Strung Tight (The Road To Rocktoberfest #1) - Ann Lister Page 0,19
know you’ve made setlists before, but I want to go over a few things to put as much energy into your show as possible,” he explained. “You want to hit the stage with something powerful that’ll get people out of their seats and clapping. I might suggest you use ‘Burn It’ as your opening song. It has the punch you want and even a couple of solos to show off your talents.”
“I was thinking of the same one for our opening,” I admitted.
“That’s a great song,” Potter agreed. “It always gets people dancing at our dive-bar gigs.”
“You’ve outgrown dive bars,” Dagger commented. “After you perform at the Apex, all you’ll be doing is the larger venues.”
“Says the ‘Rock God’ himself.” Dixon chuckled. “I think we’ve got a long way to go before we’re playing big arenas on the regular.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Dagger said. Dixon made a pfft sound, and Dagger pointed to the paperwork in his hand. “Let’s get our focus back to the setlist. The formula we typically use is to hit the audience with three fast-paced songs and then slow it down with a ballad or two to let everyone catch their breath, then heat things back up with a few high-energy pieces, and so on. Same goes for the encore. You make the audience wait, then hit them with something loud that has a solid beat, and you close out the show with a final song in the encore that leaves them wanting more.”
“I think we can manage that,” I said.
“Okay, good,” Dagger said. “So, you’ll hit the stage with the intro riffs for ‘Burn It’ already thrumming through the sound system as you walk out on stage, then maybe slide into ‘Freak Out,’ which I believe is in the same key. How about ‘Wayward Child’ after that?”
“Excellent choice going with ‘Wayward Child,’” Mike chimed in. “That one has epic solos between Fletch and Potts.”
“Agreed,” Dixon affirmed.
“Hammer out your setlist and pad it with about fifteen songs, then have a few alternates ready in case you have leftover time to fill,” Dagger explained. “Don’t forget about your encore set though. You’ll need at least two songs for that.”
“Do you really think there’ll be an encore?” I asked.
“Absolutely. You can plan on it,” Dagger said and flashed his megawatt smile at us. “Take the rest of the day to finalize your song list, and then starting tomorrow, I want you to practice the ones you chose over and over until you can play them in your sleep.”
“You got it,” we all said in unison.
Dagger stood up from his stool and stretched. “Okay, I’m going to head out and see if I can grab a late lunch with my husband,” he said. “I’ll be back tomorrow at some point to see how you’re doing with rehearsals.”
Chapter Seven
We practiced like crazed fools during the week and created a solid setlist we could use at the Apex on Friday night. Every day we ended our practice session with a dry run of our complete set, and sometimes we’d have an audience of Dagger and a few roadies. I was so nervous about playing even in front of them that I thought I’d barf all over my microphone. How the hell would I survive the show at the Apex if I was having trouble performing in front of a dozen people?
The sight of Dallas slipping into the rehearsal room toward the end of our set on Tuesday almost had me running to the bathroom to empty the contents of my stomach. I knew he watched us from time to time, but I never saw him in the room. This time, his presence was all I could focus on, and it rattled me. My fingers fumbled through the next run of notes as soon as I saw him, but it wasn’t enough for anyone to notice except me. Seeing the sexy, confident smile on Dallas’s face did crazy things to me with something like butterflies fluttering around in my stomach.
I’ve lost my fucking mind, I scolded myself, but I knew better. People didn’t kiss their friends the way I willingly and eagerly kissed Dallas. And I want to do it again—all true. I did want more alone time with him with our mouths attached in a sensual slip and slide.
After we finished rehearsing for the day, we worked with Skully for a bit on the full stage layout for Rocktoberfest, which was basically a version of the Apex Theater on steroids. Because