Page 48 of His Sound
12Rebellion || Arcade Fire
JP
“Hold it like that,Matt. Yeah, right there.”
Matt fiddles with the stick while I twist a few buttons. I’m up against a wall in the storage room, cursing and panting as we try to get themauditthing to work for the hundredth time.
I swear this is not what it looks like.
“Okay, hold it...Hold it...And...Yes!”
The Pac-Man theme song starts echoing through the room.
Matt steps back and bursts out laughing. “Shit. I can’t believe youmadethis. It’s like, so fucking stupid, but so fucking good.”
I’m standing inside a big yellow wooden box held up by straps over my shoulders. The box is made to look like a Pac-Man arcade game, complete with a controller, a playing screen, and a slot for putting coins in. The realcoup de grace? The screen is really my laptop, housed inside the box and attached to the controller, so you can actually play the Pac-Man game.
After I finished building the box part, I burnt a bunch of holes in it and filled them with fake flames made from pieces of Nylon, plus some hidden LEDs and mini fans, so they glow and wave around like they’re actually burning.
It’s a fire.
At an arcade.
I’m Arcade Fire.
I know, I know. I’m a genius.
“You ready to make your grand entrance?” Matt asks me. “Should I do some kind of announcement?”
“Just get them to play ‘Rebellion,’” I order.
He goes back to the party, and a minute later I hear the start of the band’s hit song. The whole room either claps, cheers, or groans when I walk out, Pac-Man music blasting just loud enough to be heard over the speakers. A space is cleared for me in the middle of the dance floor, and I do a little line dancing shuffle—it’s the only move I can do in a giant wooden box—before Matt rushes up, pops a quarter in, and shows the crowd that the game actually works.
Everyone goes back to dancing or chatting once the song switches. I keep shuffling around on the dance floor, fist-bumping people and letting them have a go at the game. You don’t actually need to put a quarter in to play, but I keep that to myself. I could end this night a rich man.
“This is hilarious!”
Molly appears in front of me, beaming. She’s got makeup on—lipstick and some other stuff that makes her eyes look all smoky and sexy. I spot her nametag and figure the costume out right away.
“I love Wheatus!” I shout over the noise. “We have to make them play that soon, okay?”
She nods, and I take in the rest of her outfit: ripped up t-shirt, skin tight pants, and those socks with the stripes on top that girls are always wearing in porn for some reason. She’s holding a beer in one hand, and in the other she’s clutching Paul’s.
Fucking Paul. He’s not even paying attention to our conversation. His head’s rolling around to the beat of the music, and he’s smiling at nothing while he stares around the room. The dude is tanked.
Molly’s reaching for her wallet to pull a quarter out when he seems to come back from the Land of the Drunken and tugs on her hand.
“Let’s dance! I love this song!”
She giggles. “You say that about every song.”
“Ireallylove this song! Please? We have to dance.”
Molly gives me a helpless look, and he leads her away until I can’t see them through the crowd anymore. I don’t really feel like dancing after that.
I find Cole lurking in a corner of the room, as usual. He’s got one foot propped against the wall, a bottle of Rickard’s in hand. I line myself up next to him. He gives my costume a glance, and I see his lip twitch. In Cole’s world, that counts as a smile.
“Having fun?” I ask.
