Broken Voodoo: The story of the rock band that brought rock n’ roll back to life
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Golden Center
Story Sunmary: The 70s and 80s had Iron Madden, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row and Morley Crue. It’s 2025 and Rock N’ Roll is more alive than ever thanks to Broken Voodoo kickstarting the rock n roll heart.
(MASTERLIST)
I groaned as I heard what felt like the millionth car horn honk from the street below us. I had been in big cities before, but LA was different. It was so loud, I wondered how anyone could get some sleep.
Fuck
I internally cussed as I felt something hit my head. Had I accidently knocked myself into the table?
I turned over to see Seb glaring at me from across the apartment. He looked pissed. If looks could kill, I would be dead, no question.
“Did you seriously just throw a pillow at me?” I shot back at the bassist. What was he 5 years old?
He looked like absolute shit as he propped himself up on his elbows to speak.
“Shut up and go to sleep. Your groaning woke me up. We have a long ass car ride today, so keep your pot hole shut so I can get some shut eye,” he shot back before rolling over.
Before I could think of some snappy comeback, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked up to see Oli, his shoulder length brown hair sticking out every which way. It was the epitome of a bed head. A red mug was placed in front of my face, and I quickly accepted it. All hope of falling back asleep pushed off to dreamland as I followed him onto the fire escape which screamed for help as we climbed out the window.
“Don’t worry, I sit out here every morning...it won’t collapse on us, having us fall to our death,” Oli sent me a not so reassuring smile in my direction as I sat down next to him. The fresh air hit my lungs, waking me up. The smell was refreshing, but anything was better than the smell of toxic BO.
“Well, falling to death isn’t on Jax’s schedule for the day, so I think if we don’t die from the fall then he would kill us for delaying his plan,” Oli’s laughter filled the small fire escape we were using as a front porch.
“Yeah...he always has a plan…” Oli took another sip of his coffee as we watched the sunrise.
The air between us was filled with the noise of drivers slamming on their horns and engines. There was something peaceful about watching the chaos unravel below me. A chaos I was eternally thankful for.
“I’d just ignore Jax, he has never been a morning person...plus his girl was working last night, so
He is a little moody. Kinda reminds me of a teenage girl,” I sent a warm smile towards Oli as he spoke. Between the coffee and his kind words, I could tell that he was trying to cheer me up. I appreciated it.
“Well I have a younger sister, so I am used to dealing with moody teanagers,” I took a sip of coffee before looking out at the ally below us. Oli’s laughter drowned out the noise from the cars passing by the street perpendicular to the ally.
“How long have you known each other?”
“Ohh Jax and I go back a few years. At least four of five years now…it’s kinda funny how time tends to blur itself. This is our third band together. I should warn you that this competition might get...might get a little heated,” his last comment caught me off guard.
“What do you mean?”
“The last band Jax and I were in together was called Halleon. Long story short we left because the lead singer was being….” I watched for a couple minutes as Oli seemed stuck, so I added “a jerk?”
“Yeah...a jerk, that’s a nice way to put it,” he smiled back before taking another sip of his coffee.
“Good morning!” I turned towards the window entrance and heard some shuffling from the apartment.
“Looks like Jen stopped by. It’s best if we stay out here, just in case they get….handsy if ya’ know what I mean,” I nodded and laughed at his response.
Jen looked like she walked straight out of a photo shoot. First off her blonde hair that cascaded down her back looked like she just came from the salon. Don’t get me started on how her hourglass figure was perfectly framed by the daisy dukes and crop top she was wearing. She made me fell like I was back in middle school, braces and all. Intimidated was an understatement.
“Andi...right,” I turned around and sent a small smile towards Jen’s direction.
“Yeah, and you must be Jen! It’s nice to meet you,” I sent a warm smile her way as I shook her hand. Like my mother always taught me. It never cost you any money to be nice.
“Yeah, but you can call me J!” I smiled at her cheerfulness.
It wasn’t long before, Jax and Robin showed up with the pickup truck for us to start loading. It felt like hours had passed as we moved our equipment to the trunk bed.
I ended up sitting shotgun in the truck with Oli, eternally grateful that I wasn’t in the lover's car as Oli had put it. Jax, Robin, Seb, and J were in the lovers car doing god knows what.
The car ride there went a lot faster than expected, and I felt the excitement flow through my veins as we pulled up to the venue.
“Welcome to the Golden Center,” Oli said as the stage came into view as they took the backlots. I didn’t need to guess why this place was called the golden center. The stage was adorned with golden accents and all of the railings and fencing were painted a gold color as well. It looked like it came out of a Disney Princess movie.
“Jax said that we had to follow the yellow arrows to sign in and confirm that we arrived for sound check which is in a couple hours,” I nodded as he spoke and we continued to follow the yellow arrows.
Within minutes, we arrived at checkpoint and had to get out of the truck.
“Name and band?” One of the workers asked when I hopped out of the truck.
“Band: Broken Voodoo. Name: Michelle” I replied while handing her my driver’s license.
“So you’re the new guitarist for Broken Voodoo,” I turned towards the guy who spoke, sending a confused look in his direction.
“Why? What’s it to you?” He looked like an 80s wanna be rockstar. With his shoulder length hair tied back with a bandana, I had to double check I was thrown back in the 80s. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t mind his attire, just like every other 80s rockstar he was hot.
All confidence diminished as I felt him look me over head to toe. Unlike him, I wasn’t dressed like a rockstar. I was wearing gym shorts and some shirt I got from doing gymnastics as a kid. To say that I looked out of place next to him was an understatement. It didn’t matter though, I was only playing with Broken Voodoo for one show. This would all be a fever dream to tell my children with I’m old and crotchety.
“Can you blame a guy for being curious?” he shrugged while keeping his ‘cool guy’ composure.
“Be careful curiosity killed the cat,” I added as the woman handed me some badges, my license and had me sign in. Whoever this wanna be rockstar was, he wasn’t as intimidating as the lawyers I worked with.
This earned a small laughter from which I assumed made all of his groupies swoon.
“How about this, my name is Rus, lead singer of Halleon. Now it’s your turn,” he offered out his hand and I shook it.
“Andi, rhythm guitar for Broken Voodoo.” So this was the jerk that made Seb and Oli leave Halleon.
“Nice to meet you,” he flashed me a million dollar smile I could easily see being on billboards when he made it big.
“I wish I could say the same,” I let go of Rus’s hand and turned towards Oli who seemed less than happy to see Rus standing in front of me.
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