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14 Days

02

The plane touched down in Nebraska at 4pm and by 4:45pm Evie was in a chauffeured car on her way to the venue Avenged Sevenfold were scheduled to play. She had absolutely no idea what to expect upon arriving at the venue, other than the manager, Larry, would be the one to greet her and take her backstage to meet the crew.

As soon as the car stopped, the butterflies in her stomach erupted into flight once more, churning and making her feel nauseous. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea, she thought. Perhaps she should have just said no to Phil, and carried on with the remaining few days of the Halestorm tour.

She finally got the courage to climb out of the car, remembering to shoulder her bag before clambering from the back seat. The first thing that struck her was the size of the venue. This was no hole-in-the-wall club, or small theatre, this was a proper 7,000+ seat venue, one she had not played before. If she didn’t feel out of her depth before, it was definitely feeling that way now.

“Hi, Evie, is it?” A voice asked her, breaking her from her mild panic. Evie’s attention immediately turned from the venue to the man standing in front of it. He looked to be about 40-45, his brunette hair greying with his age, a cell phone stuck to his ear as he interrupted the call he was on.

“Um, yeah, that’s me,” Evie replied, her brain starting to function once again. She saw Larry extend his hand and she quickly put her hand in his own, the shake firm. One thing Evie knew best was that she had to assert herself to most men in this field, and the first step was always a firm handshake, no ‘dead fish’ as her dad taught her.

“Hi, I am Larry. Thank you so much for filling in for us at the last minute,” he told her, smiling appreciatively at the young woman before him before dropping his hand from the handshake. He lowered the phone from his ear, quickly ending the call. Admittedly, Evie was not his first choice for a tech, unsure if she would be able to stand the environment, let alone the work, but desperate times called for desperate favours. He was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by Evie.

“No worries,” Evie replied, lying through her teeth. She tried to bury her stress in fake strength, pushing the anxiety down and clipping those damned nervous butterflies of their wings. “Happy to help out where I can.”

“Excellent. Just follow me, I will take you to the Berry’s and they will help you out,” Larry told her, quickly turning on the balls of his feet and making his way towards the venue. He reached the door, quickly swiping a card to unlock it before holding the heavy door open for Evie to slip through. She did as instructed, letting Larry overtake her once they were in the halls of the theatre and following quickly behind his swift gait.

Evie was trying her best to remember the corridors she was walking down, but the pace Larry was setting made it hard to recall any stand out features. She usually liked to acquaint herself with the way in and out of a venue at the very least, just in case of an emergency, but that was not happening at this particular juncture. She just hoped that once she was introduced to the crew and got a handle on her duties for the evening, someone would be able to show her again.

Larry quickly walked up the few steps from backstage to the actual stage, and Evie got her first look at not only the venue, but also the crew she would be working with for the next few shows.

“Boys, this is Evie. She is Chris’s replacement for the next few shows until he is back. Evie, this is out stage crew, Matt and Jason Berry, and Dan,” Larry introduced, pointing at the 3 crew members currently on stage. “I’ll leave you guys to it, I have to get to the airport. Dan, please remind the guys that I will be back in 3 days.”

And with that, Larry was returning down the stairs backstage, out the venue, and in the awaiting car that would return to the airport once more. He left an awkward Evie standing in front of 3 men, trying desperately trying to remember who was who. What wasn’t fair was the fact that ⅔ of the crew looked all-but identical!

“Uh, hey,” she greeted, waving a hand awkwardly at the stage hands.

“Hey, sorry for Larry, he truly has no fucking clue how to be human,” one of them told her, rolling his eyes at the departed manager. “I am Matt. This is my brother Jason, known as JB, and that is Dan.”

She took a second to take them in, trying desperately to find distinguishable features between the brothers Matt and Jason. They were both tall, about 5’9ish, a very athletic build, and the same facial structures. Luckily, there were a few features that separated them. Matt had a small amount of facial hair growing on his chin, and his hair was long and let loose. A small labret-style piercing gleamed under the stage light, and his eyes seemed to be a shade or two lighter than his brother. Jason, though almost identical to Matt, decided to change his look by leaving his hair longer than Matt’s, tied up in a ponytail underneath his hat. His face was bare of any hair, and his exposed arms showed quite a bit of ink, a few black and white portraits covering one arm while the other was colour.

Dan, meanwhile, looked nothing like the brothers. He stood a few inches shorter than his friends and he sported a loose mohawk, the hair falling flat against his head. The skin Evie could see on his arms and legs were more tattooed than Jason, and his biceps looked to be the size of Evie’s thighs. She couldn’t help but take a second to admire the three, thinking that she would have had to have been blind not to notice how good looking this crew appeared to be.

“Thank you for the reintroduction! I was a little clueless,” Evie admitted, thankful that Matt had taken charge and pointed out each of them so Evie had a chance of remembering who was who.

“No worries, and don’t feel bad if you forget, it happens a lot,” Matt told her, smiling reassuringly, making Evie’s anxiety shrink slightly.

“Oh good,” she said, relaxing a bit before she remembered that they had a show to put on in only a few hours. “Ok, so for the gig…”

“I’ll show you around, quickly,” Matt told her, once again taking change. “A real quick staff rundown: JB is the drum tech, and Dan is mostly security, but comes and helps us out when we are bumping in. We have Dave over at the sound board, and Bruce deals with the monitors. They are somewhere around the venue, so I am sure you will meet them soon.”

“Ok, that is a pretty small crew,” Evie noted, realising how big this band were, and how small their crew appeared to be.

“We have a bunch of stage hands at each venue to help set up and pack down, but that is our main touring crew. The less people involved, the less that can go wrong,” Matt explained, throwing his roll of gaffa tape to his brother before leading Evie back towards the stage left staircase.

“That actually makes sense,” Evie agreed, realising the logic behind his words. A big crew might make things quicker, but it would also make things a lot more complex, and it could actually break down a lot easier.
“I have my moments,” Matt joked, coming to a stop by the guitar boats that were sidestage. “Anyway, this is the gear you will be looking after. I will be looking after Johnny and Zacky on stage, and you will be Brian’s tech, but when the gigs are over, we will need you to fix all the guitars, not just Brian’s.”
“Um, who?” She asked, the names going straight over her head. The bare minimum she grasped from his barrage of words was the fact that there would be three people’s gear she was meant to be in charge of.

“Have you not met the band, yet?” He asked her. He looked to her, seeing nothing but pure confusion on her face, and couldn’t help but laugh at the expression. “I’ll take that as a no.”

“No, I literally arrived about 5 minutes ago. Larry just speed-walked through the corridors to you guys. I have no idea who is who in this band, and only a vague idea of their sound,” she admitted, the nerves that had dissipated since talking with Matt reappearing. She was really out of her element here, and it was becoming obvious.

“Ok, change of plans, we will go meet the band, and then I will come back and explain some more. Hopefully then it will all make a lot more sense,” he told her, abandoning his first plan. He bounded up the stairs to the stage once more, quickly yelling at the other two that we were going to the dressing room, and to finish taping the leads to the stage floor. Matt returned to Evie once more, quickly informing her that the barrage of abuse Jason was spewing at Matt was for the job he had delegated. “Jase will literally do any other job to avoid gaffing the leads. Don’t ask me how, but he can not rip gaffa to save his life.”

“What? He can’t rip gaffa?” Evie asked, her voice laced with surprise from the pure insanity that was the fun fact about JB. “It is designed specifically to rip.”

“Trust me, I know! I can’t even tell you how much I tore into him when I first found out,” he told her, laughing at the memory.

The pair wound their way back through the venue, Evie finally being able to get some sort of feel for where she actually was thanks to the human-pace Matt was setting out for the pair. She knew that when they returned back to the gear, she would feel a lot more comfortable walking through the corridors later that evening.

They reached the dressing room, the low end of the current song playing within the room seeping through the wooden door into the corridor. Evie wasn’t surprised that the band were within the walls, likely having already completed sound check and awaiting their call to the stage. Matt took the lead, opening the door and the music became a lot more clear.

Within the room stood 5 men, either lazing on the couch, or standing. They were mid-conversation, but it had stopped the second the door had opened to reveal Matt and Evie.

“Guys, this is the new guitar tech, Evie,” Matt told them, breaking the silence that had enveloped the room and pointing towards Evie. She gave a slight wave. “Evie, this is the band. Johnny, Matt, Brian, Jimmy and Zacky.”

As he said the names, he pointed to each of the band members around the room. Evie tried desperately to recall the names Matt had dropped earlier, trying to figure out who the guitarist was that she would be looking after.

As she looked around the room, all the guys were looking at her, taking in her appearance. Before them stood a gorgeous woman standing about 5’7, only slightly shorter than Matt Berry who stood beside her. Her blonde hair was currently in two braids, showing her gauged and pierced ears that went along with the ring through her septum. She was wearing a black Guns N’ Roses shirt, a grey open cardigan, a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, and a pair of beat up, no-longer-white converse hi-tops. Though her appearance was casual, she pulled it off without the need of a sceric of makeup.

She looked at Matt, hoping he would take the lead and take some of the pressure off her. With 5 gazes upon her, she was feeling a little awkward.

“Johnny is bass guitar, Matt is vocals, Brian is lead guitar and who you will be looking after during the gig, Jimmy is drums, and finally Zacky is rhythm guitar,” he explained, taking the names a step further. As he named each person, they sent a short wave, or ‘hey’ to Evie, once more helping her remember who was who.

“Are you guys running through the gear?” Brian asked before taking a sip of the beer that was in his hand.

“Yeah, I just wanted to introduce you guys to Evie so she knew who was who, and who she would be looking after,” Matt explained. He continued on before the guys mistook his words and started saying inappropriate things. “We are just about to go through the guitars, the outboard gear, and what not.”

“I’ll tag along,” Brian volunteered quickly, hopping out of his seat and walking towards the pair. “I should probably run through a few things with you, anyway, make sure everything goes down smoothly.”

Even though the remark had heavy sexual undertones, Evie ignored it. In this profession, she was used to the lewd comments, the innuendos and being hit on, it just was one of those things that came with her work. It happened a lot less with Halestorm as she was one of the crew, and the comments were often said in jest, and she felt comfortable hurling them straight back with a cheeky grin.

With no one else volunteering to come along, the three made their way out of the dressing room and back down the corridor, the walkway becoming busier as show time grew closer. Regardless of the extra people, Evie felt a lot more confident in being able to navigate through the halls now she had walked them twice at a slower pace.

“So, how many gigs do you guys have from now until Rock on the Range?” Evie asked the guys. Noticing Brian’s attention was far from the conversation, she turned towards Matt, hoping he had an answer.

“I think we have about 6 or 8 shows?” He replied, his answer more a guess than an answer. “I can double check the schedule for you later.”

“Thanks, that would be great,” she said, smiling genuinely at Matt. The trip had reached side stage once again, and Matt unlocked the guitar boats with a key that was attached to his crew laminate. With the action reminding him, he quickly went over to a backpack and pulled out another laminate and key combo. He handed the lanyard to Evie.

“Don’t lose that,” he warned her, “it has your backstage ID, the key to the boats, a key to the trailers, and a key to the bus. Lose that, you lose your job.”

“You say that like I have never had a laminate before,” Evie joked, accepting the lanyard from Matt and sticking it in her back pocket. “I promise to give it back in two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” Brian asked, finally joining the conversation.

“Should be about as long as I am helping you guys out. Then I am homeward bound,” she answered with a small smile, eager that her return home was now in sight.

“So where is home?” Brian asked, his attention now on what was happening here rather than on his phone.

“You guys can talk all you want later, we are on a time crunch,” Matt reminded them, opening up the other cases to show all gear to Evie so she could become familiar with the amount of guitars she was now in charge of.

“Good point,” Evie agreed, her eyes almost bulging out from the sheer volume of gear in front of her. It was any guitarists heaven. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on some of it, hearing the tones and feeling the different neck and string combinations. “Well fuck.”

“So this lot is Johnny’s,” Matt started, running his hands over the handful of bass guitars before continuing. “These are Zacky’s rhythms, both electric and acoustic, and those are Brian’s. One very important thing for you to remember is that Zacky is left handed.”

“Just to make this shit easier,” Evie murmured sarcastically under her breath. Her though was heard by Brian who chuckled at the remark, making Evie’s cheeks blush slightly. She did not intend for that to be heard!

As Matt showed Evie the run down of the set list, marking which songs were in what tuning, Evie made sure to take her own notes. With the influx of information, it was going to be impossible to remember which guitar stayed in which tuning, and therefore which needed to be brought off and on between songs. He ran her through the wireless packs they use, and how to correctly check that the transmitters were working before she took the new guitar on stage. Near the guitar boats was the outboard gear and monitor desk, so it would be very easy for Evie to check that they were transmitting if the levels showed on the boards.

“And finally, we have a box of accessories you may need during the show,” Matt said as he started to finish up the gear tour. “In there are strings, pliers, wire cutters, straps, leads, picks, anything you can imagine. It should be all you need.”

“A tuner?” She asked, not seeing one floating around yet. She needed to be able to retune the guitars in between songs, and she knew she could not do it by ear while the show was going on behind her. That was just impossible!

“Over here. Chris usually has an extra pedal board in case Brian misses his cue and can’t get to his in time, but I have it over the other side for now. He ran me through it all before he left,” Matt told her, leading her over to the stage stairs once again. The pedal board was right near the bags Evie had dropped down earlier, she had to move them out of the way so they could easily access the board.
“Oh thank god you have that!” Evie sighed in relief, her eyes boggling at just how intricate and tight the guitar tech had to be to support this band. She had to give her predecessor a great amount of praise for his role. This was more than your average gig routine.

“You’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure,” Matt told her, smiling at her to try and calm her apparent nerves.

“How long until the show starts?” Brian asked, chiming up for the first time since he ran through his guitars for Evie.

“About an hour, I think. Burn Halo have a 30 minute set, then it’s us,” Matt told him, checking his watch for the time before estimating the start of the show. There were a few people mulling about around them, checking gear and making sure leads were correctly plugged in.

“I better get back to the dressing room. See you before the show,” Brian said before turning on his heel and walking back through the corridors.

“They have their pre-show rituals to start,” Matt told her, his words followed by a roll of the eyes and a wry smile.

“You don’t believe in pre-show rituals?” Evie asked him, taking his body language to mean that he thought it was all bullshit.

“Yes and no, I guess,” he answered vaguely. “Come on, grab your stuff and I will show you to the busses.”

As she was told, Evie grabbed her bag once more, lifting it and shouldering it before Matt led the way through the venue. She checked her laminate was still in her back pocket, breathing a sigh of relief as she felt it safe and sound.

Making a little bit of small talk, the pair reached the back of the venue in no time, Matt pointing out the busses before her. There were two identical black busses, the only difference being that one had a trailer attached behind it to store the equipment.

“That one is ours,” Matt told her, walking towards the roadie bus. “Hope you don’t mind sharing space with 5 stinky guys!”

“I don't think I would survive on the road if I couldn’t hold my own against your kind,” she replied with a laugh. The bus already looked about 5 times bigger than the van she was currently riding around the states in, so if anything, this would be a luxury.

“Well thank god for that,” Matt said, laughing along with her as he unlocked the door and ushered her aboard. The layout of the bus was pretty standard, the kitchenette and a lounging area was at the front, followed by a curtain that separated the living are from the bunks. Two sets of 3 bunks lined the walls, each with a small compartment for their owners belongings at the foot. The area was once more curtained off at the end to enclose the sleeping area.

“We put that curtain up to stop the light from the bathroom of a night time. The bunk curtains aren’t thick enough to filter it out,” Matt explained, drawing the curtain open to reveal a small area sectioned off outside the door to the small bathroom at the very end of the bus.

“That is a great idea,” Evie told him, still astounded at the size of the bus.

“So this one is yours. We had everything washed from when Chris was sleeping in it,” he said, pointing at the bunk that was the closest to the ground. “Sorry you didn’t get to choose.”

“Are you kidding, I have my own bunk! I don’t care where it is, this is fucking high class, man,” she replied, her excitement getting the better of her as she put down her bag and opened the curtain to the bunk.

As promised, there was a fresh sheet covering the mattress beneath. A small blanket had been folded and left in the middle of the bed, as had a small note. She opened the note, seeing it was another thank you from Larry, leaving her his number to call if she needed anything. She was actually touched at the gestures, from the clean linens to the note.

“I don’t know if I can go back to a van after this,” she commented, smiling at Matt before she bent down to rummage through her bag for a few things she would need for the show. The first, most important item was a hoody. The temperatures outside were quite a lot colder than she had expected, the cardigan currently covering her arms not enough to stop the chill getting through. She then loaded her pockets with her packet of cigarettes, a lighter, a small flashlight and her phone.

“I couldn’t even imagine doing the van thing again,” Matt agreed, reminiscing of the times they all used to pile in the one van to make it to the next gig in time.

“You’ve been spoilt,” she joked, elbowing his side playfully as the pair turned back towards the front of the bus to return to the venue once more.

“And I fucking love it,” he replied, making them both chuckle from his words.

The nerves and anxiety that took over Evie not half an hour ago had mostly subsided thanks to Matt and his tour. The way he was so professional and so thorough impressed Evie, and the way he could convey the information in an easy going, stress-free way made her feel at ease straight away.

For the first time since leaving Halestorm earlier that morning, Evie was feeling confident about her choice to help out the Avenged Sevenfold crew.

Notes

A long intro-filled chapter for you to sink your teeth into:)

Thank you KWally2, AvengedRomance and Kimmie for your comments :) You guys are so lovely!!

Enjoy!
Sas xxoo

Comments

If anyone comes back to this, please join us over at www.A7Xfanfic.com :)

RamonaFoREVer RamonaFoREVer
10/29/19

@kiss my sas
Still here! Had to get a new login. I can’t use my overneaththepathofmisery login *cries* all my favourites and follows, gone! I’ve got to get on the new site, and check it out there too...

Misery Misery
9/22/19

@Misery
Thanks :) Her name is Harley, and she has baby cheeks for days which KILLS me!

I didn't know if people were still on here, but I have another update to this. I will upload soon :)

kiss my sas kiss my sas
9/5/19

A niece! Yay! What’s her name?

I was so so excited to stumble upon this update! Especially with all the fuckery of the digression of the site!

Misery Misery
9/5/19

Finally got caught up! Can’t wait to see what Evie choices!

Nicole Nicole
8/31/19