About ten minutes later, Nivek and his beer wormed a path through the crowd, making his way closer to the stage.
Given all the live bootlegs he's seen before, this was turning out to be a larger audience than expected. Taking a guess, he figured there must be somewhere around six to seven-hundred so far.
He was getting more & more psyched as the minutes passed, but the soundcheck was an unexpected surprise. As a rule, those are edited out of the videos.
The decibel level was a nice shock to his system as the random sounds of the guitar and mic checks completely drowned out the music playing through the overhead house speakers...but the best part was feeling the kickdrum for the first time.
The soundwaves hit him like bricks, making his eyes squint as if he were standing in front of a cannon, and it made every hair on his body stand on end, chilling him with goosebumps.
Shortly after the stage cleared, and not three or four seconds after he upended the last of his beer, the unforgettable woman from earlier slipped in beside him and handed him another one.
Nivek felt a subtle rush that made him wonder what being swept away by an undertow felt like.
He said to her: "Whoever you are, you have absolute perfect timing."
"Timing is kind of my thing." she replied, mirroring his smile back at him.
They clicked cups in a silent toast as the lights went out, the crowd began to roar, and the pyrotechnics exploded.
![[Image: WsnUaha.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/WsnUaha.jpg)