Doug tried to get the band to go back to how they were before Geoff had come along, but Larry wasn’t the only one no longer interested. The first gig they played that summer was packed, as expected, but when Geoff didn’t come out on stage, the audience actually started booing halfway through their first song. Doug’s vocals simply couldn’t compare to Geoff’s, no matter how much he wanted to try to convince himself otherwise.
Bookings began to drop. The crowds petered out. By the middle of June, they were back to playing the same crappy dives they’d been at the year before, crooning to the same handful of regulars sloshed around the bar, ignored more than the jukebox. No one bustled or shoved each other for room in front of the stage anymore. No one lined up after the show in the hopes of s
