Gamer Superstar

Chapter 61 61 - Good strategy!

"In a concert, the best singers usually stay at the end, because if you're too good in the beginning, people have something to compare it to in the middle of the show and like who's performing less. But by the same token, having a good opening act would be a great way to improve the overall quality of the show by a huge margin. Selena told me as we got out of the car and walked to the bar.

"That would be good because I'd get everyone excited and more receptive to the next artist, right?" I asked, guessing.

"Exactly, if you've managed to get the crowd going, the next artist's job will be a lot easier, because if they can maintain their level, the crowd will be excited all night, spend more money on drinks, generate more profit for the bar owner, and have a lot more fun." Selena explained, causing me to nod in agreement.

"Hi, are you in charge of the opening show?" The man holding the door asked as he looked at Selena.

"Yes, I'm Selena Sinclair, the AJP person in charge of BlackVelvet, the artist opening tonight." She explained as she handed him her business card, causing him to nod and make room for us to pass.

Even though I was playing the opening gig now, the bar had been open for a few hours, so there were already people in the place enjoying the music from some playlist on the speakers.

When they saw me coming in with the instruments, some of the already excited people gave a celebratory shout as they raised their bodies in a toast in my direction, but that was only a small part of the crowd, the rest just carried on partying as normal, which made me better understand what Selena had said.

With a crowd like that, it would be really hard for the artist to come on stage and cheer them up as much as possible, so the ideal was to have an opening show at the beginning to warm up the crowd, get them more excited, get them drinking more, and pave the way for the main artist to come on stage and greet the audience in the best possible condition.

So my new skill will be very useful.

[Stage Presence Lv 1:

Effect: Develops a better understanding of stage presence techniques, increasing the singer's confidence and skill by 1%. This includes mastery of posture, body expression, audience interaction, and emotional control during performances. It also improves lyric retention and practical application during performances by 1%. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamentals of captivating and engaging stage presence].

Although the skill is still at level 1, considering that this is the equivalent of a month's training, it's as if I've been performing for a month and already have some experience in dealing with the public.

I wouldn't be so lost when I went on stage to interact with people, but I would still be lost if a very unusual situation arose.

But that would be a big help to me, especially in the role of the opening act.

"Hi, you're in charge of the opening act, RedVelvet, right?" A woman with a manager's badge came up to us while we were talking to Selena.

"Yes, this is 'BlackVelvet' in charge of the opening act." Selena replied, emphasizing that it was BlackVelvet and not RedVelvet.

"Right, my boss saw what happened with the Blackout Bar and was quite impressed with you, BlackVelvet, since we usually only use E-rank artists for the opening of the show and the rest are all higher rank artists, you don't have to worry about the same thing happening again and can let yourself go to the max. We're confident that the artists coming after you will be able to handle the crowd you leave behind, so don't worry. Depending on your performance, we might even give you a 20% bonus on top of your fee. said the manager with a professional smile.

Even though I got my name wrong, I realized it wasn't out of malice and smiled as I nodded, especially knowing that I could get a bonus depending on my performance.

"Okay, if you're ready, you can go on stage in 15 minutes. Our team will do the sound check for you." She said as she said goodbye and left.

"You heard her, right? Just do your best and let them deal with the consequences." Selena said with a smile, which for a second I thought was an ulterior motive, but seeing that she didn't have any other change of expression in that time, I just dismissed it as something in my head.

"Yeah, since they're so confident in their artists, I can just play like I did yesterday and have fun." I said excitedly.

It was only going to be an hour long show so I was going to have the best time.

----- Selena's POV -----

When I saw Noah concentrating on getting ready to go on stage, I was excited, even though I didn't show it.

I knew of his talent, the way he acted like an amateur at the beginning of the show last night, but for him to learn how to act on stage and interact with the audience halfway through the show, like it was not his first time doing it, showed me the potential he had for it.

I took a look at the list of artists performing tonight and Noah was indeed the only Rank E artist performing, but the artist after him was just a Rank D artist who had just moved up a rank, which wasn't that different from a normal Rank E artist.

The biggest difference between the two was the length of their experience, as this artist had been performing for over a year to reach Rank D, while Noah was performing his second solo show tonight.

But there was a big difference between them.

While the next artist was just a normal Rank D artist, Noah was no normal Rank E artist...

With Noah really letting loose tonight, he can only do 80% of what he did last night, and this next artist probably won't hold the audience.

I knew it would happen, and I think Noah thought it was possible, but I didn't confirm anything because he's already very confident and if that confidence goes to his head it will turn into arrogance, something my aunt warned me to avoid as much as possible because dealing with arrogant artists was a pain in the ass.

Even if the next artist after Noah couldn't handle the public, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

If Noah's reputation spread to all the bars in the city, it would raise his price, allowing me to charge more even though he was still an E-rank performer.

Although the bar owners wanted to lower the amount they would pay for him because of his rank, the results of Noah's performances constantly disrupting the shows of Rank D performers would show that he would command a salary at least similar to that of Rank D performers, which was great for us.

Now, whether this would affect the careers of the Rank D artists he was interrupting was not our problem.

Only the fittest survive in an artist's career, if this artist's manager had the guts to let him play after Noah, it can't be our fault. Just deal with the fact that your artist gets a higher salary than mine.

Thinking about things like that, I couldn't help but smile.

These were the things I wanted to feel, these were the challenges I wanted to face when I came to work in California.

The difference between the fight my artist was having on stage while I was fighting for him backstage was so much more fun than managing how many products to buy for my father's company...

But my thoughts were interrupted when Noah took the stage.

"Good evening everyone, I'm BlackVelvet and tonight I'm opening for Viper Poison Bar!" He said in a charismatic way while looking at the audience and adjusting the tuning of his guitar to make sure everything was perfect.

Looking around the stage, I think he was looking to see if anyone there knew him, but imitating him, I realized that no one seemed to know who he was, which was a bit sad, but something that would change in a short while.

When I looked at him, expecting to see him a little disappointed, I was surprised to see that he didn't let his disappointment show and kept a smile on his face.

"To start the show, I was debating whether to sing a standard song that everyone has to sing at opening concerts or to start the evening with one of my original songs. Currently this song has over a million views on MeTube and 300k views on Spokify, so I hope you'll give it a listen and let me know if you like it. He said smiling as he started to strum his guitar. "This song is called The Lazy Song!"

As soon as he said that, he started to play the beat of the song, which was an upbeat and cheerful tune, a good choice to start with when moving up to the bar level.

When I looked at the people around me and realized that he had managed to get people's attention, a smile appeared on my face.

Little by little, people were paying more and more attention to him, and more and more people were coming to the stage to see him play.

This was a very good performance for a rank E artist on a night when even a rank C artist was going to perform.

His strategy was very clever...

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