stonecrandall Chapter 241 Dreams
Chapter 241 Dreams
(Thanks to "Big Fish Little Heart" for the Gift King award! Thank you for your support! Thank you to "Marco-V-" for the Master certification! Thank you to "Top Master" for the Master certification!)
(To avoid the pace being too slow, two extra chapters will be added today~)
The heavy walnut wood door to the lounge was pulled open from the outside by staff.
The sterile, 24-degree Celsius air conditioning in the corridor, mixed with the muffled bass drum sound coming from the direction of the main stage, instantly filled the room.
"Number 16, please follow me." The staff member turned to the side, and the electronic terminal flashed in the dim light.
Yami carried her guitar bag and walked at the front. Yuki, Rie, and Maki followed closely behind.
The four walked through a corridor covered with sound-absorbing carpet. With each step, the double doors covered with black soundproofing material drew closer. The dull vibration traveled unimpeded from the floor to the soles of their feet, climbed up their bones, and finally triggered a heart-pounding resonance in their chests.
The staff pushed open the soundproof door. A deafening sound, like a physical impact, slammed into the faces of the four girls.
This is the dark waiting area behind the main stage. Thick black cables and massive metal trusses stretch overhead. The pungent smell of dust mingles with the acrid odor of burning halogen lamps, filling the entire space.
On stage, the group performing was number fifteen. It was the same hardcore male band we'd bumped into in the hallway earlier.
Yami stood in the shadows of the curtain, quietly watching the performance on stage.
The male guitarist slammed down the overdrive pedal. The amplifier's distortion was instantly maximized, and the midrange was drastically cut off.
The pick is held really steadily...
Yamei's gaze was fixed on the other person's hands.
How could the range of motion for high-frequency alternating string plucking be compressed to such an extreme? There's almost no superfluous wrist movement; it's all pure muscle bursts...
The left hand moved cleanly up the high positions. Not a single stutter. Is this… a rapid playing of the Phrygian scale?
The gaze then shifted horizontally, landing on the drum platform behind.
The drummer was pounding out a dense sixteenth-note bass drum rhythm, his feet rapidly alternating on the double bass drum pedals. At the same time, the snare drum's syncopated heavy blows perfectly matched the guitar's riffs. The continuous low-frequency waves traveled down the solid wood floor, making my feet feel a tingling sensation.
These guys... are really strong.
The audience area was extremely empty. In the front row, five or six executives and producers from SA Entertainment were scattered in the velvet chairs.
Facing the frenetic performance on stage, enough to ignite any underground live music venue, these industry elites, who held the power of life and death, remained expressionless. Their eyes were like those of someone assessing the pass rate of metal parts on an assembly line, occasionally glancing down to quickly jot down a few notes on the documents in their hands by the dim light of a reading lamp.
Yuki swallowed hard. She gripped the old drumsticks wrapped in insulating tape tightly with both hands, the tips of the drumsticks trembling slightly in mid-air.
The anger that had been building up in his chest from the slight he had just received in the corridor was now forcefully suppressed by the opponent's extremely solid and forceful technique.
"So powerful..." Yuki murmured to herself, her voice instantly swallowed up by the massive sound wave.
Rie's situation was worse. She clung tightly to the heavy bass, her body involuntarily shrinking back half a step.
Maki remained silent. However, she wasn't looking at the people on stage, but rather at the wall of speakers, her desire undisguised.
This is the final selection process within Japan's currently booming star-making factory. Standing here are all monsters who have fought their way through hundreds of teams.
But in other words, the "Blue Echoes" are also among these monsters.
Those people are strong... but that's about it.
Yami turned around. She didn't say anything empty encouragement like "Go for it!" or "We can do it!"
She stretched out her hands, one on the left and one on the right, and grasped Rie and Yuki's wrists.
Yamei's palms were slightly cool, carrying a reassuring sense of stability. The direct physical contact acted like two cold tranquilizers, forcefully interrupting the rising panic between the two.
Rie and Yuki subconsciously looked up.
Yami looked directly into their eyes. Her clear, black-and-white eyes were utterly calm, and a gentle, impeccable smile played on her lips. In this dark zone filled with violent sonic booms and blinding light, she was like an unshakeable rock.
"Hoo—" Yamei looked at them, her chest rising and falling slowly and deeply, performing an extremely gentle deep breathing exercise.
Rie's gaze was fixed on Ayami's face. Following Ayami's rhythm, she slowly inhaled a breath of stale air and then exhaled gently. Yuki also stopped her trembling fingers, and the rise and fall of her chest gradually calmed down.
"Don't listen to what others say." Yami released her grip, her voice calm and measured. "Listen to ourselves."
The roar from the stage abruptly ceased. The lingering echo of the last chord slowly faded. The stage lights came on.
The male musicians, soaked to the bone and panting heavily, bowed to the audience before exiting through the other side of the aisle.
A stage assistant wearing a headset strode quickly to the darkened waiting area. "Number 16, Blue Echo. Ready to go on stage. You have two minutes to plug in your lines."
Yamei picked up her guitar and led the way out of the shadows.
I stepped across the boundary of the curtain and onto the stage's solid wood floor. A blinding, cold white spotlight shone down vertically from directly overhead, exposing every speck of dust within its beam.
In the darkness below the stage, the professional judges, who showed no emotion, picked up their pens again.
The four girls quickly took their positions.
Once I was actually on stage, the nervousness dissipated considerably. The spotlight blurred the view on stage, making it impossible to see anything but Yamei's back as she stood at the very front.
Yuki sat on the drum stool at the back. She took a deep breath, gripped the old drumsticks wrapped in insulating tape tightly with both hands again, and struck them twice forcefully in mid-air.
"Thud, thud." The wrist, which had been a little weak, was instantly filled with strength.
Rie slung the bass strap over her shoulder. The heavy bass case pressed against her chest, its physical weight providing a sense of reassurance. Looking at Ayami's comforting back, she bit her lower lip and slowly placed her cool fingertips on the familiar, thick strings.
Maki pressed down on the tuning pedal. Pure electrical noise emanated from the top-of-the-line monitor speakers. She reached up and pulled down the brim of her baseball cap, her fingers gripping the chipped neck of the Fender guitar firmly.
The oppressive force from the outside world was completely blocked by that figure's back. They felt the familiar vibrations of the musical instruments at their fingertips and listened to the gradually synchronizing breaths of their companions beside them.
The two-minute countdown ended. The on-site assistant retreated into the shadows. The entire venue fell into dead silence.
Yami stood in front of the standing microphone in the center of the stage. She took a deep breath. Her left hand gripped the neck of the violin, and her right hand tightened its grip on the pick. She turned her head slightly, her gaze passing over her shoulder to Yuki on the drum stand behind her.
Their eyes met briefly at the edge of the spotlight. A half-second pause. Yami nodded slightly.
The song they chose for the final selection was their cover of "Genkai LOVERS," a classic hit by the Japanese all-female hard rock band SHOW-YA.
Yuki raised her arms high and struck the drumsticks three times heavily in mid-air.
"Da. Da. Da." The right foot suddenly exerted force. "Boom!" The dull yet explosive bass drum rhythm exploded in the venue. Immediately following was the signature, oppressive, and dense intro of this heavy metal rock song.
Yami's right-hand pick swept crisply across the strings. The electric guitar produced a clear, slightly overdrive-edge, grainy sound. Her rhythm guitar playing was extremely steady, the heavy rhythmic mesh firmly supporting the entire band's foundation.
As the prelude progressed, the music needed the bass's low frequencies to flesh out its structure. Rie's fingers, upon touching the thick strings, still exhibited a slight, uncontrollable stiffness. A very faint tremor appeared at the end of the second note.
Yami immediately noticed the subtle shift in rhythm. Holding her guitar, she leaned slightly to the side and took a half-step closer to Rie.
The vibrations from the high-powered speaker traveled along the solid wood floor, directly to Rie's feet. Rie jerked her head up, meeting Ayami's gaze. Ayami nodded slightly, increasing the range of her strumming, forcefully covering up the bass's flaws with a more powerful rhythm.
Rie bit her lower lip, the stiffness in her fingers disappeared, and muscle memory took over her nerves again. The deep bass line quickly descended, perfectly matching Yuki's violent drumbeats. The core bass of this piece and the drum kit's "rhythm section" were completely in sync.
The verse begins. Yami grips the microphone stand with both hands, tilts her head slightly, and brings her lips close to the microphone. "Back to the fire—!" Her husky, penetrating voice, with a hint of coolness, explodes out from the top-of-the-line Marshall speakers, instantly filling the entire soundstage.
"Limited limit! Limited limit! Limitless limit! (Until the limit! Until the limit! Never give up!)" Fanatical lyrics poured out along with the gravity strumming of her right hand. "Angel! Angel's のふりして (pretending to be an angel)..." "Angel! Mysterious い込んでも (even if I go astray)..."
Pure rhythm and emotional outpouring surged through the air. Yami closed her eyes, completely stripping away the gentle mask that Okura Yami always maintained, and biting down on every heavy beat with extremely aggressive vibrato.
"Buzz—" Maki's leather boots stepped on the distorted pedal. The interlude for the second section arrived as expected.
Under intense pressure and intense focus, the four people's breathing rhythms miraculously began to converge. The drumbeats, bass, and rhythm guitar—three distinct frequency bands—intertwined in the air.
Enter flow.
Rie closed her eyes, her fingers flying across the strings, never missing a beat. Yuki's sweat splattered on the drumhead, each strike carrying a cathartic release.
The song reached its climax in the chorus. Maki suddenly plucked the strings. That soaring lead guitar solo, like a sharp blade being drawn from its sheath, forcefully cut through the stuffy air in the venue.
At that moment, the four girls became an inseparable whole. They displayed a terrifying level of skill far exceeding what they usually showed in the underground rehearsal room.
In the audience, Sato, the ace producer of SA Entertainment's planning department, finally stopped spinning his pen.
He leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on the table, his gaze fixed on the center of the stage. The lead singer, carrying a Yamaha guitar, was like a pillar of strength. Every unintentional turn of her body, every exchange of glances, subtly orchestrated the entire team's rhythm.
Technically, they might be considered above average among these underground bands. But their incredible stage presence and team chemistry are unparalleled in current Japanese all-female bands.
Recent trends seem to be intentionally focusing on "all-female bands." The current rock market is dominated by male bands, and the pure female idol market is already saturated…
Sato lowered his head and opened the judges' file in front of him. He drew heavy red circles in the "Team Cohesion" and "Commercial Visual Appeal" sections with a red pen.