[Intro][Cold open. The crowd crowds the stage; four dry stick clicks cut through the room.]

[Spoken Word: Lead Vocal]

First night we played here, fourteen people came.
Moe counted every one.
Look at you now.

[Chorus]

Fourteen in the room, fourteen under red,
Warm cans by the monitors, raincoats overhead.
Shoulders lock the doorway; old paint shakes in tune,
Still I hear that first applause: fourteen in the room.
Fourteen in the room, with nowhere else to prove,
The floor barely trembled; it taught our feet to move.

[Verse 1]

The loading door stuck hard against the rain,
We kicked it twice and dragged inside the chain.
Two cracked amplifiers, one borrowed snare,
Fourteen folded coats on fourteen chairs.
Moe pulled the curtain past its cigarette scar,
My left hand shook before the opening bar.

[Pre-Chorus]

Four beats in, no way to retreat,
One low ceiling, one uncertain beat.
No velvet rope, no dressing-room suite,
Just fourteen strangers rising to their feet.

[Chorus]

Fourteen in the room, fourteen under red,
Warm cans by the monitors, raincoats overhead.
Shoulders lock the doorway; old paint shakes in tune,
Still I hear that first applause: fourteen in the room.
Fourteen in the room, with nowhere else to prove,
The floor barely trembled; it taught our feet to move.

[Verse 2]

Tonight the queue bends past the takeaway sign,
Old shirts, new faces, every age in line.
Door 47 keeps the same chipped blue,
FINAL SHOW is taped where rain came through.
Moe lifts his camera; the bar bell snaps,
Forty years come running when the front row claps.

[Pre-Chorus]

Four beats in, the whole floor leans,
Boots on the cables, sweat on the screens.
If this is goodbye, do not make it neat,
Let the walls go home with the mark of our feet.

[Chorus]

Fourteen in the room, fourteen under red,
Warm cans by the monitors, raincoats overhead.
Shoulders lock the doorway; old paint shakes in tune,
Still I hear that first applause: fourteen in the room.
Fourteen in the room, with nowhere else to prove,
The floor barely trembled; it taught our feet to move.

[Guitar Break][The three-note pickup passes between both amplifiers. The crowd claps slightly behind the beat.]

[Verse 3]

We left for halls with level floors,
Clean white towels and numbered doors.
Yet every chorus, wide or small,
Still checks its shoulder for this wall.
The years grew tall; the room stayed low,
It held the nerve we could not show.

[Bridge]

Brick keeps damp and timber keeps scars,
The curtain keeps smoke from the old front bar.
We came back louder, but the vow stayed true:
Give the next frightened band a room to break through.

[Final Chorus]

Fourteen in the room, fourteen under red,
Fourteen wild believers with the road ahead.
Plaster jumps in pieces; old nails hum in tune,
The first applause lives on: fourteen in the room.
Nobody starts in an arena;
A little room lets them grow into their sound.

[Audience]

Fourteen in the room!
Fourteen in the room!

[Outro][The band holds the final chord. The audience takes up the venue name.]

Lantern Room!
Lantern Room!