Rock Band at Dave & Buster's (this has turned into a novel)
Star 101.9 Radio Station set up a Rock Band Contest at Dave & Buster's, every Thursday night. I signed up for it after Jared mentioned it to me a few weeks ago.
Let me begin by saying.. I had absolutely NO IDEA it was a contest! I thought it was just all for fun, just people signing up to play around on the game. hah. silly me. I should've known if I had to REGISTER ahead of time, it must be a contest.
At first, I thought they wouldn't call me for a while because I figured there would be a ton of people applying for this thing. Someone from Star called me probably about two hours after I signed up on their website. Since I wasn't expecting this, I had already had plans for that Thursday night, so I asked if they could call me back next week or the week after.
Two weeks later (Tuesday the 3rd), they called, and once again, I had plans... but I told them that I had to be somewhere at 8pm (play at Kumu Kahua Theater). The lady, who I'll call Stargirl, said, "Oh, no problem... we'll list you as the first band. You'll start at no later than 7:05pm and as soon as you finish, you can leave." I already felt bad that I registered for this thing and had to cancel... so I said okay.
Minutes later, I thought, "Jared hasn't gotten a call yet. I wonder if he'd want to take my place?" So, I called Jared and he agreed, and I was put in as the fourth band member (even though I wasn't planning on going). Then, Jared asked if his friend Alex could take my place as the fourth member. I said sure. Not too long after this, a member of the band I was put in called me. I had to tell him someone else took my place.
Thursday arrives, and I get a call from Stargirl. She said, "Jared and Alex are forming their own band, so the other band still needs a third person." Ahhhhh.... well then... I guess I'll have to play.
I called the guy (M) who had called me on Tuesday, the one I was teamed up with, and told him that I ended up on the team anyway. M said he and the other guy (L) would be meeting up early just to get to discuss things.
I ended up picking up my mom around 4pm to run her to the bank, then off to the Ward area (where D&B's is located). We ate dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory and then walked over to D&B's. I met with M, who told me L is running late.
*** this is about the time where I found out that it's an actual contest! and that the winning band from tonight would win $100 gift card per member for D&B's, and move to the semi-finals in two weeks. The winner of the finals would get an XBOX 360 and Rock Band for each band member. ***
M said he plays guitar on Rock Band, and he can get through pretty much all the songs on the Hard level, some on Expert.
.... yeah. I'm screwed. I play a solid Medium level, but I can only whittle through Hard. Later, when L showed up, he, too, plays on the Hard and Expert level. Shit! Yeah, definitely going to be screwed. I told them, "WELL.... I'm solid on Medium, but as for Hard, I think I do better on drums than I do on bass (which is what I normally play, but I am seriously afraid of that fifth fret on there)." So it was decided that I would be playing drums.
We register with the Star crew, then sit down at a table. I look around and all the other bands (except for Jared's band) have coordinated what they were wearing (Jared said they would all wear aloha shirts, but it didn't seem that way in the end). Come to find out, M, L and I were the ONLY BAND that was thrown together. Everyone else were already a band from the very start. AND they ALL HAD FOURTH BAND MEMBERS (Jared's band had three people, but one guy was singing and playing so that counts as the fourth member). Damn it. Oh well... it's too late to back out now.
I asked the judges what the best method would be as far as scoring was concerned; is it better to have a higher percentage on a lower level, or would it be better to have a lower percentage, but on a higher level? They said the main thing is the points at the end of the song. So, naturally, if you don't complete a song, you lose all the possible points from that song. If you play on Medium level, it is your points x2. Hard level: points x3. Expert: points x4. They also add some points for presentation and audience participation. That's when I figured... squeezing by Hard will probably be better because it'll get a x3 on it.
It turned out some other band went first. That right there screwed our chance of going to the play. My mom was okay with it, because she said we can go to the play on another night. The first band played their songs on Medium level. Each band gets to pick one song to play, and two other songs would be chosen at random. They squeezed by their first song, which the singer didn't know the song at all (and I can't remember what song it was... but Jared reminded me: The New Pornographers - "Electric Version"). The second random song they got was The Hives - "Main Offender". They also squeezed by that one.
We were up next. I was nervous, but not to the point where I was going to throw in the towel. We decided to play on Hard level all the way through. M picked our first random song, which turned out to be a blank slip of paper. So he picked another................
Fuck all. Iron Maiden - "Run to the Hills". There are a few songs I fear on drums... and this was one. I know I can play it on Medium, but Hard? Most songs on Rock Band are exponentially harder between Medium and Hard. Shit. Well... stuck with it now. I was too afraid of the fifth fret for bass (and it's metal... Metal on bass = strumming-with-a-pick-fast-bass-line), so I stuck to the drums.
BIG MISTAKE! HAH! I failed. Big time. We didn't score on that song.
The second random song was R.E.M. - "Orange Crush". I'm fairly certain I can get through this song. I think someone had to save me once (on rock band, you can save a band member from failing with Star power, and you can do that three times), but then we got through that song. OK.
Our third song, the one we decided to play, was Coheed & Cambria - "Welcome Home". I'm not fond of this song, but if they know they can play it well, I will go with them on it. I got through it without dying even once. This song has a Rock Ending, where you can score extra points, and I SWEAR... the drumset sucked. I had a feeling it wasn't responding to all my notes, because I KNOW I can keep a good, steady beat. Certain parts of the other songs, it wasn't registering my notes. The Rock Ending was ruined because of notes not registering. for me. not them.
Bah.
Jared's band went up next. Let me repeat... Alex played guitar AND sang at the same time. The only way anyone should ever agree to this is if they know all the words and pitches by heart... or if you know all the guitar notes by heart. Memorized. Otherwise, you're stuck with a massive amount of multi-tasking of reading words and pitch marks and guitar tab notes. Insanity, I tell you. but they agreed to do it. Having a singer brings in even more points, so it made sense to do it.
Their first random song, on Hard, was Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps". From the start, it looked like Franklin, their drummer (Alex's brother), was having trouble with the drumset. SEE? I tell you... it was messed up! Between Franklin having trouble on the drums and Alex juggling singing and guitar, they weren't able to get through the song (and Jared could only save them so many times with his saved up star power).
Second random song, again on Hard, was KISS - "Detroit Rock City". Damn. This is almost as bad on drums as "Run to the Hills". Lots of upbeat kick drum and alternating snare-cymbals. It hurt to watch the notes stream by Franklin.. I knew his pain! Jared and Alex saved him his three times, but it wasn't enough to get through the song. Damn.. that really sucked.
Third song, of their choice... get ready... you're gonna freak out when you hear what they chose... Metallica - "Enter Sandman" on Expert. Oh man... I was afraid for them, but they were confident. Even the audience were afraid for them! They started off well. They were prepared for this, so singing and playing wasn't so hard. It's a fairly long song, and in the end.... the length of the song did them in. Franklin held on as long as he could, but alas... he died his final time, couldn't be saved... and they made it to the 95% Complete mark. 95%! Sooooo close! If they had finished... the points would've made up for the other two songs.
Fourth band went up. They were a band of three guys and one singing girl. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure she was quite tipsy when she got up there. she was all for the promotion of $3 Heineken pitchers on the mic. Anyway... their first random song was on Medium, Boston - "Foreplay/Long Time". Wow... one of the marathon songs. We knew immediately that if they could nail this, they'd rack up huge points. And they did. Shit. I thought the "Foreplay" half of the song might hurt them, since they didn't seem very familiar with the song. The girl didn't know the song, but the others were able to save her until the end. Their second random song was ... aw hell... another marathon song: The Outlaws - "Green Grass and High Tides". Anyone who has played Rock Band knows this is the song that pretty much ends the game. It's long, it's hard, and it's not an erect penis, folks... but it might as well be. Never-ending southern rock. okay, okay, so maybe it's not that hard. It certainly isn't that hard on Medium level. I can get through it on Medium with no problem (it may not be 100% score, but still). Toward the end, the bass was having trouble on this one. I think he had to be saved twice, but they just barely got to the end... and this not only a ten-minute song, but it has a Rock Ending. And they finished the song. So, yeah... lots more points.
Their third song, the one they chose was Yeah Yeah Yeah - "Maps". On Hard level. By this time, Jared and his crew left D&B's... which I was kind of glad they did. They would've ended up kicking themselves after watching this band get through the whole song.
Up next was the fifth and final band of the night. They were Quatro Chica. You can guess what gender they all were. Their attire was all coordinated (they all had the same shirt, not sure if it was a shirt with their band name on it or whatever), the drummer brought her own stool and glowing drumsticks. I brought my own sticks, but that's mainly because I didn't want to get splinters from the crappy stick that came with the drumset. They were all dolled up and ready to play. First random, Medium song: The Beastie Boys - "Sabotage". The singer was not happy about this, but they got through the song just fine. Second random, Medium song: The Outlaws - "Green Grass and High Tides". Damn them. Why couldn't we get a marathon song as one of our randoms? They started off good. Then, for some reason, the drummer didn't realize she was hitting the rim of the snare instead of the actual pad. I could HEAR her stick clinking on the rim. She kept on going like this... and ended up failing her three times, thus voiding the marathon point-getter from their final tally. Their chosen third song: The Jets "Are You Gonna Be My Guy". They're all girls, so they changed the word Girl to Guy. They played it on Medium and got through it just fine.
Now, the point counting.
And in third place.... Quatro Chica.
Second place... us. Oh yeah, we were named Fusion. We didn't get to choose our band name. Oh well, either way, we didn't get first place.
First place went to the band who completed the two random marathon songs and "Maps". There was some booing going on when they won, but you know what? That's the luck of the draw. They got two marathon songs... we got "Run To the Hills". I hate you, Iron Maiden. No, not really. I like the song, but I do not like it beyond Medium.
We didn't win. We did pretty good, considering:
- we never met before that night.
- I was completely unprepared to play AT ALL.
- I haven't played drums for probably a month (I only got to play bass at the Rock Band Party).
- the drumset was screwy.
- our random selection ended up being very difficult.
- we didn't have a singer.
So, to make a long story longer... there you go. That was my Thursday night. At least my mom didn't hate me for it.
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