a band on fire

"Gabby, Julian and Mira watched Cutter ride his high onto a standing position on the table. The wimpy metal joints cried at the weight.

Cutter dug into his pocket and whipped out an invisible phone, extended the antenna:

"Honey, I've heard the voice of God and it sounds like four kids with a keytar. It's this band. Zoo for the motherfucking goddamn Broken. Pet, it made me want to be something. I don't want to be a supplier for Snapple anymore. I want to paint some shit. I'm getting some acrylics on the way home. Love you. Get wet for me."

He slammed the invisible phone onto the ground. Julian, Gabby and Mira recoiled as the invisible pieces scattered.

"They're gonna ask for our CDs. Our mini discs. Our gear. Julian's virginity. And you know what? They're also gonna recount that a supremely interesting thing that happened while we performed. The world started to make sense..."

They watched Cutter twist and manipulate the air in front of him - into a twirling vortex of possibility spouting from his mouth and hands. (This was the mushrooms.)

They forgot their anger. (This was the oxycontin.)

They forgot their fear. (This was the cocaine.)

They were ready to put on the show of their lives. (This was the adrenaline.)

Cutter, damn good front man that he is, continued his call to arms as his band mates felt (and watched, with a little bit of horror) hope pound through each of their chests like the fists of baby gorillas.

"These drifting souls in the audience of OUR SHOW...these everyday zombies, Janet and Carl Daily - their kids Normal and Meh? - they were able to put together the pieces of their life that, for whatever reason, had just been laying on the ground in the middle of the living room next to kernels of popcorn and dead remote batteries. They saw Zoo for the Broken and they felt alive. Our musical mucus connected them to the fleshy membrane of person hood, of civilization..."

He inhaled, intoxicated and fantasizing brain mistaking the permanent and disgusting amount of Axe body spray in the shitty backstage band room for the fragrant petals of unfolding possibilities."