Don't Know What You See in My Negativity

Chapter 2 - First Shows & Flyers

Stephen never did pay for gas.

In fact, he hadn't been much help at all when it came to the matter of recruiting members, aside from asking them pointless questions upon meeting them; Like the maiden name of their father's first dog, their preferred method of suicide, or their favorite number between one hundred and seventy six and two hundred and thirty three.

But after a few grueling weeks of Brian searching and Stephen being... Stephen, they'd managed to pull together some semblance of a band line-up;
A ragtag group of young men consisting of a guitar player with his head shoved up his ass, Scott Putesky, A last-resort bassist from theatre class, Brian Tutunick, and a keyboardist begrudgingly brought in to take Stephen's promised place, Perry Pandrea.

After everyone had come together, it'd been a cakewalk,
It'd all gone so smoothly.
Or at least, as smoothly as it could go; What with a musical group consisting of guys that didn't exactly get along, didn't exactly like the same music, and didn't exactly have anything in common.
They discussed visions and artistic thoughts, they found a general direction for the music, and Brian, sampling some of his more popular pieces from poetry night, began morphing spoken-word into lyrics.

Of course, all this was taking place after they'd already booked their first gig; playing some dingy rock n' roll club where they'd somehow convinced the owner to actually pay them for their "services".

And when Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids took stage for the first time

.....It was a complete train wreck.
Nothing short of a small disaster in Marilyn- or Brian's opinion; after he had run off-stage at the end of the performance to empty the contents of his churning stomach.
However, the applause that managed to echo from the small crowd of twenty or so people all the way to the grimy bathroom was enough to drown out the sound of his bile sloshing 'round the toilet bowl.
It was enough to shift his outlook.

The rush of a show and the thick stench of vomit and other fluids and the faint sound of applause and the burning of acid in his throat.
It felt good.
It felt bad and disgusting and great and euphoric and Brian was immediately hooked.
He wanted more.

From that first show, a new fire had been lit under the ass of Brian Hugh Warner.
The outcast had finally found his calling; the pessimist had finally found his purpose and he was ready to pursue his newly-discovered niche.
Brian was here to inspire. To insight.
To entertain and to severely piss off.

It took two whole shows for Brian to come to his "creative senses", and suddenly, his brand new lineup had become brand new once more.
Perry Pandrea (Zsa Zsa Speck) and Brian Tutunick (Olivia Newton Bundy) were briskly dismissed and promptly replaced by an effeminate guitarist from a rival band, who'd been drawn to the dark side with the promise of better music and his own cool alias.
Thus, Brad Stewart was happily inducted into the band and rechristened Gidget Gein.

And Brian (The original), despite debatably better judgement, welcomed dear old Stephen into the band, still lacking keyboard.
He had no real purpose as a member for now.
Sentimental purposes, maybe.
Decorative purposes.
Something along those lines.
Stephen Bier was now in the band, and rebirthed as Madonna Wayne Gacy, a name which Stephen soon shortened to just "Pogo", Gacy's clown name, claiming the original alias didn't fit his personality and had too many syllables.

Speaking of too many syllables; Pogo, or rather Stephen, had been non-stop chattering in Brian's ear for ten solid minutes on the way to their destination; some grungy, metal club.

Even out of the car, Stephen's mouth never stopped.
There was no point in getting frustrated, no point interrupting him. Brian had made both mistakes before.
So he simply tuned Stephen out, while simultaneously pretending to listen (a skill he'd nearly mastered by now), and thumbing through the thick stack of papers in his hands.