Starter for Ten – 05/07/19

Starter for Ten is a daily writing exercise where the aim is simply to write for a full 10 minutes. No editing or revision is allowed after the 10 minutes is up. The aim is to try new things, experiment with voices and styles and be bold. Suckage often occurs.

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Handclaps added to the track. Beats rippling along the back. The tempo increases and a stamping percussion drops in.

The bass slaps in hesitant rhythm, punctuating the drums. A pause and the song resumes with the rhythm guitar playing along.

The high-hat hints at a peak approaching. The volume and tempo are punched, quicker and louder. It pulls back from the explosion that’s coming. The song builds again and once more fades back – a tease. The third time the audience is baited and held in perfect position as the music ceases.

The stage is dark, black curtains with a minimum of light picking out the industrious musicians creating this rising froth of sound. A single spotlight picks out a serious, serious cat. His jeans are crisp. His shoes shiny. His hat tipped back at such an extreme angle that it frames the man’s face like a halo that hasn’t decided if it’s going to stick around.

He raises his kazoo to his mouth and blows. The light catches the gilting along the instrument’s edges and his cheeks inflate like twin pufferfish until you can see the veins straining in the light, you could pick out any number of magical words in those veins.

The music billows from his kazoo inside a stream of vape that fills the club and onto the street instantly addicting those it reaches. The band straps in and tries to hold on for another night jamming with Chubby Delmonte.

2 thoughts on “Starter for Ten – 05/07/19”

  1. I used to chill with Delmonte back in the day – back before he was Chubby. In those days he liked to say ‘yes’, but I guess he never learnt to say ‘no’.

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