Microstory 2031: New Hampshire

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Papa’s favorite band was called The Fiddle Way. They’re a folk band from Quebec City, Quebec, and he had always wanted to see them live. I don’t know why he couldn’t go up to Canada where they always played, but I think it had something to do with his job. I think the stuff he was working on made it so that his bosses didn’t want him to leave the country without their permission. One time in the winter of 2011, though, The Fiddle Way decided to have a show in New Hampshire, which isn’t too far away from Quebec City. My dad and I never found out which airport he flew into, but it was really far away from where the band was going to play. He had to rent a car from there, and drive for a couple of hours all the way up north until he reached Lancaster, New Hampshire. It wasn’t actually only this one band. A whole bunch of them were playing outside over the weekend. It was called the Lancaster Cabot Music Festival. Papa didn’t care about any of the other bands, though. He only wanted to hear The Fiddle Way, so he wandered around until it was time for them. It took place kind of in the middle of the woods, so there was plenty of room to walk around. He said he sat by a river for a while, and just enjoyed being in nature. It was really late at night when the band started to play, and by the time he made it back to his hotel room, all he had time for was a shower, and then he had to drive back to the airport to fly home in the morning. He barely made it to his gate on time. He regrets paying for two nights when he only needed one.

Microstory 1051: Bert

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No, you’re not the first person to realize how many Berts we have at this school. Bertha, Herbert, a freshman named Bertil, and me. It’s actually my full name; it’s not short of Albert, or something. My parents came up with something simple, because they’re pretty lowkey, unremarkable people. That’s why I decided to start a band. Chester probably made you think it was his idea, but I’m the one who first suggested it. It may sound petty, but if we ever break up, it’s important to know who the name belongs to. Without any legal clarity, the primary founder basically has dibs. Besides, who’s ever heard of a drummer who’s in charge, am I right? I may not be much of a singer, but I can pluck a guitar with the best of ‘em, and nobody’s fawning over his drum solos, lemme tell you that. The truth is that I play a lot of instruments, but most of them aren’t heard much in bands. Many of them are brass, but I’m not much into ska, so we really need to keep away from that kind of sound. I suppose you could say we’re like Cherry Glazerr meets Of Monsters and Men. We’re great with that really rough, noisy grunge, but also love to focus on crystal vocals for some songs. Pearl was really great with that, and we’re all going to miss her. Hearing Addie, though, that’s really made me think that we’ve been going about this all wrong. She was the voice we were missing. They should have been handling that together. I don’t think we should be using her in a temporary capacity. We need to be finding a good, feminine voice that meshes well with Addie’s. I would rather sound more like Tegan and Sara than Chester’s Drum Circle Emporium. I didn’t make that up, by the way. Before I found him, he was trying to get all the percussionists in the high school band together to do an all drummers act. Can you imagine how terrible that would be? I love the guy, but he’s got some crazy ideas. I gotta remember to be more positive, and less critical, though. All bands fall apart because the members can’t work together. I don’t care what you say about your Yoko Onos, or that bullshit term “creative differences”. The one and only reason is they can’t get along, so it’s important that we continue to communicate, and find a new second singer who wants what we all want. Viola knew that, she was my girl. I don’t mean, like, she was my girlfriend, but she really understood what we were going for, even when we didn’t realize it ourselves. Did Chester tell you she designed our website, and supported us before anyone else did? She also got us this huge festival gig in Jordan that I’m really looking forward to. We can’t go in there with only three people, though. Duos and trios can sound great, but we’re not making it work. We need a fourth. I would even propose a fifth if we weren’t already in such a heavy transitional period. I’m thinking about asking Dolly if she wants to audition. Then we could change our name to ABCD. I’m fine with goin’ second. Wadya think? You ever hear her sing?

Microstory 1050: Chester

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Hey, I’m Chester. I’m the drummer for our band, Random Spans. You can get one of our shirts, just like this one, on our website, which Viola helped us set up, by the way. She was secretly a programmer, I don’t know if you knew that. She also came up with our name, but I don’t get it. Rhythm is about the only thing I understand in this world, so I’ve embraced it. I’m not the worst student, but I just don’t care about it. To make matters worse, I kind of have this flaky voice that makes me sound like I’m high all the time. I don’t do drugs at all, though. “Keep off the grass,” my mom would always say, and I listened. I just talk like this. My parents set me up with a speech pathologist when I was younger, but it didn’t really help. I still sound like a big stoner, which is why I try not to talk too much. That was totally fine until we lost our lead singer. Pearl didn’t really quit, but she hasn’t been able to work with us lately. Do you know how many appointments pregnant women have to go to? It’s crazy. We tried to work it out, but she just can’t make it happen anymore, and she didn’t really want to have to stand at the mic all the time anymore anyway. We are not trying to find a new vocalist, though. Addie has really stepped up, and filled that role. And she’s said this herself—so don’t think I’m being mean—she’s not as good as Pearl, so Bert and I are singing some too. Meanwhile, we have a new bassist, and if Pearl is ever able to come back, I guess we’ll just have two bassists. That’s not a particularly common dynamic, but it’s also not unheard of. I dunno, maybe we’re just kidding ourselves. Pearl is starting a new life with Vester, and we have to be happy for them. The band will survive without her, even if we also lost our biggest fan. The pool hall was the only gig we had for a good long while, and Viola was the only one who showed up. Everyone else there was there for the booze, and just tolerated the music, but she always stood up, and cheered for us. I think that’s where she met Finley, and they started playing pool together. Anyway, the day we found out about her death was bittersweet. She said she was working on getting us a huge gig, and that we would find out the details soon. She said it was going to be in the next three weeks, and then two, and then one. She just kept counting down, and on the day she died, we got a call from an event coordinator out in Jordan. They have an annual music festival, and they want us to play. We’re not headlining, or anything, but our set starts at nine-thirty, which is pretty damn good for a group of nobodies from Blast City. I just wish Pearl could be there, and Viola. On second thought, don’t buy one of these shirts. I’m gonna have the shop make us new ones, dedicated to her.