[PROLOGUE] ROXI: (Speak alone; smoky Nordic voice, delighted and bossy.) So! All of you with the yellow bands— Get out of there and get up HERE! Come by the side steps. Leave each other room. Let's show the rest of these bitches the view. VIP? WIP? Fuck the spelling. Let's make the noise before we name it. [INTRO] [JILL]: (Electric bass alone; gritty two-bar slap riff in E, 114 BPM; rest on the final beat.) [MILFRED]: (Modern acoustic drum kit enters; tight kick, snare ghost notes, open-hat pickups. Keep that final-beat gap.) [SEPHYR-GLEN]: (Concert grand enters; low boogie figures alternate with sharp upper chords.) [LIZ]: (A diatonic blues harmonica enters; short E-blues riff above the bass, then a rising wail.) ROXI: (Overdriven electric guitar enters; muted scratches, clipped chords. Play sixteen bars before the vocal.) [VERSE 1] ROXI: (Clean rap; smoky bite, quick internal rhymes. Guitar punctuates the gaps.) Yellow on your wrist, little twist in the seating, Same old heart with a brand-new view of the beating. From out there: thunder. From up here: strings, A hand on a cable and a hundred little things. No peeing, no peeping, no piss-taking tonight— Turn around, you gorgeous things. Look out into the light. Loved us, hated us, came to see what we'd do? Now all those lovely faces are looking back at YOU. [CHORUS] ROXI: (Punchy sung hook; leave one bar for each reply.) What does it look like? ONSTAGE CROWD: (Shout on beats one and three.) Different! Up here! ROXI: (Sing toward the room.) What does it feel like? FLOOR CROWD: (Answer on beats one and three.) Good! Down here! ROXI: (Sung, gritty and playful.) Matter, matter, matter— Let that little word get feet. All this very important business With its ass inside the beat. [BREAK] ROXI: (Mute guitar; speak over the riff.) Yellow bands! Tell Jill what you need. ONSTAGE CROWD: (Shout together.) MORE BASS! [JILL]: (Eight-bar bass lead; double-thumb flurries, octave pops, low slides. Displace the riff by an eighth note, then land back on one.) [MILFRED]: (Follow the displaced accents with kick and rim; snare backbeat stays clear.) [SEPHYR-GLEN]: (Move piano entirely upward, answering the bass with bright descending octaves.) [LIZ]: (Harmonica repeats one bent-note figure in the bass rests.) ROXI: (Guitar joins the harp figure, stretches it into a wide bend, then releases a fast descending run.) [VERSE 2] ROXI: (Near-spoken singing; clipped guitar chords.) See the room reflected in the lacquer, Hear the little click before the great big clatter. Jill turns round—there goes another low-end grin. Nobody told the ceiling what we'd bring in. Keep your own name. Keep your own crooked style. No need to love us just to stand here for a while. If the letters come unstuck, let the letters hit the floor— We've got people in the picture that weren't in it before. [FINAL CHORUS] ROXI: (Full smoky alto; guitar hard on the offbeats.) What does it look like? Different! Up here! What does it feel like? Good! Down here! ROXI: (Sing, stretch the last line.) Matter, matter, matter— Let that little word get feet. Very important? Work in progress. Still got room inside this beat! [OUTRO] [JILL]: (Final two-bar bass riff; end with a short low E.) [MILFRED]: (Double the riff's accents; dry snare on its final note, then stop.) [SEPHYR-GLEN]: (Double the final riff in piano octaves; damp on its last note.) [LIZ]: (Harmonica answers the riff once, ending with the final E.) ROXI: (Guitar doubles the final riff; choke its last chord.) ROXI: (Speak into the silence, warmly amused.) Funky good Gods. Now THAT's a view. [END]
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