Chapter 280 - 280: 280 | Conor's Show (2)

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Overdrive by Ofenbach, Norma Jean Martine>

...

The roar that followed from the crowd made Conor stop halfway down the riser.

He had heard arenas scream every night for nearly a month.

He was used to the sound. But it had never felt this way to him.

Conor reached the stage floor and Von extended his hand toward him. He grabbed it, expecting a normal handshake, only for Von to pull him forward and raise his arm into the air like he had just won a fight.

The crowd became even louder.

Conor couldn't stop smiling.

"You asshole," he muttered, although his microphone wasn't active yet.

Von laughed and released him.

Conor looked over the arena, took a breath, and brought the microphone toward his mouth.

"I honestly don't know what the hell I'm supposed to say right now."

The crowd laughed and he shook his head with a nervous smile.

"Some of the people I used to play with are actually somewhere in here tonight, and I know for a fact they're going to roast the shit out of me after this."

Several people screamed from the lower bowl. Conor pointed vaguely in their direction.

"Yeah, especially you motherfuckers."

Another wave of laughter rolled across the arena.

"But seriously, this means a lot."

His eyes moved toward Von. "And I need to thank this idiot too."

Von raised an eyebrow.

"If he had his way, I'd apparently be standing here pretending I'm a real artist now."

"You are a real artist," Von replied into his mic.

Conor stopped. The simple response caught him completely unprepared.

For a second, there wasn't a joke to make. Von shrugged like he hadn't said anything special.

"Play your song."

Conor stared at him before slowly smiling.

"Alright."

He turned around and jogged back toward his drum riser while Von moved off toward the secondary microphone beside it.

Alex remained on the opposite platform with his electric guitar, waiting for the lighting crew to finish clearing the bright stage wash.

The arena slowly went dark.

A clean guitar progression came from Alex first, soft enough that the crowd naturally quieted to hear it.

A spotlight settled over Conor behind the drums, and after tapping his sticks together lightly, he leaned toward the microphone positioned beside his kit.

His voice entered almost immediately.

It was rougher than Von's and carried a slight rasp, but it fit the song perfectly. Conor kept the opening drums restrained, using the kick and rim of the snare beneath Alex's guitar while the first verse moved through the strange emptiness someone left behind when they were no longer around.

By the chorus, a few more instruments had joined them.

🎸♪

Please come and wake me if I'm reaching in my sleep

My head keeps making ghosts from every space you leave

When I can't see the shoreline, would you pull me back to me?

So scared that when you're gone

You'll forget what we could be

Are you still there with me?

🎸♪

The melody was easy enough to follow, and several people near the barricade were already swaying along despite hearing it for the first time.

Von entered later.

His section began just as Conor pulled the drums back again, leaving Alex's guitar exposed beneath his voice.

🎸♪

I'd keep on running if you'd let me

When I lose my way

Would you turn me 'round?

Photographs of everyone I loved still line the walls

Like proof they once were here at all...

🎸♪

As Von finished his part, the arena became noticeably quieter, with hundreds of phones held almost motionless in the air as [Resonance (A)] carried the emotion behind his voice through the crowd.

Conor came back in for the next chorus.

His snare cracked through the arena, Alex switched into a distorted guitar tone, and the soft opening arrangement suddenly became a driving alternative-rock record.

Conor kept singing while hammering the drums and his voice occasionally got rough whenever he pushed the louder notes.

Near the end, every instrument dropped out at once and the stage went black.

Conor's drumsticks cracked together four times in the darkness, and on the fourth count, the entire lighting rig fired white.

Alex's guitar ripped back into the song, Conor slammed into the final chorus and Von joined him from beside the riser.

The floor crowd immediately started jumping, and by the time the hook repeated, thousands of people had already picked up enough of it to shout along.

🎸♪

So scared that when you're gone

You'll forget what we could be

Are you still there with me?

🎸♪

Conor pulled away from his microphone on the final line.

"ARE YOU STILL THERE WITH ME?!"

The crowd screamed it back.

A grin spread across his face as he immediately crashed into the final drum sequence, while Alex played the guitar melody over him until both instruments landed on one sharp ending.

Blackout.

Conor stood behind his kit, breathing heavily and laughing as the cheers continued. Before long, a chant started somewhere near the floor and quickly spread into the surrounding sections.

"CONOR! CONOR! CONOR!"

He shook his head in disbelief before leaving the kit and walking toward the front of the stage.

Von met him there with Alex.

"Alright, calm down before my ego becomes impossible to manage," Conor joked into the microphone.

That only earned another wave of cheers.

He waited for it to settle.

"When You Leave the Room. Conor Prince featuring Von Varley and Alex Hall."

Conor glanced between both of them.

"And because apparently nobody around me understands the concept of waiting..."

Von laughed behind him.

"...it's coming out tonight."

The arena erupted again.

---

The release was pushed live shortly after the show ended.

Conor didn't notice immediately because he was still in the shower when his phone started vibrating nonstop across the locker-room bench.

When You Leave the Room had barely gone live, yet clips from the performance were already spreading across TickTock and Photogram with the official streaming link attached beneath them.

Max had uploaded one of the first clips from the side of the stage.

{CONOR PRINCE JUST TOOK OVER SEATTLE 😭🔥}

Another notification appeared near the top of Conor's screen.

[Mum: Clara says she found your song 😂❤️]

Conor smiled and saved the message before locking his phone.

Across the locker room, Alex was still arguing with Max over which clip had the best audio, while David had already started reminding everyone about the next day's departure.

Conor leaned back against the locker, still smiling to himself.

Seattle had gone pretty damn well.