Chapter 129

"Kristen, is there any word on the food donations?" Brie asked one morning after breakfast. The guys were downstairs rehearsing and the children who were old enough for school were in their lessons. This left the women to organize the rally at Lake Tenkiller.

"Yeah, I've got several mom and pop shops all over the COUNTY wanting to cook for this." Kristen said with a smile.

"That's great news. Did you give them the date?"

"The date is Aug. 16, right?"

"Right."

"That's the date I gave them."

"Great. Tina, what is the stage looking like?"

"It's coming along great. We're about a third of the way through the construction and it's looking amazing. I have a contact in the crew that says they're wanting to burn The Face in to some of the panels", Tina said.

"THAT is cool as hell. Nicole, what's the news on speakers?"

"Tim Schmitt is gathering a BUNCH of his friends to com and speak for this saying that the opportunity to lead up to Disturbed is as big an honor as following them", Nicole said as she beamed.

"Whoa. Local business wanting to donate food, the construction crew is a third of the way finished and talking about wood burning the Face into the paneling, and the key note speaker is dragging a bunch of his speaker friends along for this. I never cease to be amazed by all this stuff."

"How are things going on your end of this, Brie?" Tina asked.

"It's kinda hard to nail timing down if I don't know exactly how many people are going to be speaking. All in know is that Tim is before the band and that's it. Nicole, next time you talk to Tim, ask him how many of his friends are wanting to come speak and how long they're going to need. I'll also need names of the speakers. Can you do that?"

"Sure thing, Brie. Not a problem at all", Nicole said with a nod.

"Great." Brie smiled and took a sip of her herbal tea. "I love it when a plan comes together."

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"What the hell are we going to play for this thing?" Dan asked.

Mike sat on the stool behind his drum kit and twirled his sticks. "I want to play something that has some bad ass drumming in to."

"That's everything we've ever done, Mike", John said.

David remained silent as he took a drink of his water. He just stared at the blank dry erase board in front of him as he took a drink of his water, trying to think. Then it hit him. "Why don't we do songs that were never really released on albums?"

"Like what?" Dan asked.

"'Hell', 'Two Worlds', 'Monster', 'Run'."

"Well, we should have a few things that we have released on albums too", John said.

"Of course we should", David said. "As for that, we need to do things that we DIDN'T do in the last one."

"Most of the songs we did for that were the political things we did on Believe and Ten Thousand Fists.  So, how about we focus on ‘Indestructible’ and ‘The Sickness’ with a little ‘Asylum’ in there?" Dan said.

"I definitely want to do 'Another Way to Die', for this one. We were going to do it last time, but never got to it", Mike said.

David stood and went to the white board. "Ok", he said, "Let's write this shit out then." He grabbed a marker off the tray in front of the board. "So, and this is in no particular order, we have 'Another Way to Die', 'Monster', 'Hell', 'Run', 'Two Worlds'. Do we wanna do 'Parasite'?"

"Yeah, let's go for it", John said.

"Alright", David said as he wrote it up on the board. "At least three more. Any suggestions?"

"How about we mix shit up and throw a ballad at them?" Mike said.

"Which on did you have in mind, Mikey?" David asked.

"'Overburdened'."

David, Dan, and John looked Mike almost in shock. "You really know how to throw a monkey wrench in shit, huh?" David said.

"What? I want to play 'Overburdened'. I love that fucking song."

"Danny does have a kick ass solo in it", John said.

David let out a sigh. "What do you say, Danny?"

Dan thought about it for a moment. "Sure, why not?"

David wrote the song on the board. "Alright, 'Overburdened' is on the list. Two more."

"How about 'Fear'?" Dan said.

"Whoa, talk about old school. Why not?" David wrote the song on the board. "I want to do some ‘Asylum’ stuff on stage too, guys. Maybe 'The Infection' or 'The Animal'."

"Put them both on there, David. Those are good songs. And add 'The Night' to the list too. I REALLY want to play that riff that I drove John crazy with", Dan said.

"And you still drive me crazy with it quite frequently, Danny", John joked.

"What can I say? I LOVE that riff!"

"David, add 'Inside the Fire' to that list too.", Mike said. "I want to tear that song up."

David laughed. "'Inside the Fire' it is. I want to open with that."

"We'll we can fight about order later", John said. "Let's just get the songs PICKED first."

"Well, do we want to make it a fifteen song set?" David asked. "Because we're over ten."

"How many until fifteen?" Dan asked.

"Three more."

Dan scratched his head. "Ok, let's really do this. Tell me to shut up if you don't like where I'm going, but here's what I think should round off that list: 'Deceiver', 'Haunted', and 'God of the Mind'. What do you guys think?"

"Sounds good", Mike said.

"I like it", said John.

"So be it, " David said and wrote the last three songs on the board. "I think we've got a good list here, so why don't we call it a day for today, and then come back down here tomorrow and fight like dogs over which song is going where in the set?"

"Sounds good, brother", Dan said.