"Slapdash Superior Sells Its Soul"

"I don't care how much the gig pays, the point is that is not how the song goes"
"Aw, come on Sal"
Salinger's face is a stone, "No"
"It's not like the whole arrangement needs to be revamped or nothing' like that or the chorus is cut out or anything. It's tiny. Small. Minute. Miniscule, even. It's so small a cut the audience will hardly notice at all"
"I'd notice"
Indie decides then to try and help him out.
"Fiver's right, Sal. It is only for one night, man. Just one performance, just one performance with one change and we're done. Finished. We'll never, ever have to do anything to the song again, ever. I promise you, man. They only want us to change one word"

That only makes things worse.

"Oh, well, of course now they just want us to change one word. But what if it turns out they like us? Hell, Indie, what if those self-imposing glass-eyed pricks sitting in the 'new improved' Blu Fox love us? In fact, what if they love us so much they invite us back next week? And the next two weeks after that? And what happens when we get so damn popular that those pricks invite their prick mothers who suddenly decide they don't sit too well with the implications and innuendo that go with 'Ozdust in Merryweather'? What happens when the few little words get snipped out of the picture and even that's not enough? What if they tell us to cut 'Ozdust' out of the whole set? Huh? Will we do that too"
"Dude, chill. Just ease off for a second, Sal, nothing like that's going to happen"
Our lead leans back on the dilapidated chesterfield, and regards Indigo coolly. "Oh. Really. Is that so? Is. That. Fucking. So?" his smooth singing voice eerily calm.

"Yeah," Cyprus puts in. It's the first word I've ever really heard him say above a whisper, "Yeah, as a matter of fact that is fuckin' so." This seems to finally make Sal calm down a bit. Or, I think it does… I'm not entirely positive. I've only been with Slapdash Superior for a couple of weeks, and I don't really know Salinger to well, but I assume he's calm. His teeth aren't clenched together anymore and there's no more murder in his eyes. The band waits for him to say something.
He doesn't.

After a few minutes of silence, Indigo tries again, "It really is for one night, guys. It won't hurt the song and it won't hurt our integrity. We change one word for one night and we'll never have to do it again. Really"
"But we'll still have done it all the same. Salinger's got a good point; I mean, when we all got together, when we really put Slapdash together we promised that we wouldn't sell out. That we would keep our stuff pure an' untouched by outsiders an' suits an' all those other asshats so our stuff would always be our stuff"
"It will still be our stuff, Fiver. It'll be a bit different, but I'll still be ours"
"Remember Red Knight, guys," Jovi puts in. "Think way back to when they first came on the scene with 'Kerosene', way, way back in 2015, anyone remember that? Think about what they sounded like way back then, remember what the songs said, what those songs meant? "Now, you guys, think of what Red Knight's like now. Think of what they're like now as they appear on R2R and Switch and The Colfax Show. They switched up styles on their sophomore album, then their lyrics softened up, and then they changed into the very thing they used to fight against"
"That won't happen to Slapdash"
Jovi looks at her brother with sad, shivery eyes, "How do you know"
"Because. It can't if we don't let it"
Salinger frowns at the ceiling, as if it's the one solely responsible for this whole mess, "I don't like it"
"Sal. We need this gig. Badly"
"You mean we need the coin from this gig badly"
"If you want to be pedantic about it, yeah, we do. Unless you've found another club in New Danforth willing to pay us enough to keep us alive, we honestly don't have much choice"
For a bit, Salinger's silent again. Then, he shifts his position, so that now only one boot rests on the table, fingers intertwined as he gazes up at his band mates. Sal talk for 'It's decided'. "Dammit, Indie's right. It sucks… it really sucks, but he's right"
Indigo nods, relived and looks about the shabby room, "So it's settled then? We play the Blu in three days"
No objections.
"Really, it'll be alright. It's just for one night. Just one night. One change. Just one."

"Let's hope so."