The den of demons
Along with ‘my’ band, I’ve ventured onto the home turf of an alternative rock festival. It’s stuffed full of black banners displaying the anarchist symbol, death’s heads and other joys…
In the audience, a rather unpleasant-looking demon with a goat’s head is staring at me. Calm and collected, he is in the middle of a golden pentagram. Cabalistic letters dripping with blood seem to circle him… Ah! My mistake, it’s just the design on his t-shirt!
The guy wearing this is decked out in metal chains that dangle right down to the ground and ripped pants (he must have bought them on Black Friday).
Despite that, he seems very nice (more so than many suited and booted individuals I’ve come across in more respectable places…).
The rocker’s prayer
The dark side of the force of the unseen world signals its presence in a very visible way on the human standard bearers who are slaves to their impossible dreams of freedom. Blinded by the fleeting lights of a stage at night, they’ve forgotten their ruthless masters and their own misery to the point they deny they even exist.
My blood boils, I can’t just leave them to their fate. Back stage, my soul seeks a closer connection with God, looks to Him to strengthen my right hand. One sigh from Him, and Hell will be on its knees. I fire up my distortion pedal, I tune my heart… I sense the prayers of an entire army behind us (maybe it’s you!).
I can’t wait to do battle, to throw myself into the fight with riff after riff.
Divine intervention
The warriors with me, I mean… the musicians, are ready for the off too. The group currently on stage start their last song glorifying sexual infidelity in a thousand different positions, each more depraved than the last…
Just after that, it’ll be our turn!!!
Our first songs are happy ones. In the audience, a group of young people, warned on my social media posts that I’d be there, are having a party. They’re easy to recognize: they look normal!).
When Lilou, our beautiful vocalist (and my wife), introduces a solemn song, God intervenes:
– This song is a prayer…
To say that God is always there is terribly clichéd in our churches, which are stuffed to the gills with the truth, but here… these words are like a thunderbolt! The thicker the shadows, the more even the dimmest light stands out.
Like a solemn appeal, a crystal-clear guitar solo rings out, suddenly piercing the quiet night air. There is real significance in that moment.
Our performance was greatly appreciated by the event organizers. All the bands in attendance (even though they were better-known than us) had a 5 minute interview on an independent radio station (a bit pro-anarchist). We, on the other hand, got to talk for half an hour on air.
There’s nothing special about shining your light amidst all the other lights.
However, the darker the shadows, the more helpful even the tiniest light.