I Rock

This weekend I finally got a chance to try my hand at drumming for rock band, much to the excitement of a drunk gaggle of nerds and video game aficionados at a BBQ. Most everyone was proficient at using the guitar controller, but not so much the drums. I had previously attempted Guitar Hero a couple times before but failed pretty badly, so I was a little hesitant to try out the drum version due to everyone hyping my percussive abilities, and generally I'm not really a video game person. Rock Band is a pretty simple premise - you have guitar, bass, drums, and a singer, or combinations of said instruments, and each player is rated in percentage by accuracy. You can fail a song by missing cues or playing too many notes, and your bandmates can save you up to 3 times.



After watching a few friends mangle some drum solos and attempt to keep time with flashing colored bars, I was coaxed to try it out. I can't remember the first song we played, as I didn't know it, but it was on medium difficulty. But I got through it with 76% accuracy! I think we then proceeded to play Boston and Aerosmith, which I played with about the same accuracy, and somehow managed to impress people. I complained about my wanting to play too many notes, and they decided to test me on Expert mode - so I played the Pixies song "Wave of Mutilation", which I know pretty well. This time, I played solo - and got a round of applause afterwards as I completed with out screwing up entirely. I also got comments on my ability to play lightly and not drown everyone out with the loudness of the plastic pads - go me for technique!

Overall, Rock Band is definitely a video game, and I don't know if I can really get into it, but it's fun and I'll play it again. Playing rock band will not teach you anything about music but the basics of rhythm, though I assume once people don't have the flashing colored bars it might be hard to keep tempo. Well, at least I impressed people enough that they've vowed to come see me play real drums when I have gigs : P