Post by Daimon Darren on Mar 5, 2019 22:22:42 GMT -4
Everything about idols ticked off the pretentious blonde bassist of OD Hazard. The saccharine pop music, the repetitive song structures, the edulcorated versions of rock and hip-hop they masqueraded for the truth. Not only were they posers, but the music was simple, easy listening, designed to appeal to as many sweaty nerds with money as possible. Music as entertainment was one thing, but music designed solely for entertainment was another thing. Music was supposed to have soul. But because the process of idol music was so carefully coordinated, it came out as robotic, artificial, an accelerated version of western pop with brighter colors, catchier tunes and overstated aesthetics.
Visuals were as much a part of it as the actual music was, as evidenced by Scarlett’s complex attire. Darren himself was wearing a simple leather jacket with a zipper and stars on the sleeves, a white T-shirt underneath and, for effect, a metallic pendant of a pentagram with a smiley face in the middle. The rest of his outfit was just roughed-up jeans and his boots. Slung across his neck, he held his trusty red and black Telecaster by the neck, a bass he bought second-hand for 20 000 yen (about 180$) about half a year ago, maybe more. Shit, it has been that long?
Now the idol was calling her manager or whatever to ask what she was to do if the crowd asked you for an encore. The little pretentious 16 years old rock bassist couldn’t believe his ears! When did it become a question whether or not you played an encore? If the crowd asked for it, if you still had some soul in you, it was an obligation to play whatever song you could, even the ones you only had a tenuous grasp of. Darren had a tenuous grasp of many songs, but he nonetheless was very pretentious and very sure of himself about what was and wasn’t good music. It’s all about soul, man! Grinta!
By all accounts, OD Hazard was a hacked-together band of relatively beginner musicians. None of them had a particularly impressive grasp of their instrument, except for Chimera’s voice. Before they got him Darren had to fill in on vocals, and the poor soul had more grinta than vocal talent. Hayley and Levi left; Miku and Eli replaced them. Miku had a solid grasp of tempo and together they could assure a competent rhythm section, and Eli could play chords and arpeggios over them, but they didn’t have any strong soloists.
But they had soul, and they had Satan Mercury. Chimera was a rather timid boy, but when he let his voice boom, it was clear as day that the goat boy had something he wanted the world to hear. He was more than a match for Darren in grinta, but he had the range and the voice to let it out in grandiose fashion. So when he said that he wanted to sing first, Darren shrugged in agreement. “Fine with me. Let’s keep your song for the end then, we need bangers to end on a high note. Idol,” he said, raising his tone so that she could hear him without turning his head, “if you wanna sing two songs, then we go second with yours. Then as a first one… Come As You Are. How’s that, guys? Come, crush, kiss the sky, search n destroy, 999. Better agree on somethin’ quickly, cause we’re up. Idol, leave us some time to set up our sound, then I’ll call you on and you can make a dramatic entrance or whatever. Sounds good to yall?”
In front of them were the doors leading up to the stage. Once the setlist was agreed upon, OD Hazard and Scarlett would take up the stage. First, there would be a few moments of fiddling around, connecting the jacks into the correct guitars, adjusting the sound balance so the bass could be heard (Darren was picky about that), the volumes of the returns -- speakers placed at the front of the stage, facing the players so they could hear themselves play, a more important feature than it seemed, even with your back to a wall of amps. Well, they had no such setup either, with two big Sheriff speaker cabinets and preamps combos, one the guitar and one for the bass. The school didn’t have the money for the more grainy tube amps, so they had to settle for the cheaper and more polyvalent transistor models.
The setup was overall that of a typical high-school band, a standard drumkit with a single pedal, hihat, snare, and two cymbals, sharing four mics to link them to the sound system. While they took a minute to set up and correct the balances and re-tune the instruments correctly, most of the school would be looking at them with anticipation. Certainly a stressful situation, but someone needed to temporize. “What’s up, adoring fans?” He announced cheerfully into the mic prepared for Scarlett, waving two fingers at the audience, a big grin on his face.
“We’re OD Hazard and we’re setting up for some old school music, some good fuckin’ music, played with real-ass instruments. The ginger on the right with the guitar is my boy Eli,” he added, pausing to let his friend play a lick to the audience -- no reason doing the balances couldn’t be fun. “On the drums is Miku, who you better not take for a weak girl with how mean she hits that snare!” Once again, he paused to let her play a break. “I’m Darren on the bass,” he continued while playing a galloping bassline on the E string, “But the man you need to watch for is the one and only Satan Mercury, our school’s very own Chimera, who in a second or two is gonna show yall why he deserves to share a name with ol’ Freddy. And… Well, we’ve got a surprise for yall. If our lady in red would like introduce herself, mic’s all yours.”
With the cue for Scarlett to take the stage given, he stepped aside from the left mic stand and back into his area, to the left of the scene. Chimmy and Eli would occupy the right of the stage, and Miku would animate the back from an elevated platform, here at Darren’s request -- without that the drummers were obscured, and drummers were always fun to watch, whatever the song.
He let out a deep breath. In less than a minute, they were about to play. In front of the whole school. He had enough bravado to hide it and make a little speech, but inside, he was feeling like his stomach was sinking deep down his belly. He stopped playing the galloping bassline as Miku went “One, two, one two three four!”
No turning back now. Let’s rock n’ roll!
Visuals were as much a part of it as the actual music was, as evidenced by Scarlett’s complex attire. Darren himself was wearing a simple leather jacket with a zipper and stars on the sleeves, a white T-shirt underneath and, for effect, a metallic pendant of a pentagram with a smiley face in the middle. The rest of his outfit was just roughed-up jeans and his boots. Slung across his neck, he held his trusty red and black Telecaster by the neck, a bass he bought second-hand for 20 000 yen (about 180$) about half a year ago, maybe more. Shit, it has been that long?
Now the idol was calling her manager or whatever to ask what she was to do if the crowd asked you for an encore. The little pretentious 16 years old rock bassist couldn’t believe his ears! When did it become a question whether or not you played an encore? If the crowd asked for it, if you still had some soul in you, it was an obligation to play whatever song you could, even the ones you only had a tenuous grasp of. Darren had a tenuous grasp of many songs, but he nonetheless was very pretentious and very sure of himself about what was and wasn’t good music. It’s all about soul, man! Grinta!
By all accounts, OD Hazard was a hacked-together band of relatively beginner musicians. None of them had a particularly impressive grasp of their instrument, except for Chimera’s voice. Before they got him Darren had to fill in on vocals, and the poor soul had more grinta than vocal talent. Hayley and Levi left; Miku and Eli replaced them. Miku had a solid grasp of tempo and together they could assure a competent rhythm section, and Eli could play chords and arpeggios over them, but they didn’t have any strong soloists.
But they had soul, and they had Satan Mercury. Chimera was a rather timid boy, but when he let his voice boom, it was clear as day that the goat boy had something he wanted the world to hear. He was more than a match for Darren in grinta, but he had the range and the voice to let it out in grandiose fashion. So when he said that he wanted to sing first, Darren shrugged in agreement. “Fine with me. Let’s keep your song for the end then, we need bangers to end on a high note. Idol,” he said, raising his tone so that she could hear him without turning his head, “if you wanna sing two songs, then we go second with yours. Then as a first one… Come As You Are. How’s that, guys? Come, crush, kiss the sky, search n destroy, 999. Better agree on somethin’ quickly, cause we’re up. Idol, leave us some time to set up our sound, then I’ll call you on and you can make a dramatic entrance or whatever. Sounds good to yall?”
In front of them were the doors leading up to the stage. Once the setlist was agreed upon, OD Hazard and Scarlett would take up the stage. First, there would be a few moments of fiddling around, connecting the jacks into the correct guitars, adjusting the sound balance so the bass could be heard (Darren was picky about that), the volumes of the returns -- speakers placed at the front of the stage, facing the players so they could hear themselves play, a more important feature than it seemed, even with your back to a wall of amps. Well, they had no such setup either, with two big Sheriff speaker cabinets and preamps combos, one the guitar and one for the bass. The school didn’t have the money for the more grainy tube amps, so they had to settle for the cheaper and more polyvalent transistor models.
The setup was overall that of a typical high-school band, a standard drumkit with a single pedal, hihat, snare, and two cymbals, sharing four mics to link them to the sound system. While they took a minute to set up and correct the balances and re-tune the instruments correctly, most of the school would be looking at them with anticipation. Certainly a stressful situation, but someone needed to temporize. “What’s up, adoring fans?” He announced cheerfully into the mic prepared for Scarlett, waving two fingers at the audience, a big grin on his face.
“We’re OD Hazard and we’re setting up for some old school music, some good fuckin’ music, played with real-ass instruments. The ginger on the right with the guitar is my boy Eli,” he added, pausing to let his friend play a lick to the audience -- no reason doing the balances couldn’t be fun. “On the drums is Miku, who you better not take for a weak girl with how mean she hits that snare!” Once again, he paused to let her play a break. “I’m Darren on the bass,” he continued while playing a galloping bassline on the E string, “But the man you need to watch for is the one and only Satan Mercury, our school’s very own Chimera, who in a second or two is gonna show yall why he deserves to share a name with ol’ Freddy. And… Well, we’ve got a surprise for yall. If our lady in red would like introduce herself, mic’s all yours.”
With the cue for Scarlett to take the stage given, he stepped aside from the left mic stand and back into his area, to the left of the scene. Chimmy and Eli would occupy the right of the stage, and Miku would animate the back from an elevated platform, here at Darren’s request -- without that the drummers were obscured, and drummers were always fun to watch, whatever the song.
He let out a deep breath. In less than a minute, they were about to play. In front of the whole school. He had enough bravado to hide it and make a little speech, but inside, he was feeling like his stomach was sinking deep down his belly. He stopped playing the galloping bassline as Miku went “One, two, one two three four!”
No turning back now. Let’s rock n’ roll!
