He hadn’t been kidding when he had told Gina that keeping up with Seb was going to push him.
On the other… that meant he better handle it. On one hand, handing them rep like this meant Leo thought he could handle it. Leo had chosen some pretty challenging rep to try out tonight. Truth was, though, there were a lot of things making EJ a little nervous for this particular gig. So it was obviously going to be a very friendly crowd. With no partying going on, they usually came out in force for Riffs gigs on those Fridays. That would be especially true tonight, since there was a home football game tomorrow and all of the marching band was on “24 hour rule,” where they weren’t allowed to drink or get high within 24 hours of their report time. They were mostly laid back and fun, with the swing dance club coming out to dance and the audience usually made up mostly of other bandos. The Riffs had a standing spot in the rotation and played here just about once a month, so they were pretty comfortable in the venue. Every Friday night, the coffee shop on campus hosted a campus musical group. Of all the sets they played, these coffee houses were by far the lowest stress. "You ok, dude? You’re usually not THIS keyed up before a coffee house gig.” "That's fair," EJ conceded before looking back down at his iPad. I'm ignoring this text and throwing you under the bus when she's pissed at me about it."
"Yeah, I'm not getting in the middle of this. "I had a Clif bar…" he said hesitantly, not one hundred percent sure if he actually did, or just thought about it. "I'm going to take that silence as a no…" Ricky said. He told her he'd grab something after, before his 2pm class.īut now he didn't really remember if he actually had. Gina had offered to bring something down to the band room for him, but he felt bad about her going so far out of her way. Gina got on his case about skipping lunch after history class to squeeze in a little more practice time, but he had a really small window to get behind his kit one more time before Natalie loaded out for the gig that afternoon. "You still haven't answered the question, by the way… food? At any point today?"ĮJ sighed. EJ snorted out a laugh while Ricky just shook his head. "I mean, I might be queer as they come, but… the boy's not wrong," Seb shrugged. "Sorry, bro, collateral damage from EJ flexing on pulling a girl as hot as Gina is.” "Hey!" Seb cried, snapping his head up and glaring at Ricky. Unfortunately, that meant it smacked Seb, who was currently sitting a few feet away from EJ engrossed in his own sheet music, right in the back of the head. She's also an absolute smokeshow." He ducked in time for Ricky's now empty Dasani bottle to fly past him when Ricky chucked it at him. "Well, what is my girlfriend if not sorta sweet?" He paused for a moment before he added "Oh, right. It would be annoying if it wasn't actually sorta sweet, even if I have to babysit your ass," he smirked. "I mean, she nags you to take care of yourself the same way your mom does… and they both nag ME about it, too. "Yeah, if you could not compare my girlfriend to my mom, that'd be great." "Close," he said, holding up his phone, a text chain with Gina open on the screen. “Meanwhile, have you had anything other coffee and a protein shake today?” “Thanks for the advice, man,” Ricky said with a roll of his eyes. “I know you’re worried about your chops, but you keep that up, you’re going to have to piss before the set break,” EJ commented, not looking up from what he was scanning. Ricky came up to where he was sitting, swigging yet another bottle of water. So he’d basically had his face in his tablet for the last two days, running the pieces over and over. Not as hard for the wind players, but it was a workout for the rhythm section. Tonight, that meant shifting between latin, bebop, swing, and cool jazz multiple times. Leo had a habit of just throwing a bunch of styles at them and seeing what stuck, culling that season’s concert and competition rep from the pieces that worked in some of these smaller gigs. The first Riffs gig of the season was always nerve wracking. Seb had impeccable timing as the pianist, and he didn’t want to miscue anybody by not being in lockstep with him.
Leo would count them in, obviously, but EJ wanted to make sure he had it so he could settle in the pocket right away. He flicked through his charts on his iPad, setting the tempo in his head for each piece and mumbling through his patterns, tapping them out on his knee. EJ was sitting behind the pipe and drape curtain that Natalie had expertly rigged up to conceal all their instrument cases and other equipment, with the big band booths set up in front.
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