Daughtry - “Life After You”

  We kick things off with some woman standing in the fading sunlight, staring at a hill, then cut to Chris walking back to his hotel, where he proceeds to work on his new song. He strums his guitar and sings to us for a while (because rock stars always have cameramen in their hotel room, it’s some type of rule). We then see him calling someone, presumably the sunlit woman. She doesn’t answer, so Chris goes back to singing.

  After a bit, he marches out of his room and down the hall, with the camera positioned just right so we can see he’s wearing a lot of hardware around his neck and that some of the buttons on his shirt seem to have malfunctioned. For whatever reason, Chris purposely runs down the cameraman, so you know there were union meetings after that mess.

  Next we see Chris and the gang piling off their tour bus, with Chris being played by Vin Diesel in this scene. Another shot of Sunlit Woman gazing out the window and still avoiding communication opportunities that might arise. It’s possible that she’s just out of range and is unaware that Chris would like to reach out and touch, but really, where is “out of range” these days? Other than places where people watch Fox News and actually believe what they are seeing.

  Chris and peeps are back on the tour bus, with everyone looking bored even though a camera is shoved in their faces. See, it’s the “touring” part of touring with a band that would make me crazy. I don’t want to be in a rolling breadbox where people can’t actually ever go away and leave me alone. My band would never have a second show.

  Next we have the band folks trooping into a bar, where Chris sings some more and continues to diddle with his phone. (Sunlit Girl doesn’t answer, because we’re not even halfway through the song and she has plenty of time to be coy.) Frustrated, Chris leaves the bar and goes to the next gig with his band, which just happens to be next door.

  Okay, maybe “gig” was too strong of a word. We’re in a big warehouse with no actual audience, but this doesn’t stop everybody from pulling out their instruments and fingering them. They play for a while, with the band members pretending that they can’t see the camera people rolling equipment between their legs, trying to get a good shot.

  This goes on for a while, because this is the part of the song where Chris really gets into the vocals, and it just wouldn’t be right for us to cut away to meaningless stock footage of people eating burritos or scantily-clad hookers flashing their dripping crevices whilst hand-washing a car that wasn’t all that dirty to begin with. As usual, Chris hits all the notes and, as usual, it looks like it is really painful for him to do so.

  Quick, confusing shot of someone possibly poking a reclining Chris with a drumstick. I’m sure I’m reading more into that than necessary.

  Sunlit Girl is now in her bedroom, looking dissatisfied.

  Now we have Chris and the boys getting ready for a real concert, doing the group hug thing backstage. The fraternizing is disrupted when Chris’s phone lights up. Oh? Yep, it’s Sunlit Girl, really tired of eating alone in restaurants and not having anybody to argue with about what the last episode of “Lost” really meant. Chris grins and takes the call.

  We wind things down with Chris all elated as the boys grab their gear and head out on the stage. See, folks? Everything will work out in the end if you just write a song about it and go on tour. It’s that simple.


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