Not All Jokes Are Funny [TDK Joker]

So the week sped by.
Friday night.
The lights on the building were lit up, revealing it for what it was.
Jitters filled my stomach, like usual.
It's not like there was anything to worry about.
A club run by a mob boss, it had to be safe. Nothing could go wrong.
Oh, nothing could go wrong.
It was a little after 10:30. We were going on at 11.
The line to enter into the club stretched down the rest of the sidewalk and hugged the corner.
Jasper went to the bouncer, which then called a group of equiptment set up guys to help us with our shit.
Atticus was bubbling with excitement, not new. Emilio and Matt were discussing beats, arguing which would sound better, what with the area surrounding the stage, also not new.
The only person that seemed out oforder was Luka. He sat on the curb pulling out the loose threads of the hole in his jeans, humming a melodic tune.
He was usually going through a mental list of things that could go wrong, and thinking of easy "Plan B"s.
That meant he would usually act like a paranoid crack addict for atleast a half hour.
This...serene... thing is ridiculously annoying.

"Luke! Dollyface!" I sang as a I sat down next to him, untying my knee-high blackJimmy Choocombat boots. There was definitely something in my shoe. It was annoying. I turned the boot over to dump outwhatever foreign contents were in there.
He looked over at me and smiled.
Yep, definitely something wrong. No smiles until the show starts...
"Are you ready for another night of chaos, Justine? Look at that line. I bet you the place is packed already." Luka began throwing rocks across the street, catching a few of the clubber's ankles, causing them to look around in confusion.
Jasper and a group of men emerged from behind the building.
"You okay, Luke? You're way too calm. It's freaking me out a little."
"There's not that many new things that could go wrong tonight. It's not like we haven't been doing this for a while. I have my plans filed neatly in my head."
I laughed quietly to myself.
He was right.
We've got this down to a fine art. If something breaks, we don't stop playing, we just keep going, fixing it as we play. No one notices. If someone gets hurt, they tough it out. The fans love that.
It's all about the fans.
All about what we want in a show.
Fast. Loud. Fun.
"Let's go, Matt. Open up the car. We've gotta set up shop now," Jasper's voice boomed through my head and I quickly snapped out of my glazed over state. I pulled on my boot, shoving my skinny jeans in snugly around my ankle, then lacing them back up.
Luka was up before I could pick my boot up from the ground.
I could feel the energy radiating off of everyone in the band. The jitters were replaced by a power we all felt when we performed.
And the show hasn't even started yet.
Behind the thick velvet curtains, the crowd was barely audile over the booming techno. Faint traces of the flourescent and strobe lighting was seen underneath the curtain. The metal floor clicked and clacked with the sound of equiptment being pulled and thrown upon it. Feedback from the microphones and amplifiers filled the air for a split second. Before we knew it, the techno stopped and we were introduced by a resonating voice over the sound system. The crowd greeted us with excitement as the curtains fell back.

I was the first to bounce up on stage, all smiles, all laughs.
First impressions were crucial.
Emilio took his seat behind his drum set, playing a drumroll and continued with the cymbals.
Matthew cartwheeled onto the stage and took his place to my far left.
Luka waved shyly as he trotted on stage, greeted by screaming. As he reached his keyboard a few feet from my left, he played a quick, synthesizedjingle.
Jasper, with his guitar ready in hand, belted out a few screeching notes. The girls (and some men...)went wild, howling and whistling.
Atticus, last as usual, lept onto the stage, cracked his knuckles and bent over to pick up his bright green guitar that was leaning against and amp. He took his place close to my right.
As always, he was my right-hand man.
I mean that in more ways than one.
As our warm up "protocol" went, I bantered back and forth with the audience.
"How many of you are here to party?"
A loud, yet dull mesh of yelling and clapping resounded.
This sound, this sound I loved.
"Oh really? Now... How many of you are here to just get fucked up and go home with a new... friend."

Yet another collaboration of yelling.
I laughed.
"Well, aren't you all just my type of crowd! Now... now this first song. You all better fucking dance to this. All of us!...All of us can light this place on fire!"
And the match was lit.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
As the song steadily grew into a fast paced dance beat, I noticed, as usual, more than half the crowd already knew the song.
Fans. Gotham City Fans.
The only town we ever played in was this one. Our hometown.
And my smile got wider as I scanned the crowd, dancing across the stage as I sang words that I've repeated so many times.
Atticus belted out a solo and I jumped up and down along with the crowd.
The strobe lights hypnotized my eyes and I quickly fell into the mood of the club.
Sultry and hot.
Emilio and Jasper smoothly transitioned into the second song on our set list without breaking the beat.
I danced around Atticus, his back against mine.

Spinning around to face the crowd again, my eyes traveled against the dark back wall. It was barely lit. The artificial lights didn't reach too far back.
Towards the left corner, a dozen red booths were faintly lit up by multiple candles, next to it was the bar.
Scanning my eyes to the right, almost at the corner.
A pair of black-clothed legs stood. Next to them, a pair of purple trousers.
The purple trousers had a lower waist, that which extended up into darkness.
The purple trousers and lower waist sat in a plush chair.Purple, I'm guessing, glovedhands curled on the armrests,fingers digging into the red cloth of the chair.
On the other side of the seated purple trousers and lower waist was another pair of black-clothed legs.
Next to them, more black of the the back wall.
An inkling of curiously trickled into my brain, but the currently dominant performing part of my brain refused.
I went back to seducing the crowd.