV, leaned back and closed his eyes. He'd already caught himself searching the faces of the pedestrians as the bus had pulled in. It was unlikely that Maddie even knew about the concert and if she did he very much doubted he would find her among the girls that were already haunting the alley behind the theater clutching copies of Kerrang or Alternative Press hoping to get an autograph.

Would she be in the crowd tonight? He sincerely hoped so, if only so that she would hear the songs they'd written come alive and hear the crowd's reaction. At least he hoped the crowd would react enthusiastically. At the album release party at the Forum Club in LA he'd been overwhelmed by the positive outpouring but the crowd had also consisted of those who were there to see and be seen, execs from the label and others who had been invited to the exclusive event. They weren't paying their own hard earned wages like the crowd that would come tonight had.

He'd thought of having Will send her agent a pair of tickets but then decided against it. She'd made her feelings about him crystal fucking clear when she'd snuck off without saying goodbye. She didn't want him and obviously she didn't care that she'd broken his fucking heart.

That didn't mean he hadn't been envisioning looking out from the stage and seeing her in the audience in a halo of some rogue lighting, maybe in that red latex dress. Except that she'd left that dress behind in the rental in Whistler like a further punishment; a reminder of something mind blowing that he would never have again.

The SUV pulled up outside of Golden Age Collectibles and Brady eagerly jumped out of the vehicle and began to stride towards the store he knew would be full of the kind of figurines and graphic novels that he collected but as he reached for the door his attention was distracted by a group that had gathered around a busker outside the other venue that he'd considered playing at. The Commodore was closed during the day, but the entrance was covered which was especially fortunate on the rainy West Coast. With the crowds pouring in and out of the numerous restaurants and shops on the strip it was an apt time to make some cash doing busking.

It wasn't the voice that caught his attention, though the singer had good tone and a voice that was clear and strong. It wasn't the guitar, which wasn't plugged in, but just an acoustic accompaniment to the singer. It was the lyrics that made him stop, turn and begin to walk towards the crowd.