[Intro]
Stage lights
Dripping red
Velvet dust
On the dead
Rusted seats
Breathless rows
Every eye
A hollow glow (hey)
[Verse 1]
You bought a ticket to the end of me
Box office printed your destiny
Program list of every wicked scene
Cast of ghosts that live behind the screen
Exit signs are crossed out in paint
Every aisle lined up with saints
Hanging from their crooked frames
Mouths all mouthing
All my names
[Pre-Chorus]
I hear the hush crawl up the walls
I feel your pulse beneath the stalls
Curtain shakes
Like it's about to fall
[Chorus]
Welcome to the crimson curtain call
Where every wish you make becomes your fall
You wanted blood
You wanted more
Now you're nailed like props to the floor
Sing for the crimson curtain call
Applaud as I become your all
You came to watch a tragedy
Now you're written into me
[Verse 2]
Orchestra of teeth and bone
Tuning forks in broken throats
Spotlight swings a hanging arc
Halo carved from burning smoke
You clap once
The rafters creak
I bow deep
My spine will speak
Monologue in fractured tongues
Spilling out the songs I've hung
[Pre-Chorus]
I hear the hush crawl up the walls
Your shadow climbs
Then slowly falls
Paper hearts
Pinned to rotten stalls
[Chorus]
Welcome to the crimson curtain call
Where every wish you make becomes your fall
You wanted blood
You wanted more
Now you're nailed like props to the floor
Sing for the crimson curtain call
Applaud as I become your all
You came to watch a tragedy
Now you're written into me (into me)
[Bridge]
[tempo shift – lurching waltz feel]
One
Two
Three
Spiral down the balcony
Hand
In
Hand
With every buried memory
Masks all grin in porcelain rows
Crack by crack your secret shows
I trade your fear for every cheer
I feed
I bloom
I disappear (ha)
[Breakdown]
[choir and strings swell
Drums drop to half-time]
This is the scene where the mirrors erupt
Shards of your face in my open cup
Drink till you choke on the lines you rehearsed
Bleed every verse
Bleed every verse
This is the part where the crowd turns black
Eyes roll white
Never rolling back
Stand and deliver your soul on cue
I’ll swallow you
I’ll swallow you (yeah)
[Post-Breakdown]
House lights flicker
Ceiling bends
You kept watching
Past the end
Smoke writes scripture
In the air
Every letter
Spells: beware
[Chorus]
Welcome to the crimson curtain call
Where every wish you make becomes your fall
You wanted blood
You wanted more
Now you're nailed like props to the floor
Sing for the crimson curtain call
Applaud as I become your all
You came to watch a tragedy
Now you're written into me
[Outro]
[slow
Dramatic ritardando]
Take your bow
On broken knees
Final act
Is your disease
When they ask
Who wrote it all
Whisper…
Crimson curtain call (shh)