We arrived early to get our names on the signup sheet. "So you're the guys everyone's been making a fuss about all night." The manager of the bar said. I thought the comment was weird but had paid little attention to it.
The bar only had a handful of people in it when we walked in. "Yeah, all these people have been asking about the James brothers. Good name for your band. More have been calling to ask about you. You two are going to pack the house tonight. Thanks."
"Jesus Ty, what the fuck did you do?" Matt asked. Matt was cursing which meant he was nervous. He was always nervous in front of a large crowd. A large crowd just gave me more motivation.
"I didn't do anything. All of a sudden my phone started blowing up this afternoon about us playing tonight. Mostly asking where and when. I didn't think it was a secret."
"Well, shit. Let's go over our set list again." He said.
This mostly meant that Matt didn't want to sing any songs. This was probably a good idea since Matt didn't have the best voice when we were just messing around at home. It would be ten times worse when he was nervous.
Originally, Matt and I had planned to play four songs, two each to play lead and sing. With the new development, a low sign up, and endless begging by the manager, we were now playing two sets of five songs each.
"Just because you'll be doing the majority of the lead tonight, don't start adding a bunch of arctic monkeys songs. No one knows those."
"Then people need to be educated." I answered him as the server put another bottle of beer on the table for me. She looked me up and down and I winked at her. She was cute, with freckles and red hair... Shit, never mind. I chided myself. That was bound to blow up the first night. Maybe I could talk her into a blow job in the bathroom...
Matt barely registered the interaction, and continued "They do. But not with arctic monkeys. How about our staples, Beatles, "Caroline”, maybe brown eyed girl?"
"Sounds good. But you know I have to play at least two arctic monkey songs for Mars. I'll play hey Jude too." Another of Mara's favorite. Mara only ever seemed to notice me when I was singing. Which meant that I was going to start pushing myself into her view more often than before.
Matt picked a few nineties songs for him to play lead, but I would still sing. Matt was better at lead so I usually played rhythm.
"Too bad dad's not here. He could bring a drum machine and one of us could play bass."
"Then we would be turning an open mic into a show. And you know dad's working at the hospital tonight."
Yup, that's right. That’s what we James's were known for, being doctors and playing music. Our dad learned from his dad, we learned from our dad. But being a musician wasn't a job, according to James's. Being a doctor was your career. Music was your hobby. That's how Matt and I were raised.
It never really bothered me. I had only ever wanted to be a doctor anyway. Sure, I liked playing music, but I also liked playing soccer, basketball, swimming. It didn't mean I wanted that to be my life, those were just hobbies I enjoyed.
But being a doctor held a higher purpose for me. What I really wanted to do was help athletes. I was going against my family a little bit in the fact that I wouldn't be a surgeon and decided instead to go into sports medicine.
Matt struggled more with the "what am I going to do with my life?" question. His passion was music. He practiced all the time growing up, at the detriment of his studies, so he had to study even harder when he finally decided to follow the family and become a surgeon, like dad.
I wondered if part of his decision to go to London was to get out from under the thumb of our dad so he could pursue music a little bit more. I would never know for certain. Matt had always been reserved with his true feelings on anything.
"What?" Matt asked after I had been staring at him.
"Nothing." I answered and took another drink from my beer. "Aren't you going to have any liquid courage before we go on?" I asked and swung my bottle in front of his face a little.
"Good idea." He said and looked around. The place was starting to fill up even more now. Matt waived at the server to call her over and bent over the set list again. He would never be fully satisfied with the set list. So I just let him obsess over it for a little longer. I already knew what and when we should play each song.