ECG -Chapter 45 An Impromptu Performance at the Bar

Lin Hao returned to Wu Xiaozhou and the others’ table. Wu Xiaozhou gave a lewd little grin. “How was it?”

Lin Hao really wanted to punch him right on his tall, straight nose. What kind of question was that? It sounded as if he had gone up there and done something.

But… well, thinking about it now, Fourth Sister really was charming. Mature, cool!

Yes, that was the word—cool!

It wasn’t that Fourth Sister wasn’t pretty.

Fourth Sister was very beautiful. Her face was about seventy percent similar to a female celebrity with the surname Fan from his previous life. A melon-shaped face and big eyes—she perfectly fit modern beauty standards.

But there was something extra about Fourth Sister. It wasn’t a worldly or flirtatious air, but rather a kind of jianghu aura!

It was the kind of bold and straightforward temperament that came from years of being tempered by society and experience.

Looking at Bai Zhitao singing on stage, Lin Hao’s eyebrows furrowed slightly again.

This girl was going to ruin her voice if she kept singing like this. The song she was singing right now simply didn’t suit her.

The song had quite a wide vocal range, causing Bai Zhitao to split her voice while singing it!

The high notes came out sharp and unstable, the middle range maintained her own style, but the low notes couldn’t sink down at all.

One song had split into three different vocal tones.

Although her pitch was accurate, causing the ordinary customers below to think she sounded quite good, to Lin Hao’s ears, it was unbearable.

When the band took a break between sets, the keyboard player said something into Bai Zhitao’s ear. Before long, Bai Zhitao brought the four members of the band over.

“Lin Hao, let me introduce you to our band!” Bai Zhitao had a smile on her face, but there was clearly a trace of helplessness in it.

Lin Hao didn’t mind at all. This sort of thing was perfectly normal.

He knew these people definitely wanted to meet him. It wasn’t only because of how well he had sung just now; more importantly, they could tell from his guitar accompaniment just how skilled he was.

The professional level of this band was obviously a notch higher than those few musicians at the Spring River Black Knight Bar. That was one of the benefits of a big city—people saw more, knew more, and naturally improved their skills.

“Lin Hao! Piano major at the Provincial Art Academy!” Lin Hao politely stood up and shook hands with the keyboard player.

Wu Xiaozhou, Fatty Meng, and Cui Gang also stood up.

“Keyboard player, Liu Ming!”

“Drummer, Old Hu!”

“Guitarist, Li Hongyu!”

“Bassist, Liao Kai!”

The group found a few chairs and sat around together.

Keyboard player Liu Ming was around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. His eyes weren’t very big, and he looked extremely sharp and shrewd.

“Xiaobai just said you’re a piano major?” he asked Lin Hao.

Lin Hao smiled and nodded.

“Damn!” Guitarist Li Hongyu was a tall, thin guy. “I thought you were a guitar major!”

The group chatted together for a while. Then keyboard player Liu Ming said, “Why don’t you guys go up and play for a bit?”

Lin Hao hurriedly waved his hands. “No, no, I’m only a freshman. We’ve never even played together once!”

“It’s fine, just mess around a little!”

“Yeah, come on, give it a try. You’re already here!”

“……”

The band members all chimed in, trying to persuade them to go on stage.

Lin Hao knew they weren’t trying to make him embarrass himself. It was just a common thing in the music world—when musicians met other people who played music, they both wanted to test each other’s skills and also wanted to invite friends up to casually perform.

Seeing that he couldn’t refuse, Lin Hao turned to Fatty Meng and Wu Xiaozhou.

“How about the three of us go up and play for a while?”

Cui Gang had learned suona since elementary school and later switched to trumpet. At the moment, he didn’t even have an instrument he was familiar with, so there was no way for him to go on stage.

Wu Xiaozhou and Fatty Meng looked completely dumbfounded. They had never practiced together even once—what were they supposed to play?

But since Lin Hao had already said it, they could only give an awkward laugh and stand up.

The three of them walked toward the stage together.

Fatty Meng lowered his voice and gritted his teeth. “Damn, what the hell are we supposed to go up there and do?”

Lin Hao whispered, “You know funk, right?”

“Of course!” Fatty Meng was unhappy at that. Before he even entered university, he had often followed his teacher to these performance venues, and whenever he met a familiar band, he would often go up and play with them.

Although he didn’t know this group of musicians just now, if he mentioned his teacher, they would definitely know him.

Lin Hao turned his head and asked Wu Xiaozhou again, “How many bars have you practiced for Classical Thump?”

While walking toward the stage, Wu Xiaozhou scratched his head and said, “Twenty-eight bars!”

Lin Hao rolled his eyes at him. “Why are you so slow?”

“Damn it!” Wu Xiaozhou was unhappy. “I practice basic skills every damn day. I still need time to practice the actual piece, don’t I?”

The three of them had already stepped onto the stage. Lin Hao said to the other two, “Fatty, you play eight bars first by yourself, tempo 120! Then it’s Little Wu’s twenty-eight-bar bass solo, followed by my twenty-eight bars. Repeat the whole thing twice. On the last round, after I finish playing, I’ll cut it off cleanly! Count the bars properly! Got it?”

Wu Xiaozhou smiled. This made things much easier!

Fatty Meng chuckled. “Alright!”

Lin Hao walked over to the double-tier keyboard stand and glanced at it. On top was a Roland synthesizer, and underneath was a Yamaha electric piano. He directly turned on the electric piano and didn’t touch the synthesizer.

He looked up and saw that Wu Xiaozhou had already put on the electric bass. Worried that this guy hadn’t adjusted the volume knob, he gestured at him. Wu Xiaozhou grinned widely and nodded.

Then he turned his head toward Fatty Meng behind the drum kit. Seeing that he was ready, he nodded toward the sound engineer.

The music faded down.

Lin Hao nodded at Fatty Meng.

Below the stage, the four band members, Bai Zhitao, and the other two singers were all watching them seriously.

Not far away, Fourth Sister had also come down and was standing by the entrance, talking with another woman.

Many customers noticed that the band had changed and all turned their attention over.

The drums began.

Eight bars wasn’t long, especially at a tempo of 120, but the drummer Lao Hu below the stage still nodded repeatedly, sighing inwardly: Kids nowadays are incredible!

Immediately afterward, Wu Xiaozhou’s electric bass came in.

After only two bars, the bassist Liao Kai stood up. He sucked in a breath and exclaimed, “Damn! Damn!”

While he kept shouting “damn” nonstop, the keyboard player Liu Ming and guitarist Li Hongyu also looked at each other in confusion.

What was going on?

At this moment, if you closed your eyes, you would have the illusion that the performers were several Black musicians. This kind of improvisation was something they couldn’t even pull off!

Fourth Sister at the entrance was also drawn over. Her rosy lips parted slightly as she stared at the stage in surprise.

More and more customers were attracted by the strange music coming from the stage. They couldn’t understand the technical details, but they felt that this tall and handsome young man’s playing sounded really good. Watching his large hands fly up and down, he looked extremely impressive.

The twenty-eight-bar electric bass solo passed quickly. The electric piano entered precisely, and from high to low, a long string of blues notes rapidly slid down from the high register.

Then Lin Hao’s whole body began swaying. A long stream of improvised notes flowed out without pause, coming from the huge Budweiser speakers on both sides of the stage.

Some girls had already stood up, swaying along with the music. The bar seemed to have turned into a hippie carnival.

When the piano and drums stopped at the same time, the entire bar suddenly fell silent.

Then—

“Clap clap clap!”

Keyboard player Liu Ming started applauding. Immediately afterward, the other band members and singers also began clapping.

Fourth Sister didn’t understand what kind of music this was. She only felt that the rhythm was great, and seeing how Lin Hao could produce so many notes in such a short time, she was truly amazed. So she also followed along and applauded.

Only then did the people who had been immersed in the excitement come back to their senses, and applause erupted throughout the bar.

Keyboard player Liu Ming quietly asked Bai Zhitao, “They really are your classmates?”

Bai Zhitao’s eyes were also shining as she murmured, “I’m starting to doubt it myself!”

Drummer Lao Hu said, “Damn, are they from the Huaxia Conservatory of Music?”

Bassist Liao Kai let out a long breath and shook his head. “Even graduates from the Huaxia Conservatory of Music might not necessarily have this level!”

Lin Hao and the other two walked off the stage. The four members of the band applauded for them again.

Keyboard player Liu Ming said, “Little brothers, that was too short. I hadn’t even gotten enough of listening before it was over!”

Guitarist Li Hongyu also said regretfully, “Yeah! We really didn’t hear enough!”

Lin Hao chuckled. “Just a little casual fun. We’ll exchange ideas more often in the future!”

The male singer glanced at his watch, walked over, and said to keyboard player Liu Ming, “Brother Ming, it’s time.”

Liu Ming looked a little regretful. “We’re going back up. Little brothers, if you have time, you must come and play often!”

Wu Xiaozhou smiled. “Definitely!”