Rock Till It Hurts

My right shoulder is already protesting in anger from too much abuse at the guitar and drums. But it’s incredibly difficult to stop. Rock Band now possesses me in a big, BIG way. I’ve already bought a three pack of songs from The Police as well as My Sharona. I’ve also found to my horror that my Percussion Freaks skills from the arcade drumming game have seriously atrophied from the years without practice and I’m going to have to work to get my foot/hand coordination back.

I’ve also found that after getting used to how the Fender Strat plays (ie, play it like a GUITAR, not like a guitar controller) the responsiveness of the thing is amazing, and it feels so good in my hands that I’m finding it hard to go back to the old Guitar Hero controller. It’s an amazingly solid piece of equipment that can almost pass for a real guitar. Even the Wife has gotten into the act, and is now doing a solid piece of singing, actually being able to hold her own on Hard mode. I’ve also recruited the Upstairs Neighbor to join the band and that means that the World Tour mode is now open to me. While it’s true that people who can easily 5-star songs on Expert in Guitar Hero will find the guitar portion of the game not challenging at all, I can barely finish Freebird on said mode, so the game is still kicking my ass for certain songs.

But the thing that really puts a smile on my face (aside from playing something seriously kick ass like the guitar in Gimme Shelter by the Stones) is when everything comes together and the crowd starts singing along with the song. All of a sudden, for those moments, you ARE a rock star, and it’s a guilty, delicious, virtual feeling.