Closer To Heaven (Synyster Gates Book 2)

soundcheck...

           

*Brian's POV*

"Come on out, Gates. We need to do soundcheck!", I heard Matt's voice from outside of the bus.

We just arrived at the venue and all of sudden I felt super sleepy and really didn't want to leave the bus.
"You've gotta go, babe", Clary whispered and kissed me gently.

"Do you wanna come with? The other girls are watching too", I asked her, she nodded and together we left the bus.

"Is my beanie still covering the mess called hair on top of my skull?"

"Sure", she laughed and grabbed my hand while we entered the venue.
"Wow, that's huge...all the screens and stuff...", she said.

I searched for our guitar tech Kevin aka ZA, when I heard a shout.

"Synyster!"

I turned around and saw my tech together with our sound guy Bruce.

"I already got your guitars ready, the guys are really waiting for you on stage. We have some troubles with the pyro going on, so the soundcheck needs to be quick because we need to fix this when you're offstage. Follow me please."

He guided me to the sidestage, where my roadcase full of guitars was placed. I lost Clary on the way, but she would be okay. I could look for her after the soundcheck.

Bruce handed me my in-ears and helped me putting them through my shirt while ZA connected my guitars to the PA and handed me my white one.

"Which tuning is that one?", I asked him.

"Drop d halfstep down, Matt wanted to start with Hail to the King for the sound", he answered.

"Okay", I nodded, "are you ready, Bruce?"

"Yes, you can go on stage."

I entered the stage, causing Matt to shout a "finally!" through the hall.

Brooks counted to four and I started with my guitar intro. I could barely hear myself, the drums were super silent on my in-ears as well. I tried to ignore it, but when it came to my solo, I just went completely out of rhythm.

"Whoa, stop it. Gates! Focus, come on", Matt shouted angrily into his mic.

I went to my mic and said:
"I don't hear anything at all on my in-ears. Bruce, can you turn up myself, Brooks and give me a little bit of Zacky? I'm hearing Matt through the PA but nothing on my ears."

"I barely hear anything of Syn as well, I can't play the dual guitar solos like this", Zacky added.

"Give me a second to fix this", Bruce's voice was heard through the PA.

"Can we check the drums meanwhile?", Brook's tech asked and so he soundchecked the drumset.

"Okay, continue with another song and tell me through your mic if the sound got better", Bruce finally said.

We decided on God Damn.

"A little less Johnny and a bit more lead guitar would be nice", Matt said in while I played my solo.

"Syn, what about you now?"

I stepped forward and wanted to say something, as just in this very moment a feedback crashed into my in-ears. Somehow I managed it to tear them out of my ears and mute my guitar.

"What the fuck was that?!", I shouted, my ears ringing from the sound.

The others didn't seem to have heard the feedback.
"Brian, what's wrong?", Matt asked me, coming closer as  I pushed my hand onto my ear.