West of Mars -- the Meet and Greet

I'll post links to past Deadly Metal Hatchet pieces, as this may be a bit of a jolt for those of you used to Trevor and his antics. The Hatchet is a young, up-and-coming band made up of four guys: Fozzy, Lido, Gecko, and Scott. They have a gimmick: the Deadly Metal Hatchet they are named after.

At any rate, as Halloween approaches, many of us are turning our thoughts to scary things. Here's one for you, and I'm not talking about what the Hatchet gets up to.


Days like this were too nice to be inside. And it wasn't like they could smoke inside anyway; those new rules about smoking were made by assholes in suits. Scott wished Fozzy could turn the Hatchet loose on them and the other upright and moral folk who'd decided that smoking was evil. Man, the world would have a few hundred million less assholes if he could.

The four of them were sitting on the curb outside the club, laminates on, blending in. Everyone else who milled around wore cargo shorts and black t-shirts, too. They were just four more guys sitting there, catching a smoke, not talking, soaking in the day and the nicotine rush.

"So what're we gonna play tonight?" Gecko asked.

Fozzy shook his head. "Too early to do setlist."

"Why are we wasting time with this talk again?" Scott asked. He sat back and adjusted his shorts. "We do the same fricken set for every same fricken show. Why don't we just own up to that already and quit with the stupid setlist discussions?"

Fozzy screwed his face up. "It's not like we have more than twelve songs in the first place."

"…and time to play ten of 'em. Why don't we ever play those last two?" Gecko asked. He ground out his cigarette on the curb beside him.

As he reached for the can of Coke he'd brought outside with him, two long-haired guys approached. They wore the code: black t-shirts, dirty flannel shirts thrown over top, cargo shorts, workboots left unlaced. "Hey, man, know where we can find Deadly Metal Hatchet?"

Gecko and Fozzy exchanged uneasy looks. Lido cleared his throat.

"Yeah," the other guy said. "We want to hang with the Hatchet. We figure that when they make it big, we'll be able to tell everyone we knew 'em when."

Scott adjusted his shorts again; maybe it was time to find a laundromat already. "Got any clue who you're looking for?"

The first guy, the one in the dingy red flannel, shifted his weight. "Deadly Metal Hatchet."

"Yeah, we know," Scott said. "But do you know what they look like?"

Red Flannel shifted his weight again. "Don't they wear shirts with the Hatchet on 'em?"

Gecko smothered a laugh with his fist. Fozzy looked around. No one, band nor crew, was wearing anything with the Hatchet on it. Except their laminates, but then again, every person involved with the tour wore one of those.

"So," the guy in the brown flannel said, "know where we can find 'em?"

"How can you be fans if you don't know what they look like?" Scott asked.

The kid in red shrugged. "We're not fans. Not really."

"We think they suck," the kid in brown said. "But one day, they'll get big and we'll be able to say we hung with them."

Scott covered his face with his hand. Fozzy stood up; Lido jumped to his feet and the two went inside.

"Should we?" Gecko asked. "I mean, the band may not like it."

"Fuck the band," Scott said, wondering what the fricken hell he was saying. "They don't need losers like you two."

He and Gecko walked inside, shaking their heads.

"You join a fricken band to get noticed," Scott said in the safety of the
band's dressing room. "Not to get told you suck."

"At least they think we'll be someone," Lido said.

"Dude, we already are," Fozzy said. He ripped a sign off the wall and started drawing.

In short time, the Hatchet had gone to work on two guys in flannel: one red, one brown.

The members of Deadly Metal Hatchet cheered.


Some past links with the Hatchet:
Intro
Thirteen Hatchet Victims
Chelle and the Hatchet

Labels: Deadly Metal Hatchet, fans, fiction, outtake, Poetry Train, touring