The five of them traipsed up on the stage and I knew what I would see when the lights came back up. The electronics were replaced with acoustics, and the big grand piano was rolled out to the middle. The set list had four songs on it.
But when I looked at the set list, there were five. And I didn’t recognize any of them.
I pointed, but the lights went up and the screaming drowned out my question. Ford took pity on me.
[They decided to each take one of their new songs and try them out. Seems nuts to do it the last day, but] He shrugged.
I stood just back from the stairs and watched Up Down Left Right play their newest songs to a sold out audience in Manchester.
Each of them was amazing, and Taylor’s was almost haunting with the deep sounds he chose for it, and he pulled his little sister up on stage for it. She was his duet and the girl couldsing. I’d heard her before, in a song battle with Austin.
Luis pulled his mother on stage for his song. She was embarrassed but adorable and his song was a song of gratitude and we were all in tears.
Grant pulled Aubrey on stage. Austin put on a show of being grossed out by his sister and his bandmate, but we were actually all thrilled for them. Grant had designs on proposing to her when we all got back to New York.
Bryce also pulled Hailey up and kissed her hard. They were engaged, but hadn’t let the cat out of the bag yet. He’d popped the question in Johannesburg, a month earlier.
Austin pulled two bar stools to the front of the piano where Bryce was seated. Luis took one stool and Austin the other. Taylor and Grant just leaned on the piano top.
“So, this is our last song of the night, of the tour. It’s a new song, just like the others, and it’s a promise to all of you here, all of the fans who came to see us everywhere, that we are not going away. We have big plans, so watch our website and YouTube Channels. There’sa lotto come, and we’ll be back on tour when we’re done. This is only the beginning. Thank you, Manchester! You’ve been amazing!”
The roar went up, and my brain supplied the words,as usual, and then the lights turned blue and low, and spotlighted Austin and then lesser lights were turned on the others.
Luis was playing an acoustic bass. It had a delicious deep sound that echoed through the space. Austin and Bryce joined him a moment later with a happy, gentle melody, and Austinsang.
Make me breathless here
Steal the air from me
Peirce my shell and
break my soul wide
for you
Touch the heavens high
Feel the earth below
Sunshine hides behind the clouds
Chase the shadows
from me.
I remembered those words.Steal the air.He’d uttered them to me once, as we lay next to each other recovering from another mind-blowing orgasm. I looked up and I found him looking at me.
Ford, Hailey, and Angela pushed me to the top of the stairs.
Holy shit, was he going to drag me out there?
I couldn’t tell, but he was going to sing to me, and Bryce, Grant, Luis, and Taylor were the backups.
You
Are the air I breathe
Are the sun I crave
