Girlfriend Live Part 2

Mike was working in the studio control room on the Mac, doing his day job remotely. His mobile started ringing.

"Hi Danielle, what's up?"

"Mike, we have been selected for Animaga. We'll be opening on the Friday Rock Night and have also been offered short set Saturday, on the Starlight Idol stage."

"That's great news. Have you told Linda yet?"

"No, I'll leave that to you."

"Are you up for a band meeting and practice tonight?"

"Try and stop me."

"I'll call Linda and see if she is available. I won't keep you. I'm supposed to be working for ImagineSoft at the moment."

"Is it okay if I come round for dinner anyway, even if Linda can't make it?"

"Sure. See you tonight."

Mike poked his head out of the studio control room and called out to Xiang Ling.

"Danielle called. We're playing Animaga. We'll be opening."

Xiang Ling looked up from the song she was working on.

"That's terrific news!"

"I'll give Linda a call. Danielle is coming for dinner. Band meeting and practice tonight if Linda is available."

Mike returned to the control room and dialled Linda.

"Mike?"

"We got the gig, Linda. Are you available for a band meeting and practice tonight?"

"I'm free. Shall I come for dinner?"

"Yes, Danielle will be coming for dinner too."

"Animaga will give us more exposure right?"

"Yes, it's a bigger deal than the Anime Music Festival."

"Okay, see you tonight then."

"Bye."

Mike left the control room and joined Xiang Ling at the workbench Mac.

"Linda's coming."

"Good. I'm just about done here. Are you stopping for lunch?"

"Yes. I'll take a break now."

Xiang Ling followed Mike up to the kitchen.

"Do you need a hand?"

"No, I'll just reheat some soup."

Mike microwaved some Lemon Lentil Soup from the refrigerator.

"I'd like to buy myself a car, now that I have a license."

"So you have your finances sorted out now?"

"Yes I've got the TFN. I've applied for a passport too."

"We don't have room for two cars. One will have to go on the street. Not ideal."

"We could do some earthworks at the front of the house, make a parking space and a carport. I'll pay for it."

"You're welcome to use my car till we can get it sorted out. I'll put you on the insurance policy."

Mike went to his bedroom and fetched the spare key fob.

"There you go."

"Thank you. I'm glad you trust me this much, considering my driving record isn't exactly unblemished."

"I guess I'll have to come up with something to cook for tonight."

"I can go get you some more ingredients."

"That will be helpful. I need to get back to work. I think I'll make the Paella. I need cashews, a red and green capsicum, half a celery and 200g of Mushrooms."

"Got it."

***

Mike was just finishing adding the mushrooms when Danielle arrived.

"Something smells good, what are we having today?"

"Vegan Paella. Mushrooms are doing the heavy lifting, filling in for the seafood."

"Is Linda coming?"

"Should be here soon, she said she was coming for dinner."

Xiang Ling answered the intercom and buzzed Linda in through the studio door.

"Looks like she's here."

Linda emerged from the studio spiral staircase.

"Hello everyone. Great news about the Animaga gig isn't it?"

"It should be good exposure for us. We have been getting a lot more hits on the web page and views on YouTube since I started uploading videos from the Anime Music Festival. I uploaded another video today and announced the Animaga appearance."

"Dinner is ready, take a seat at the table."

Danielle and Linda took their seats while Mike and Xiang Ling brought the food over. The Paella looked very colourful, with its topping of peas, sweet potato, cashews and Kalamata olives.

"What are the details of the gig?" Linda enquired.

"We are opening the Rock Night on Friday evening at 7P.M. It's the main stage at the Melbourne Convention Centre. We have also been offered a 30 minute spot on the Starlight Stage on Saturday during the expo proper."

"Do we all want to do the Saturday show as well?" Mike asked. "The stage and viewing area are small. It will just be passers by. It's mainly Idol acts performing on that stage."

"I'm for it." Danielle spoke up. "We can wander around in our cosplay outfits and look at the exhibits. We might drum up some more trade. We can enter the cosplay competition as Rock Lady. The more people that notice us the better."

"Won't we be tired from the Friday night gig?" Linda suggested.

"Our slot isn't till the afternoon, plenty of time to sleep in." Danielle countered.

"I'd like to rest on Saturday, but I agree with Danielle having an extra show will be good for the band. What about you Xiang Ling?"

"You know me Mike, I'll take any chance to perform a live show. I want to do it."

"Are you happy to do the extra show, Linda?"

"Sure, why not. Anything to set us on the road to fame and fortune." Linda joked.

"I guess we're all agreed to do it then."

"Oh, speaking of fame and fortune, the Anime Music Festival has paid us for the gig. Shall I just split it 4 ways?"

"Sure Danielle. We didn't have any expenses, since Ian worked for free."

"Do you all have Apple Pay?"

They all nodded. Danielle send them all payment via Apple Messages.

Linda looked at the amount. "Hey, that actually paid okay! More than my usual hourly rate as a session vocalist."

"It was a full house and the bands got a percentage of the take. We can thank ATC for that," Danielle reported.

"We need to come up with two set lists now," Mike noted.

"Are we going to cosplay for both shows?" Linda asked.

"I don't see why not, it's very appropriate," Danielle answered.

I'm sorry I don't have any dessert lined up tonight. I can do coffee and biscuits though," said Mike.

"Thanks for the food Mike. I feel we're not pulling our weight on the catering side of things," Linda apologised.

"No problem, Linda."

"I've got an idea for the set list. We should play one Rock Lady song. I know it isn't playing to our vocal strength doing an instrumental but we need it to keep the cosplay authentic," Danielle suggested. "Apart from that I think the setlist from our first gig was good."

"It's a good idea, but will Linda be able to play the guitar solo? It's a bit crazy. Xiang Ling will be on the drums since she is cosplaying Otoha right?" said Mike.

"We can try it out tonight and see if it works," said Danielle.

"I'll give it a go. I have improved you know!" exclaimed Linda.

"We'll want a different setlist for the Starlight Stage," said Danielle.

"We should keep it lighter perhaps, more Poppin' Party songs or something," suggested Mike.

Mike served the coffee.

"What's the deal with our performance fee?" asked Linda."We'll be paying Ian this time of course."

"It's just a token amount for the Starlight Stage. The Rock Night is similar to the Anime Music Festival, it depends on ticket sales," answered Danielle.

"I'll head down to the studio and see what tabs I can get for that Rock Lady song. There is no rush. Finish your coffee and biscuits." Mike left the table.

Once Mike was out of earshot, Danielle spoke. "Are you two okay now?"

"We seem to be on speaking terms again," Xiang Ling said.

"I'm not exactly happy, but I'll suck it up. On the off chance she is real, I can afford to be polite to her," Linda answered.

The women joined Mike in the studio.

"I've found a decent band score, I've sent your parts to your iPads," Mike announced.

Danielle plugged in her bass and started playing through the score seemingly without effort.

Linda made an exasperated sound, as if Danielle's showing off was a little bit too much to take at the moment.

"Something up Linda?" Danielle enquired.

"Oh, it's just this guitar solo is so complex. This is going to take awhile to learn."

"I'm lucky the keyboard part is fairly straight forward. Rock Lady simplified the part because Tina wasn't up to much."

"It's not like the show is tomorrow, you have time." Xiang Ling tried to console Linda.

Xiang Ling donned some headphones and started practicing the drum part.

"I'll make some backing tracks for you to practice against, Linda. You can slow them down with the DAW while you are getting the hang of it." Mike offered.

"Thanks, that will help."

The band members continued their solo practicing with headphones on. Danielle took her headphones off and glanced at Xiang Ling. Xiang Ling followed suit.

"I'm ready for a quick play through, how about you?"

"Yes, I've got it down now."

They attracted Mike's attention. "Are you ready to give it a go?"

"Yes, I think I can stumble through it."

All eyes turned to Linda, who feeling their gaze on her looked up and slipped her headphones off. "What?"

"Are you ready to try playing with us yet?" Danielle asked.

"Are you kidding me? I can't even play it at half speed yet."

Xiang Ling grabbed her MIDI guitar and went over to Linda. "Let me have a look."

Xiang Ling turned the DAW up to normal tempo and played the guitar solo while capturing the MIDI data.

"Okay, okay. I get it. You're a better guitarist than me." Linda complained.

"Shush, I'm trying to help."

Xiang Ling turned the tempo down to half speed and routed the MIDI output to drive the illuminated fret buttons on the MIDI guitar.

"Watch my fingering, Linda"

Linda gazed at the flashing fret lights under Xiang Ling's fingers. She could see the simple patterns behind some of the wild sounding sections.

"Oh, it's like that in that section!"

Xiang Ling finished the play through and passed her MIDI guitar to Linda.

"Give it a go on this, the notes to play will light up so you can follow them if you get lost."

Linda put down her Strandberg and grabbed the Ztar.

"It's different to the Strandberg frets but it will give you some idea of the fingering."

Linda started the backing track again and tried to play along. It took a little while to overcome the strange feel of the Ztar but eventually she managed to play all the way through with few mistakes.

"Just start ramping and the speed a bit, then switch back to the Strandberg, you don't want to get too used to the Ztar."

"Okay, leave me with it. And thank you. It was helpful."

"No problem."

While Linda was once again engrossed in practicing, the other three had a discussion.

"Will we do a play through with just us three?" Danielle asked.

"Sure, it's worth it to see how the bass and drums are working together." Mike responded. "Do you think Linda will be able to learn the guitar solo okay?"

"She'll get there in the end. She's nothing if not determined. We won't have to make alternate arrangements. I think the drum part is too fast for Ai-chan anyway," said Xiang Ling.

Mike quickly set up a rough mix to feed to everyone's headphones.

"Okay let's go."

They played through the song successfully.

"That was fire you two!" Mike congratulated them.

"Aw, shucks." Danielle pretended to be coy.

"We should wind things up for tonight and discuss the set list with Linda," Xiang Ling said.

Mike went over to Linda and attracted her attention.

"Oh!"

"We're about to finish. How is it going?"

"I'm making progress. I can play it at 3/4 speed on the Strandberg now."

"Good, you shouldn't practice much longer. You've been at it long enough tonight."

"Yeah, I'll stop now."

"We just need to nail down the set lists before you go."

"Okay."

"Let's head upstairs for some coffee," Mike suggested.

They gathered at the kitchen bench, sitting on the bar stools.

"I think Linda is making enough progress on the Rock Lady song to put it on the setlist," Mike stated.

"I agree, we should open with it too," Danielle concurred.

"So substitute it for Rose?"

"No, I like the running order we had."

"Do we have enough time for an extra song?"

"I think we can squeeze it in, our slot is a little longer."

"I don't see a problem with that," Xiang Ling agreed.

"So now we just need a short setlist for the Starlight Stage."

"I'd open with Rock Lady. Then 'If In August', 'Returns' and 'Haruhikage'. Keeping it lighter and more Pop," Danielle suggested. "That's just my take on what the convention goers would like to hear. The Rock Night audience will be more hard core."

"I agree, Linda and Xiang Ling can really strut their vocal power on those songs."

"I'm happy to take Danielle's advice, she has more convention experience than we do," Xiang Ling said.

"It's fine with me too. Apart from the Rock Lady song, those are easier to play than most of our songs," Linda agreed.

"Okay set lists are done. I don't think we have anything else that needs to be decided immediately. You are free to go." Mike joked.

"Should we schedule the next band practice first?" Danielle suggested.

"How is everyone for Friday? That will give Linda some more time for solo practice."

Linda nodded.

"Yeah I'm good," Danielle replied.

"Okay, see everyone for dinner on Friday then."

"Can I bring something this time?" Linda offered. "I feel guilty."

"No need, I like to cook and I have to make something for myself anyway."