Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM, last spot

The audition had slowly filled up. A few people who already had been rejected were still sitting in the back, bitterly slandering the up-coming contestants. The whole hall was dimly lit and hot, some numb-sounding music droning quietly from a distant room. The whole thing seemed somewhat unprofessional, yet, the promoter throned in front of the stage like a king, ready to critique his next jester.

Slowly, a girl made her way up to the top. She was dressed in slightly dirty or used-looking clothes. An oversized shirt that almost slid down her shoulders every other step, tightfitting, plain black pants, worn out Vans. Her bright hair looked a little messy, but framed her face quite nicely, and most importantly, stood out like a white sheep in front of a black house. Her steps were weak and slow.

Finally, she grabbed the microphone. The girl cleared her throat and introduced herself with a rather quiet voice. "H-hi... I'm Rachel... Rachel Zhernakovic. I, uh... I sing and write my own songs too..." Her voice drifted off into silence more and more with each word.

The casting coach sighed and rolled with his eyes, deciding to speed this seemingly pointless endavour up. "Alright, Rachel... What are you gonna sing?"

The girl tugged at her shirt, her legs bend inwards a little. "I, uh... I wanted to sing a song by my favorite... It's, uhm... It's called Gods & Monsters by Lana Del Rey, and... yeah... I'll just go ahead, okay?"

She did actually wait until the coach nodded, then proceeded to stand there, her shoulders hanging a bit. With a weak voice, she started the song, albeit it was a little shaky. "In the land of Gods and Monsters... I was an Angel. Living in the garden of evil. Screwed u-"

"Stop." The coach's voice sounded harsh. "Okay, look... We're looking for serious vocalists and this is just... I mean... This just isn't good enough, so unless you have more, I... -"

"I could sing one of my own songs, I guess..."

Annoyed silence. "Fine, go ahead." Annoyed, the coach leaned back and waited for her to start again. This time however, Rachel took on a more upright posture as she closed her eyes. A long, soulful note escaped her lips, as she started to get into it more and more, ger voice growing stronger by the second. After finishing her voice part, she shyly stopped, wondering why she hadn't been told to end yet.

The coach smiled at her, nodding. "Alright, Rachel, yes? Please sit down to the right over there, I'd like to keep you around for now." He motioned towards the very end of the row he sat in. With a sceptical little smile, Rachel slouched off the stage and took a seat where she was directed at. Her arms wrapped around herself, she waited for the next contestants.

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

Riggs walked into the audition room nervous for one of the few times in his life. The man had faced insurgents, enemies like no other and imminent death but this was a whole other monster. This was Riggs first time auditioning to do what he really loved in life, playing guitar an making people happy with music. Riggs spent so much of his life fighting and seeing things that guys his age just should of never seen. Before that he was living an orphans life it was safe to say that childhood for Riggs was full of rejection and while the army provided him with confidence, for some reason, he was unable to find it in this room full of people all gunning for the same gig.

The stage manager came out and called Riggs to the stage, his heart skipped a beat and the walk to the stage felt like a million steps. Riggs came out and seen the promoter in his main seat surrounded by rejected applicants in the back and seated down from him was a very young looking girl who must of done something right.

You could probably hear other applicants in the back but Riggs was completely in his own head back there. Rigg's army buddies told him many times he would breeze through this but he wasn't so sure. Riggs wore his fatigues not looking for any recognition just purely out of habit. "AJ Riggs I've been looking forward to meeting you young man. First thank you for your service." The promoter was holding a sheet before him with Riggs Info on it.

"Thank you Sir." Riggs hid his nerves well but the Gibson Les Paul Studio was shaking in his hands a little. "What will you be playing for me." Riggs choose The Unforgiven by Metallica for his audition song because it had a long intro and he could do a few lyrical runs and play another solo without massively changing the song. "I'll be playing The Unforgiven by Metallica Sir." "Well the stage is all yours and good luck."

Riggs hooked up his guitar and started the intro playing it almost flawlessly missing a note at the beginning but replaying the second run the same so it sounded intentional. Then came the lyrics. "New blood joins this earth, And quickly he's subdued. Through constant pained disgrace The young boy learns their rules. Riggs could see he was losing the promoter with weak vocals so he cut with a loud squeal to the base of the guitar and began to shred a solo that sounded amazing. He played for a minute straight never missing a note and nailing the improvised solo using hammer ons and long echoing notes to express the emotion of the song and how he related to it.

"You labelled me, I'll label you Sooo I dub thee unfogiven." Riggs finished on a long solemn note. The promoter looked pleased. "Mr. Riggs or well should I say Major Riggs.. I'll be blunt the vocals are off for sure but aside from that you are by far the best guitarist I've seen all day. Please take a seat down with ummm her.. Raven no no Rachel and stick around."

Riggs walked off the stage with good posture but was surprised at the fact he was being sent to where it would seem people who were sticking around were to sit.

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

Lumi had been through many auditions before since she entered America nearly four years ago. One by one, the auditions were the same. Sure she was a great keyboardist and a very decent vocalist but her type of music was not what the record companies and band promoters were searching for. like everyone else, she was a little nervous but still, she was very optimistic about her chances this time around. Maybe the time was right... maybe this time, this is it!

The moment came as she walked out onto the stage. It took her a couple of minutes to set up her two sets of keyboards and placing the microphone the way she wanted it. Looking up, she gave out an enthusiastic smile.

Wearing a black blouse and a pair of black jeans, she could see the promoter heading up to her as she tried to express herself in her unfamiliar English language. "Lumi Vonkala. It is pleasure to meet you." She saw the promoter holding up Lumi's sheet and winced his eye as he seemed intrigued by something. "It is a pleasure to meet you too. It says that you came all the way from Finland to try out. Is that true?" The promoter asked.

Lumi took a second to translate that question back and forth from her native Finnish before answering. "Yes. Finland is a place where... you have to be inside, so to speak." She explained, forgetting to mention that she meant to say 'be on the inside'. "I see. Well, let's get you started. What will you be playing for us?"

Lumi moved herself behind the keyboards as she smiled. "I will be playing 'While Your Lips Are Still Red' by Nightwish." She admitted, hoping that this was the right song to play that could showcase her skills. "All right. Let's see what you got."

Lumi took a couple of deep breaths as her mood started to get serious. Playing a soft composition on the keyboards, she leaned in and started to sing in an almost low sounding voice that was soft and sweet. Singing about the tragedy of lost love, she was only able to get through the first couple of lines before the promoter raised his hand.

"Stop. Slow and beautiful is not... quite what we are looking for. What do you have that can... blow my mind away?" The promoter shouted as Lumi looked up and sighed. She really didn't want to get to her full arsenal just yet but she figured that it was time to let it all loose. "I'll go ahead and... blow your mind away, as you say... with another Nightwish song." She admitted as she really started to get serious now.

With the feelings getting more and more atmospheric, she went into the first parts of "The Toolmaker" section of the song "The Greatest Show on Earth" with her fingers moving on the keyboard in rapid procession. After a small pause, her left hand moved to the top keyboard as she slammed her fingers on it, enacting the guitar part of the song while using her right hand for the keyboard part. All this time, her head was moving up and down in aggressive headbanging fashion. The onslaught lasted for about thirty seconds as she belted her way through the male part of the vocals. She left the female vocals out, knowing that she couldn't sing in the high soprano range as she just headbanged instead while playing the keyboards.

Through the choruses, she sang as if she was in background vocals until the middle break of the song. During that middle break, her keyboards changed tone to a more uplifting part of whistles and piano like sounds until she lifted up her left hand high in the air and counted to four with it before the musical onslaught began yet again like a thunderous boom. Her left hand crashed down onto the top keyboard as the headbanging continued. She only stopped headbanging when she repeated the choruses and sang the ending part of the section of the song. Once the section of the song ended, she created a loud boom that sounded like a huge explosion as she raised her arms up in the air... feeling very confident about herself.

The promoter looked up with his jaw wide open as if he was floored by a Mack truck. "Holy.... shit! I've never seen such raw power and emotion from a keyboard player... and damn decent vocals at that! Get over there with the other two... And be quick about it!" He ordered as Lumi let out a fist bump high in the air while shouting out "Kyllä!" in her native Finnish, which translated to the word 'Yes!'. It seemed that she finally did make it. After four years of frustration, the wait looked to be over for her and she couldn't be more happier about that prospect than anything else in her life during this very special moment in time.

Racing over to the light skinned woman and the darker man, she could barely contain her happiness as she reached for a seat next to the woman. "This must be where... cool cats hang out?" She exclaimed as she reaching out with her hand to both of, what seemed to be, her future bandmates. "I'm Lumi. What are your names?" She asked, trying to get to know them and hoping for the best in their long road ahead.

(Edit: Fixed a small typo here *Blushes)

Rachel slowly extended her hand, grabbing Lumi's and nodding slightly. "Hi..." Her voice was rather quiet, but respectful nontheless. "I'm... Rachel." She said it half to the woman who had just joined the two and half to Riggs. His energy had intimidated her a little, but now that there were three of them, she felt a little less 'put on the spot'. "You two were really, really good." She tried to smile as genuinely as she could. "I bet you two are already in 100%." The girl played around with her hair, looking down to the ground. "How long have you been playing?" She blushed a little and quickly added to her sentence. "If you don't mind me telling, I mean... sorry..."

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

After shaking Rachel's hand, Lumi felt like she was always the optimistic and cheerful one out of any group of people that she associated with. She let out a soft giggle at Rachel's blushing reaction as she was glad that this was an answer that was easily translated. "It OK. I do not have problem in saying it." She reassured Rachel as she explained about her musical past.

"I start with piano at age 10 and move to keyboard at 18. Two different instruments but... keyboard make more money for me in long run." She admitted while being as cheerful as possible. "If things were different back home in Finland, I be part of major band by now... but it is who you know inside there, it seems. So I move to America four years ago at 30... to try it one more time... on my own. Long work finally pay off, I hope." She added as seeing how young both Rachel and Riggs were, she figured that they could possibly need some tutoring ahead in them.

"You have beautiful voice, Rachel. I wish my tone was that high. Maybe I help with lower tones or... harmonies in future?" She asked while thinking that now, it was a good time to start planning things out in their musical careers. Maybe this would be the spark to get all of them off the ground level, so to speak.

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

To say the Bunny “BB” Brookdale wasn’t taking this audition seriously would have been an understatement. The only reason she had shown up is her parents had demanded yet again that she at least try to get some sort of employment. According to them sneaking out of the house and into the city for concerts was “no way to go through life.” BB couldn’t have disagreed more, but her dad and busybody step-mom found it necessary to keep talking to rich friends and signing her up for label sponsored band auditions, like this one. Out of the dozen or so she had been signed up for, BB had managed to skip about half, and purposely tank the rest. She didn’t really want to be famous, nor did she desire to leave her friends behind as she toured around the country. So she had set to work on giving as few shits as possible without endangering her trust fund.

The stage manager was forced to wake her up when it was her turn to play, she’d decided to take a nap sometime after AJ’s audition. Groggy she pulled out her Ibanez M30th, and slung it over her shoulder and walked out onto the stage, the bass almost as big as her. She walked on stage in low rise black leather pants, a tattered ramones shirt, with a bright orange bra underneath.

She chomped on a wad of bubblicious as the promoter began to speak, “Miss Brookda”

“BB”, She cut him off mid-sentence, “…and I have a question” She said in a quiet but mischievous voice, upset that this guy obviously knew who her parents were.

“Go Ahead… BB”

“Is it just you that’s going to suck off Major Bummer, or do we all have to?” She giggled to herself, smacking her gum, and turning towards the group of “approved” musicians, giving AJ a mock solute.

“Miss Broo”

“BB”

“Sigh… BB, Do you have a song prepared or not?” The promoter asked obviously nearing the end of his patience. From BB’s point of view things were going swimmingly.

“I do!” She grinned in mock enthusiasm, making no movements.

The promoter was fuming now, “Would you play it for us?”

“Magic word?”

The promotor snarled, “Please!”

“You got it Cupcake!” BB Grinned ear to ear, pulling the wad of gum out and sticking it to her expensive bass. “I’m going to be playing “Overkill” by Motorhead!” She exclaimed before launching into the bass-led, proto-thrash metal track. She played the song extra fast, and extra loud, her high voice contorted into her best scratchy “Lemmy” impression. When it came to music, she just couldn’t make herself screw around too much, and she played to song flawlessly, knowing she’d already tanked her chances, and would be out in a few minutes.

That’s when she decided to go for one more round of “fuck it”, as she approached the songs guitar solo, she got a huge grin on her face, and where she should have just played the rhythm notes, she launched into a near perfect copy of AJ’s guitar solo, transposed on the fly to bass, and slightly faster due to keep pace with her motorhead song. She looked out in the crowd sticking her tongue out at AJ as she hammered on and off of her bass strings, an entire lifetime of music lessons and an almost savant like aptitude making the whole affair seem effortless. When she finished the song she looked out and saw the promoter grinning ear to ear, and her heart sank.

“We’d like you to stick around.” These were the words she’d dreaded, She’d finally done it, she’d finally managed to fuck up her fucking around. But at age 21, there were appearances to be upheld, and she decided it would be best if she played it cool. She tossed her bass to an unsuspecting stage hand, who barely managed to catch it. And hopped down from the stage toward the auditorium seating, climbing the first chair and then walking along the rest of the row with her arms out as if she was tight rope walking, working her way along the chairs until she got to the other three musicians, and plopped herself down in a seat between AJ, Rachel, and Lumi.

“What’s up soldier boy, pale kid, exchange student… Well this is awkward… fuck.” She slumped back in her seat.

(Edit- I accidentally put 19 instead of 21 for her age, my bad

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

Rachel smiled timidly at the compliment. "Thank you. That's really sweet of you to say." She nodded, now carrying a more genuine smile. "Yeah, sure, I'd love to work on that with you sometimes. Must have been scary to move so far from home after living there for so long, mh?" Rachel couldn't even imagine what it must be like to move to another continent in your 30s.

Meanwhile, a new girl had started to audition. She was somewhat arrogant seeming, but Rachel wasn't gonna do anything about it, of course. To her surprise, the new contestant, who wanted to be called BB, was surprisingly skillful. As she replicated AJ's solo, Rachel's head instinctively turned towards the man. She was unsure if she should say something. "Uhm... I... I may be wrong, but... Isn't that... isn't that what you played in your audition?" she asked Riggs, her head quickly turning back to the stage, where BB just finished and approached the three.

"Pale kid?" Rachel squinted her eyes a little, almost unnoticably, as her whole body language turned defensive again. She purposely wrapped her arms around herself again and looked down. "Hey..."

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

Seeing the genuine smile, Lumi felt like Rachel was going to be a wonderful woman to work with. Though she seemed a little young to her, She figured that Rachel had a very good head on her shoulders. She was just about to answer Rachel's question when BB seemed to make her grand entrance.

Seeing the skilled bass playing, Lumi noticed the attitude that BB was showing. Though BB seemed to be a copycat in a way, Lumi let out a soft smile as she knew that you had to do whatever it took to impress the labels. With her experience in auditions, she knew that if you don't stick out above the crowd than you would be flushed away like shit in the toilet.

After the audition was over, Lumi softly smiled at seeing the wildness of BB as she tried to tightrope the chairs. Once BB settled down at a chair close to AJ and Rachel, she let out a soft purr. "I may be... sort of new to America... but in my country, we drink to celebrate. I say we start new tradition. I brought beers with me in my pack. Who wants one?" She asked in enthusiasm as she went over to get at four beers... one for each member while knowing that she had three cases of beer in her bags. Coming back to the chairs, she was giggling softly as she cradled the beers in arms.

"If you don't drink... speak now or grab a bottle and celebrate with me!" She inspired as she waited to see who would be the party person or the one that wanted to keep their senses intact.

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

BB rolled her eyes climbing down to the seat in front of Rachel, “Hey, don’t be so serious, you do realize what this is right?” She reached into her sock and pulled out a joint lighting it, not waiting for anyone to respond to her question, “Oh god… you guys don’t know… ok, so here’s the thing,” She paused taking a puff, “This isn’t like, how real bands are formed, this is like, how the Spice Girls are formed. Yeah, we all played real well, but those d-bags at the table are more interested in our marketability. We’re being thrown together to pander to a bunch of teen boy fantasy. They probably already have our album half done, they’re just waiting for us to lay down tracks, shoot a music video that will almost certainly feature one of us in a dress, one of us in hot pants, and one of us in a corset. Then once they get clear channel to overplay our overproduced single, we will be the opening act for a mass market band like Linkin Park or, god forbid, nickleback at state fairs all across this great nation. They will have us playing any venue that sells fried cheese curds. On the upside, you’ll get heard by a bunch of people and maybe when this is all over you’ll probably have enough notoriety to be able to form a real band. Oh, and Sargent Buzzcut will get to finger like, at least three Dairy Princesses.”

As she finished her rant BB took another hit off of her joint and held it out for the rest of the group, “Umm… puff puff pass? …yes? …No?”

Then she grabbed a bottle from Lumi, using the back of one of the auditorium seats to pop the top off Holding the bottle up in the air as if in some mocking toast some ancient pagan god, and screamed, “To the decline of western civilization!” After which she leaned her head back chugging the beer down.

Rachel joyfully took one of Lumi's bottles. "Sweet, thank you." She smiled a bit oddly, almost as if she felt some sort of intense relief. She wouldn't turn down some free alcohol and they actually had a reason to celebrate, so this was a welcome idea. "I think I like how the Finnish celebrate..." Her voice was still a little lowered, but this time seemed rather light-hearted, as she took a long sip. Almost instantly, she felt a bit better, a little less shut down. Although BB's rant certainly didn't help to ease the mood.

"I don't think you've read the flyers properly..." She didn't want to sound as snappy as she did, but she was getting pissed at the notion of just performing someone else's music instead of making her own. "This guy, the... promoter or whatever..." She motioned her head towards the coach. "He's not here for Sony or whatever. I've heard some of other guys talk about him. He's an avant-garde kinda guy, apparently... I doubt he'd cast people for for a fake pop group..." She put the bottle back to her lips, emptying it with her second sip and wiped her wrist over her mouth afterwards. "We'll get to do the music we want to make... I think... I... I sure as hell won't sing shit written by some label manager." The girl shrugged, taking BB's joint and mumbled a quiet "Thanks" before taking a long hit.

As she exhaled, slowly, and handed back the joint, she finished her thought. "Plus, look at us. We're... not exactly the typical What's Hot folks, right?"

RE: Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll - If you wanna be manager, just hit me up per PM,...

Riggs had extended polite curtesy hellos to both after the arrival of Lumi to the group. He would of started a conversation before then but keen instincts and kindness told him it was better to leave the seemingly shy girl alone at first. "Riggs, it is great to meet you both." he said showing he was really of few words and more of actions.

They were talking as the next audition started and the girl on stage was clearly not here because of choice. She threw jests his way but then played magnificent. So well in fact that, until Rachel pointed it out, his mesmerization of her finger movements was blocking out the fact she was mocking his audition. " Yes it is Rachel... One day on the scene and it would seem I already have a fan. he replied with a chuckle easily blushing off the taunt at his expense. The promoter accepted BB and that was more revenge then he would ever need to seek.

As BB approached and greeted them he replied with a simple hello and pointed out the fact that did not go the way BB wanted. She launched into her rant casting down on the world as it was and he had heard it all before 'skepticism probably a cover for actually caring about what just happened' Riggs thought to himself. If we are the spice girls then I'd like to call posh spice and out of those three things the hot pants seem more me. You would get scary spice I'm guessing BB although she's become rather different on Americas got talent these days."

Riggs realized after saying that he may have said too much in the way of spice girl knowledge and was about to be chastised again by the ever so kind BB. He took a drink of the beer Lumi brought over realizing he never said thank you. [/color]"I'm so sorry, thank you for the beer Lumi my head is a little distracted after doing that audition." Riggs didn't really drink and would never touch drugs in a million years. But what could one beer hurt he didn't want to come off as not worthy to be part of the forming group. He tipped the beer up To showing nickleback whose boss and finger fucking farm girls I guess. Rachel I didn't actually hear your audition but if you are sitting here my guess is you were extremely good like Lumi and BB were as well."

Rachel, in her passive behaviour, mostly just sat back, carefully listened to the conversation and tried to gauge how everyone was. So far, everyone had a rather clearcut aspet, which was a relief for the girl. Something she could deal with and feel comfortable with. Riggs seemed like a well-spirited, decent guy, so, despite her jumping a little as his attention suddenly shifted towards her, she was happy to answer him. "Oh, uhm... tha-thank you. Uh... I was alright, I think." The bright haired girl blushed a little, which was rather easy to see, as she tended to be a little pale. "No way was I as good as you guys though. I... I actually really wanted to play an instrument... I'm... not that great at... you know.. just talking in front of a lot of people, so..." The singer sighed a little, then smiled sweetly. It seemed like she tried to smile her own embarassment away.

"I guess singing is just a bit too attention grabbing for my taste, ha... But I can't play anything worth a damn." Rachel ran her hand through her messy hair, making it even wilder. "Just... uh... don't set your expectations too high." It was half a joke, half a timid attempt at apologizing in advance.