I plunked out some filler on the keys while I banged buttons to get the right synth adjustments made. I managed just before the first chorus hit, filling in the melody and chord progression Cash would usually be providing on lead guitar.
Tank plucked away on the bass, and between him and me and Bishop occasionally strumming a chord dramatically to go along with some word he was singing, we struggled through the song. Luna was solid behind us, but Bishop hit a chord after Tank and I had finished the song. There was a short silence at the end before the crowd cheered. They’d obviously been confused by our staggered ending.
Fucking fuck. We were more professional than this.
We limped along through the rest of the first half of the set. But the crowd was getting impatient with us.
Then, before we could go into one of our most popular ballads that I thought might get the crowd back since it was piano heavy and didn’t rely so much on guitar—Bishop grabbed the mic and walked out into center stage.
Luna looked at me and shrugged, sticks in the air. I stared at Bishop, exasperated, as he started shooting the shit with the crowd.
“How we doing tonight?”
Some boos came from the front of the crowd.
“Don’t give me that energy,” Bishop said, laughing. “I’m on a high tonight. I have an announcement, and you fuckers should feel lucky that you’re here to witness it. You’re here for fucking history, motherfuckers.”
The lackadaisical crowd shuffled, coming back to life a little. Phones came out en masse, no doubt filming.
Jesus, what the fuck was Bishop up to now? We didn’t have any major announcement to make. We’d already announced the international leg of our tour we were headed off to next, and what would this crowd care about that? They were already here at this concert. And getting robbed of their ticket price with this sad, shitty performance.
“Marry me!” came a shriek from somewhere.
Bishop laughed into the mic again. “Sorry, I’m taken. That’s the announcement.” He turned and walked upstage again.
Oh, he better fucking not. I half-stood up off my stool as he walked to Luna. That fucking bastard, if he—
“I’m taken, ladies. Luna has stolen my heart.” He held a hand over his heart and the other out towards Luna. She held her hands over her mouth, looking out at the crowd in shock.
There were a few whistles, but as Bishop leaned forward and landed a big kiss on her—
A few boos came from the crowd.
Bishop let go of her and whipped around. “What the fuck was that?” he asked into the mic.
Some loud voices in the crowd continued to boo, and then it was taken up by more. And more. Until it was deafening. Loud booing coming from every corner of the MGM arena.
“Are you motherfuckers serious?” Bishop yelled into the mic, striding towards the front of the stage. His face was pale with rage. “I’m trying to tell you I’m with a woman who makes me happy and you aren’t gonna be happy for me?”
“Play something good!” someone shouted.
“Yeah, try not sucking,” called another voice. Laughter echoed through the crowd at the front of the stage around the guy who’d said it.
“Oh, you want to hear something that doesn’t suck?” Bishop said, eyebrows up.
The crowd roared in assent.
“Like maybe something off our first album? Back when we didn’t suck?”
Again the crowd went crazy. They were back with him.
They just hadn’t realized yet they had lost Bishop.
Cause next thing I knew, Bishop screamed into the mic, “Well, you can all GO FUCK YOURSELVES.”
And then he swung the expensive guitar off his back and smashed it into the stage, causing the whole crowd to shout and move backwards in shock like an undulating wave.
The guitar smashed into the stage once.
Twice.
Three times.
Parts exploded off of the guitar with every impact.
The giant arena went quiet except for the sound of Bishop bashing his guitar to bits. When he gave the crowd the finger and then stormed off to the wings, there was a shocked silence.
But then someone let out an excited whoop. And then another sounded. Then the entire crowd was clapping and whistling and going wild.
For the asshole who’d just cussed them out and lost his shit on stage. There were some boos too, but mostly just sounds of a rowdy crowd who were excited by bad behavior and hadn’t yet realized they weren’t going to get the rest of their concert.
I rolled my eyes, slammed the button to turn off my keyboard, and marched off the other side of the stage.
Luna followed. As soon as we hit the darkness of off-stage, she grabbed my hand and started dragging me around back behind the stage. I knew where she was taking me but let myself be reluctantly dragged anyway.