You punch with your love

You’ve been in this stinking town for a month and nothing has gone right. That ‘perfect job’ turned out to be a bait-and-switch, the ‘quaint’ apartment wound up being right above a couple who can’t stay quiet whether they’re fighting or making up. Don’t even get started on the weather in this place – the cold saps the energy from your bones and the rain can’t decide if it wants to slice the skin off your flesh or make you stew in the filth that runs down these streets. The last thing that seemed like a good idea was wandering into a dark bar and finding a bottle of the darkest, strongest liquor you could find.

A few slugs later a band takes the stage and your eyebrow goes up a notch. Who are these guys? That dark backbeat has the whole place on edge but not in the usual ‘looking for a fight’ way. The guitar screams out while the singer croons a venomous love song and suddenly men and women who’d just as soon throw a bottle than look at each other are tapping their feet. This isn’t Hell’s house band but there’s a red gleam in their eyes. The chugging syncopation groans on and you realize you’re not alone in your misery. When they finish up less than an hour later you tell the bartender to buy the band a bottle of whatever they’re drinking but he tells you not to bother – folks have been lining up to drink with them since after the third song.

Rose - Fists And Hands