Rock Band Rendezvous

Monday 14 Apr 2008

All you need is Rock Band

The story began a long time ago when Brad proclaimed amidst a fury of gaming that ‘All you need is Rock Band.’ Since that enlightening day he began to count down the days to the game’s release, eagerly lapping up every morsel of information the developers chose to throw his way. Suffering in PAL-land, he decided that his addiction could wait no longer. Spurred on by Wayne’s somewhat fortunate procurement of the game, he began to search earnestly for someone to lug the 7kg parcel from North American shores.

Now, although Wayne had secured a copy of the elusive Rock Band, it was still stuck across a vast ocean and so he sat for many months pining away in anticipation of the great day. Meanwhile, with the terms of the bribes finally agreed upon, Brad’s probe had returned successfully with his copy of the goods.

And so it was that we began our journey down Rock Band’s melodious path. Many evenings and mornings were spent rocking out to the many different tracks, including the somewhat controversial ‘Green Grass and High Tides.’ However, not all were as fortunate as us, many had just gazed in wide-eyed wonderment at pictures of the game and imagined how it would feel to sit behind the drums or simply rock in a band. We being the kind souls who we are decided to round up the troops and give others the chance to take Rock Band for a whirl. And so we arrived at the Rock Band Rendezvous.

Lights, drum roll, action

The stage was set, instruments primed and fans … well umm we had them all ranging from 5 weeks to 30 years. Mark decided to rock out with style and arrived sporting a Mohawk – it’s going to be hard to beat this next time so you better get the wheels turning now. Thanks for adding a little bit of razzle dazzle to the evening, even if you did break the tap!

Brad brought his rock band set over so we were lucky enough to have two sets of drums, two guitars and two mics. In Rock Band you can face off against another person with the same instrument, the drum offs proved to be the most popular. Truth be told after seeing Mark set the guitar on fire with his dazzling display of musical genius on expert mode, there wasn’t anyone in the room looking for a playoff.

Since we didn’t always have a willing participant to sing, Peter decided to multitask. We had tried this technique on a previous occasion where it soon became apparent that Harmonix had not included a vital piece of equipment – a microphone stand. Well luckily we live in Africa and in Africa ‘a Boer maak a plan’ so Dawid hooked us up with a mic, South African style. It worked a charm.

Hall of Fame

Thanks to everyone’s contribution on our road to the Hall of Fame. Brad’s l33t drumming skills combined with Mark’s smoking guitar solo’s saved us, Ricky and Aaron’s sweet bass tunes set the tone while Dawid, Wayne and Pete were our all round supporters, jumping between instruments to keep the show on the road. One thing is for sure, we put that Abba party down the road to shame.

They say the proof is in the pudding and man the pudding was lekker. The same can be said for Rock Band and Brad has proved to be some sort of modern day prophet with his saying ‘All you need is Rock Band’ ringing true. If you can call in a few favours and hang on to your soul in the process then do whatever you need to get this game now. It is only getting better with more songs being released for download pretty soon.