Free The Devil's Metal by Karina Halle Page A

tired.
    “Where is she?” Mickey asked.
    “Oh, she and Graham took the flat of beer to
the dressing room. You boys realize you can go hang out there too.
Might be better since we’re about thirty minutes away from
showtime.”
    “Did you do soundcheck already?” I
asked.
    “Yeah, this afternoon,” Robbie said. That
disappointed me. I’d always wanted to see the band—any band,
actually—during soundcheck. It was like an extra special, private
performance.
    “How did it go?” I asked.
    Robbie shrugged. “It went…”
    His eyes flew across the table to Mickey’s
and they exchanged an unreadable look. Finally Mickey looked at
me.
    “Noe can’t play the bass unplugged so we
have her doing simple notes on the keyboard. She’s not too happy
about it.”
    “And Graham is being a shit at keeping time
on those fucking tambourines,” Robbie added.
    “And I have no idea how to get Robbie’s
voice so it doesn’t overshadow everyone,” Chip said with a
sigh.
    Jacob looked at me and smiled, opening his
hands in surrender. “So you can see, you’re about to witness one
hell of a show.”
    “The only person who knows what they are
doing is Sage,” Robbie admitted.
    “And me,” Mickey put in. I caught the
slightest trace of bitterness in his voice, and the quick look he
shot at Robbie only added to it.
    “Of course, you,” Robbie comforted him. He
turned to Jacob expectantly. “So, boss, should we go do this or
what?”
    “Take your time,” Jacob said, twirling his
gold rings around his thick fingers. “I’ve already got the money
for us from the owner, so if you want to go at things half-arsed,
be my guest.”
    “So passive aggressive, Jacob,” Robbie
chided him softly. “I don’t think I like this side of you.”
    Jacob tilted his head and winked at me.
“Just trying to keep the peace with the writer here.”
    Robbie put his arm around me and shook me
slightly. “Good old Rusty, already keeping everyone on their best
behavior.”
    When I got over the embarrassment and
wanting to squeal like a girl at the fact that Robbie Oliver had
his arm around me, I couldn’t help but wonder—this was their best
behavior?
    How long would it be before I saw them at
their worst?

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
    The rest of the evening went quite well. I
didn’t see the band at their worst (I knew that would come later)
but I did get to enjoy one of the most memorable shows of my life.
I guess they could have sat around and banged pots and pans and I
still would have thought it was awesome just because I was there,
and for once, I was special.
    With the band getting ready for their
acoustic set, I ended up following Jacob around like a lost puppy.
I didn’t mind it. There was something about Jacob that made people
pay attention to him. He seemed to know everyone at Red Rocks and I
didn’t doubt he probably knew everyone in the music industry. With
him I felt strangely protected, as if he had taken a shine to me,
and it made me feel important. Though it was sad that all I wanted
at times was for Todd or Ryan to see me, see how far I’d come. Todd
because he’d shit himself with jealousy, and Ryan because I wanted
him to know what he was giving up. He thought I was going nowhere?
Well once he saw the article in Creem Magazine, the article I
wrote, he’d see how wrong he was.
    But that would have to wait. That evening I
didn’t even take a single note or recording. I was going to,
bringing out my notepad as Jacob and I stood at the side of the
stage, but he made me put it away.
    “By the end of this tour, you’ll be sick of
the band and you’ll have more notes than you can shake a stick at,”
he told me with his trademark wink. “Tonight, just watch and
remember. Not as a journalist but as a fan. Take it all in,
Rusty.”
    And so I did.
    I placed my notebook and pen back in my
purse and looked around me. Looked at where I was. I took in
everything.
    When you’re on the side stage of the Red
Rocks Amphitheatre, you