'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars

So, for the past couple of weeks I'd been preparing for a mini-concert thing that the Rock Band class at my school was putting on. I'm not actually in it, but a friend wanted me to sing for his group, so I did. I ended up missing some classes so I could go and practice with the group, but it was okay 'cuz I'm an awesome little nerd and get my work done. The fact that the teachers loveeee meeee also helped, of course.

Practicing with everybody was fun. At first it was kinda awkward, because it was me and Andrew (friend that wanted me to sing) one-on-one and...well...if you know me, er, yeah, it was a little awkward. A lot awkward. He was helping me sing the parts right, and learn to move around while I'm singing. I couldn't really do squat with my eyes open 'cuz, well, it was weird to try and sing and move around while he was watching me. I went home and practiced and practiced and stuff, though, and did fine, but doing it in front of people is a liiiiittle bit harder.

The second time it was practicing with the microphone some. There was a little bit of issue because I wasn't singing loud enough, but I think mostly that was because I wanted to hear the words. Later I found out that singing without them was a LOT harder than it'd been in choir. Probably something to do with the fact that it was just me, but I got through it. I kept messing up on the bridge, though, and then there was the issue that the guy that was supposed to play the rhythm guitar (or something like that, I don't know what's what) wasn't coming to practice. Carlos, the guy, was kinda awesome and got his part down pretty quickly. It was a little unnerving that he was still working on the bridge, too, about twenty minutes before the whole thing started.

So, the thing started. At first, the crowd was mildly small. Several friends showed up, the parents of one of the girls singing. Then, a teacher showed up and asked for permission to bring her class in (Mrs. Hoddderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .___.). That class came in and we had an extra, like, twenty-five people, maybe. I dunno, I've always been bad at estimating those sorts of things. A few more people trickled in, maybe drawn in by the music that must've been making it into the hallways. I kind of wonder now if the classes that did come had been disturbed and they couldn't work. Maybe that's why they'd come. A little bit later, my fifth hour teacher decided to bring in the class and we got another maybe fifteen or twenty people. The auditorium was definitely fuller than I had expected it to be. I was freaking out everytime I noticed that more people had come in. I was sitting pretty close to the stage, so I didn't notice the first big surge. That was the really bad part.

Anyway....the first song that they played was Holiday by Green Day, I think. It went pretty well. To be honest, I was worried about not getting through everything because the microphones were taking a bit to get set up properly, but we actually ended up being fifteen minutes short of school ending. Then it was....Anyone Else But You? Check Yes Juliet? I don't really remember. They both went well, though. So did Bulls on Parade. The guy "singing" for that was amazing. He had this little cape he was wearing, then some torch-thing that he was using like some awesome pimp-cane or something... And he was everywhere. He even jumped off the stage when he was done. Yeah, Chris was pretty fricking amazing.

The next song was Bring Me to Life, a song that I kind of knew previous to this but ended up having it stuck in my head more than the song I was singing afterwards. I still have it stuck horribly in my head. There were two girls that sang on that, the lovely Miss Nicole and Miss Anna. Chris did the guy part. He was pretty awesome on that, too, and the girls did pretty amazingly as well. When they were done, I had to scoot by some people quickly, as I was in the middle of a row that had very suddenly filled up, saying sorry as I went.

It was time for me to sing Brick By Boring Brick now. I was just a little nervous, to be quite honest. While everyone was getting set up behind me, the sound guy (I can't remember his name for the life of me, but I do believe it begins with a double-yah) told me the one rule: When you're on stage, you have to be a rockstar. No being shy. Shyly, I told him I'd do my best.

With a simple one, two, three, four, the music started. Everyone was playing. Chris on drums, Carlos on whatever-the-heck guitar he was playing, Andrew on lead guitar, I think, and Edward, Andrew's twin, on bass. I was actually pretty worried when it started because I couldn't hear Carlos all that well and that was always what I counted on when listening to the song to let me know when to come in. I did okay, though, and started roughly when I was supposed to...and to be frank, I don't remember what exactly happened after that. I know when I got to the bridge, I screwed up, like always, and Andrew made sure I got the lyrics right where I needed to. I think there was an uproar in the crowd when I started the first verse....but I really honestly don't know. It could very well be my storytelling skills getting away with me.

The song went well, except for my little screw ups here and there and that the microphones for Andrew and Edward to do the ba da's at the end didn't work. No one really seemed to notice, though. Other than the little mess ups here and there...all I really remember is that collective scream at the end of the song. It might've been because there were a lot of friends with really loud voices that decided to scream all at once, it might've just been because I was still in shock and awe that I'd really done it, but wow. That was really, really loud. And even though it hurt my ears, it was absolutely amazing. I loved that feeling. I wanted to feel that all the time.

The next song was, uh, I dunno. Something awesome. There weren't any vocals because no one had learned them in time, I guess...but it sound great all the same. The guitarist, a guy called CJ that I myself don't know that well, was amazing. As Nikki said later, he was a mini Jimi Hendrix (who I'm doing a research paper on, btw).

In conclusion, everyone sounded great. I was so sad that it was over. But I'm always like that with performances. You work and work and work on something for what seems like forever, then just like that, it's done. All your hard work for ten, maybe fifteen minutes if it's a band concert, a fraction of that if it's just one song. It makes me just feel like I wanna do that every week, every day.

And now, I do. I want to sing on stage, dance around, make people scream every day. I've always been so sure that I'd be an author when I grew up. I'd write books, not sing songs. Sure, I liked singing, but that was just something to do in the car, in a choir. There was a little bit of uncertainty when I got into biology and played around with microscopes a few times, but then I just decided I'd be a scientist or something to make the money until I made it big with my books. Now? Now I'm not so sure anymore. The teacher of both rock and regular band, Monsieur Weber, mentioned having another concert. I keep listening to songs on my ipod, in movies, and just thinking "Wow. That'd be a lot of fun to sing." Of course there's no guarantee that I'll actually get to sing again if another concert does occur (unless someeeeeebody wants me to sing, of course) because I'm not actually in the class. I really hope I get to do it again, though.

So, I think I wanna be a rockstar. It feels kind of weird to suddenly change because of one event, but really. That was a whole fricking lot of fun and I really would like to keep doing it the rest of my life. :)

Oh, and fun fact: Brick By Boring Brick came up thrice while I was writing this. xD