Suzie’s House 335 : Where the Bass Belongs

This was great! Tracy windmilled her strumming arm and pushed out to the front of the stage. She’d never felt so good before. Could this really be her calling in life?

Except she wasn’t supposed to be doing this, right? Usually it was the guitar that took the lead, right? That’s why they called it a lead guitar. But Gene must have stage fright or something because he spent the whole show looking down like he didn’t know how to play the songs and holding back the way a bass guitar is supposed to. What? Was he afraid he’d expose himself or something?

Tracy knew if she insisted on talking about it, everyone would just tell her she did a good job. She could be as obnoxious as she wanted, and no one would complain, as long as she kept it brief.

That’s the way things always were, right? She could get away with anything as long is she got out in time. The question was, when was too much?

Like right now, for instance. How much more windmilling could she do? Maybe it was time for a slide. Or had she already done too much of that? But it was so much fun!

The first time she stepped forward, it was purely ulterioristic. She did it because Emma froze. Someone had to step forward and make it look like the chorus wasn’t really supposed to be sung right there. It wasn’t like the drums could do it and Bruce might look like he wanted to do something, but how flashy can you be behind a keyboard? That left Tracy and Mr. Toe-gazer.

Not that Emma had needed anywhere near as much help as Tracy wanted to give. That one go through the chorus as a solo, and Emma was back in the game. So whoever the guy in the audience was that Emma couldn’t take her eyes off, wasn’t such a big deal.

That bothered Tracy a little. At first she thought maybe it was someone like Emma’s brother or mother or someone who would make her not sing. But it was just some random guy.

As for this little girl act Emma had going, Tracy wasn’t sure what to make of it. Maybe it had something to do with the pink mask? It was like Emma’s personality changed to match what she wore. Good thing to keep in mind.

Ahh, the drums and keyboard were calling for the next verse. Tracy’s third solo couldn’t go on much longer. She did her slide across the stage on both knees, with her bass barely skimming above the floor. It would land right in the spotlight.

Except that’s when Emma took a step forward right into the middle of the spotlight. She held the microphone to her chest with both hands, and made herself look all small and vulnerable and she leaned away from Tracy and looked at her with a frightened pout that barely showed under the mask.

The audience laughed. It probably looked like that old guy – Pete Townshend – praying to the Coppertone girl.

And then Emma was singing and nobody paid attention to anyone else. It was always like that. So maybe Tracy didn’t have to worry about when to cool it. Maybe Emma could hold her own.

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