Being a computer gamer for 20 years, it was hard for me to try console gaming.  The only reason I did was because of the game Rock Band.  You see, I hold poker tournaments all the time.  One of the problems is that when someone goes out of a tournament, they get kind of bored waiting around for the next game, so most times they end up leaving.  Well, during one game, a friend brought over his PS2 and his Rock Band game.  Once people started going out, they would pile up on the Rock Band game and just have a ball.

Last Septemenber (2008), I won a poker game and took home $390.  The next day, I went to Walmart and bought a PS3 and the full Rock Band game.  You know…when you bring down that kind of scratch, you can afford to spend it on the toys.  LOL Anyways, every time a game is held at my house, when people get busted out of the poker game, they head for the Rock Band game.

Since the purchase, generally around once a week, my friend that got me started on the game would come over and we would jam into the night.  He’s really good on the drums.  It took me awhile, but I’m just now starting to delve into the expert settings on Guitar and Drums (9 months later).  Well, last night we decided that we would both play on expert and redo some of the songs on the tour that our band (Knuckle He4ds) started a few months back.  After playing a couple of the tunes, we were holding our own pretty good.  Charlie was in the high 90% range, and I was floating around the high 80% to low 90% range.  Mostly, we were getting 5 stars, but there were a few that we only got 4 stars.  My fault really.  My fingers on my left hand don’t move as fast as they did 20 years ago.

Anyhow…we get to this mystery set where we only know the last song.  We figure what the heck…we’re doing okay.  Getting a bit tired, and my fingers are getting sore, but hey…lets rock it!  I don’t even remember what the first song was, but we knocked it out okay.  The second song starts after only a few seconds break.  The song was “Burn You Down” by Opiate for the Masses.  I think it’s a great song, even though I don’t know it very well.  I love the beat of it though.

I found some YouTube videos of it, so check it.  The first one is the Guitar version, and the second is the Drum version.

Now as you can see, this looks like a relatively simple song to play.  Well…better put…for expert mode, this is NOT the hardest song to play.  But you have to picture two middle-aged guys trying to be rock stars here. That alone is just funny to imagine.

One other thing that you have to understand is that I love to laugh and I laugh at pretty much anything.  I’m just huge goof-ball.  So now to put this in perspective for you. 

Her we are playing as best we could on this song.  Since I’m on the guitar, if you watched the videos, you know I have some dead time during the song.  So I periodically clance over at Charlie to watch him bang on the drums.  I do this for two reasons.  I watch how he does it so that I can improve on my drumming, AND I get a good chuckle watching him get a little panicy in the hard parts.  Of course, this causes me to miss some notes every now and then, but it’s worth it to get a good laugh.

Anyways, here we are just doing our best to knock this song out.  I’m diggin the song, and think I have a good read on the “chords”.  We’re coming to the end of the song, and out of the corner of my eye, I get a glimps of Charlie just going to town.  As stated before…this makes me laugh.  Then he yells out “GOLD!  WE GOT GOLD!”  Gold?!  I couldn’t believe it

Now I’m laughing…causing me to miss notes, but not caring too much since we got Gold, and the song is just about done.  Well, I screwed up enough at the end to where I died two notes before the song was over.  We still got the gold, as I wasn’t dead long enough for the band to fail the entire song.  But this had me laughing even more.

I turn at look at Charlie, and he has this big ass grin on his face and throws up his hand for a High-5.  Well, I’m tired and sweaty…my fingers hurt…and at this point, I’m laughing pretty hard while still in shock that we actually got gold stars.  So I twist and swing for the high-5!  Well…I missed, and then fell face first into the back of the recliner that was behind me.

Yep.  That is totally a Hendo moment, right there.  I was in the shower this morning getting ready for work and started giggling about it all over again.  Tonight, we’re going to go for it again.  Hopefully this time, I wont die at the end OR do a face plant on the furniture.

Poker Players:  Evelyn Ng is a kick-ass Rock Band guitarist.  Check out her YouTube videos.  I plan on catching up to her one day.  Also I know Andy Bloch likes to play the Drums.  It would be cool if  Evelyn and Andy would get together and Charlie and I can play against them in Rock Band.  Two poker pros against two poker amateurs…battling it out on Rock Band.  How cool would that be.  LOL

Rock on, peeps!

Hendo

P.S.  Since I have the two video’s linked here, I’d also like to give one for the actual band singing the song.  Check it!