Byline Chelle LaFleur: Temple of the Book

Have you been over to Rhian’s poetry train? Have you jumped on???

Have you joined Dewey’s comment game?

Are you ready for my summer reading contest???

Now, on to what you’re here for. The fiction.

Now, you readers know that ol’ Chelle LaFleur can bang her big fat head with the best of them. And you readers know that ol’ Chelle LaFleur can rock out with the best of them. That’s why Chelle LaFleur is so much more than just a music critic.

Chelle LaFleur’s gotta earn her keep at this here Trumpet newspaper, and so Chelle got to go out one night and check out Temple of the Book, one of those three-man, acoustic bands where all the members wear their brown hair pulled back in ponytails and they all have John Lennon glasses on. The whole audience would be pale-skinned or else would be all dredlocked up. I just knew it.

Has Chelle told you lately that she’s the world’s stupidest journalist? Has she?

Temple of the Book is three dudes, yeah. They’re not all acoustic, they don’t wear ponytails and the only glasses were the ones they were drinking their beer out of. And they rock. Hard. Geoffrey, the guitarist, might be able to out head-bang some of you regulars, and that’s no joking on Chelle’s part.

I may have been the only dark face in the crowd, but don’t think people don’t know who Chelle LaFleur is. I been to lots of shows and seen lots of bands and that was the first time I got a shout-out from the band onstage. Well, okay, there was that time that the ShapeShifter boys started asking if I was there, but that was different. This was a band who was glad to see ol’ Chelle, and who said they played harder ’cause I was there. I don’t think praise gets no better than that.

The shame of all of this is that, typical of this city, no one came to see Temple of the Book. There were about thirty of us there. What’s the matter with you people? Are you really dumb enough to think that our music clubs will stay open if no one shows up at them? Do you think these bands can make it and make a new name for the city without your support?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it can be hard to figure out what sort of music a band plays. Some of them don’t do themselves any favors, picking those brainy names that makes them sound like they should be wearing John Lennon glasses. But don’t a night checking out a new band beat that tired old TV show you didn’t want to watch in the first place?

You rockers ought to get over yourselves and check this band out. Three guys: one guitar, one bass, one drummer. The bass player sings some of the smartest, most with-it lyrics I’ve heard. I know this first-hand not just ’cause I heard them, but because they wrote some of them down for me. Look here:

You say you mean it
You back it up with actions
And when push comes to shove
You push right on back

That’s from the song called Braveheart. Yeah, it was a movie or tall tale or something. But think about it. Think what it’s saying in today’s world. You gonna let yourself be pushed around and made to live a life you don’t want to live? You know how tired I am of hearing you people whine because someone’s pushing on you and not letting you have your own way. Well, here’s your power. Take it and make some changes already ’cause Chelle’s sick of hearing the whining.

You heard it first, and you heard it here. Temple of the Book. Check them out.