So, last night was the big Guitar Hero concert, sponsored by 91x at the House of Blues.

When I first heard about the contest, I was pretty excited. I tried once or twice to call in and win one of the 64 spots, but never got through. I signed up online, but never heard back. They did say that a few spots would be given away at the door, and although my chances were unlikely, I figured it was the kind of thing that I'd regret if I didn't give it a shot.

Diana picked me up from work, and we headed downtown. Our plan was to show up at the HoB, sign up for the contest, wait until we didn't get called, and then go out to dinner at a nearby restaurant. So, we both signed up and waited and watched as other people showed up, some lucky enough to be entered, and a lot who, like us, put their name into the big jar hoping to be called.

Soon, they announced that they'd choose five name from the pot, but that they might choose more to fill in spots of no-shows. They called the names, and alas, neither of our names were called. A few minutes later, however, they called five more names, and I got called! Very exciting! I got all signed up, and immediately got my typical pre-game nervousness going. I blathered on to Diana about something, and she reminded me that they were calling more names, and a few seconds later, they called her name, too! We were pretty surprised and excited.

We were in sort of a side room at the House of Blues. It was packed with people, and really hard to move around. Lots of "Diana's boys", which means big, loud frat-boy types. The music was loud, and it was generally pretty uncomfortable. I haven't really been in a crowded bar in a long time, and I'd forgotten how much I dislike trying to get from here to there and having to scrape by a bunch of people in the process.

They had four "stations" set up around the room. 64 people in the entire contest, so 16 people at each station. I was at the Blue station, and Diana was at the Yellow station. Before every song at each station, you'd go spin a wheel to see what song you'd play. Then play the song in "Pro Face Off" mode, which just means that you're both playing the exact same song and notes. High score advances to the next round, loser walks.

Diana was up earlier in her bracket than I was in mine, so I was able to watch her play. She was so cute, the guitar up against her pregnant belly, rocking out against some schlep. Their song was "Tattooed Love Boys", which on Hard or Expert would have given her problems, but the first rounds were on Medium difficulty, and she played really well. She went of to an early lead, and held that lead through the entire song, saving her last batch of star power until the end. And then it all went horribly wrong. She went to flip the guitar up to engage the star power, and it didn't go. So she recovered, and tried again, and still nothing. She tried a third time, but it still didn't turn on, and she missed a note. Her opponent was able to seize the opportunity, doing his own star power, and overtake her at the last moment to win the round. Diana was clearly the crowd favorite, and everyone knew she got robbed, including her opponent. In spite of hitting 99% of the notes to his 98%, he walked away with a better score and Diana was done for the night. In spite of the loss, I am very proud of her!

My first match rolled around, me facing off against some meathead (who was later to become my biggest fan). We spun the wheel and go "Them Bones", and soon the song was underway. I selected the song from the list, and my opponent said "Oh, he knows right were the song is", which kind of sounded like he DIDN'T know where the song was, and was a newb. I played well, and actually ended up not missing a note, where my opponent missed only one or two. He conceded his loss admirably, and I advanced to the next round.

We had a lot of time to wait for the first round to finish up, and then it was on to Round 2! I was able to see who I was going to be facing from Round 1, and felt pretty confident that I'd be ok. Eventually, it was my turn again, and we spun the wheel and "Them Bones" came up. Again! I was much less nervous this time around, and played well, missing a note or two, but actually outscoring my original round where I got 100%. That was kind of odd. My opponent was good-not-great, and didn't put up much of a fight. (Diana was standing near my opponent from Round 1, who apparently was saying stuff like "Dude, look at that guy! He doesn't even move! He's like motherfucking RUDY up there!" Classic)

Immediately after my match, I watched a battle between two women, where I'd be facing the winner. They were both really solid, and the girl that won (who was the girlfriend of the guy I just beat) was really good. I started getting pretty nervous again.

For Round 3, this girl and I spun the wheel, and "Killing in the Name" popped up. We were still on Medium level, and my nervousness was pretty intense. The song started, and we were off. I was hitting all the notes, but I could tell that she was too, and for a while it all about timing of star power. Basically, when I did one, she'd do one, and vice versa. About halfway through the song, though, I somehow saw or sensed that she'd missed a note. And then later, another one, and I could tell that she'd pretty much thrown in the towel. I'm pretty sure I missed a note or two as well, but I think by that point it was too late. With that win, I discovered that I'd advanced to the Elite 8! I was informed that everyone in the Elite 8 wins a wireless Guitar Hero guitar! So that was pretty cool.

For the final rounds, we all played on a big overhead screen in the front of the room. I was facing the only other guy in my Blue bracket, a big Filipino guy which a posse of dudes. In the Elite 8 round, there are four matches to be played, and I was in the last match, so I was able to watch all my potential opponents go before me. They all looked decent, but really not that great at all. I was beginning to feel pretty good about my chances. Watching closely, I did get a little worried that there might be lag on the big screen... I could see that neither player was really hitting notes "cleanly". Kind of hard to describe, but it just looked and sounded like the timing was off (kind of like when sound and video are off in a TV show or movie).

When my turn came up, I faced off against my boy and his posse. The emcee guy said "Alright, give it up for Efron!" (or something like that). Everyone cheers. All his boys hoot and holler. Then he says "Ok, let's hear it for Adam!"

*crickets*

*dry cough*

Ok, maybe not that bad. I heard Diana give an enthusiastic cheer, and got a smattering of applause, but I was clearly going up against a fan favorite.

The song we were assigned was "Killing in the Name" (I know, again!) This time we were playing on Hard difficulty. I played it pretty well, but definitely did notice a lag, and tried to adjust for it. My boy didn't fare so well, and fell pretty far behind. When I missed notes, I'd hear a rising cheer from his boys, and got worried that he was catching up, but when I could sneak a look at the little meter that points towards the winning player, it was pegged over on my side.

The song ended, and my boy gave me props, and I was moving on to the Final Four. The prize on the line was guitar signed by Pearl Jam, VIP tix for four to a future House of Blues show, and some other little things.

The Final Four round started, and the other two guys played. I don't remember what they played or how they did. I was pretty lost in my own world of anticipation. My Filipino boys decided that they were going to back me. The told me that if their boy was going to lose, than they wanted the guy that beat him to go on to be the Champion. I really appreciated that, and the "Adam, Adam, Adam" chant they started up later.

When it was my turn, the assigned song was "Sweet Child o' Mine". We were on Expert level by this point, and I was feeling pretty good about that song. I played it a lot.

It turned out to be a disaster.

We played through the opening sequence, both of us perfectly, until my opponent hit his "pause" button by mistake. There was some talk about restarting or resuming (the crowd weighing in heavily), and we decided to resume, and it took me a bit to recover.

The rest of the song played tough. There was a significant amount of lag, which made things tough. I also felt like the guitar I was on (on the Player 2 side) was kind of betraying me. It seemed to insert strums that I didn't hit, and generally felt weird. I was missing notes, and falling further and further behind, and pretty much knew I was cooked. The inevitable conclusion was eventually reached, and I shook my opponents hand, and walked away, leaving him to play on in the Final round.

It was disappointing, for sure. I've always felt that "blaming the equipment" is a pretty poor move, but I do believe that it was a factor. What's more disappointing is that I know I could play that song better, but was unable to. I consider myself to be a pretty competitive guy, which I think a lot of people mistake for "hates losing". I don't hate losing at all. I am 100% happy to lose a match (of anything) where I feel confident I played as well as I could. What I strongly dislike is feeling like I lost because I didn't play as well as I know I could.

I walked back to Diana, through my crowd of boys who congratulated me and clapped me on the back. Diana and I moved to the back of the room, away from the speakers where it was less crowded and a little quieter. With the adrenaline of the evening out of my system, I felt exhausted and my head started aching pretty good. I wasn't particularly interested in who watching the final round and seeing who won, so we split. I did notice, though, that before the final round the guys playing went into the Video Options menu and did the Compensate Lag thing. The testing reported a lag time of 131 milliseconds, which is HUGE. I probably should have done that before my round.

We walked out onto the patio, and there was the first guy that I beat in the very first round. I said "Dude, I didn't make it", and he gave me a solid handshake and said that he was rooting for me, and gave me props. It was nice.

All in all, it was a really fun night. I really enjoyed the competition, and all the people I talked to and witnessed were uniformly friendly and happy and having a good time. Competition can sometimes bring out trash talking and the worst in people, but I didn't see anything like that at all. Of course I really wanted to win, but I walk away with a really fun experience and a new wireless guitar under my belt.

Through the whole thing, Diana was really great. She was proud of me, and completely supportive and happy to be there through the whole thing. I think we were both a little sad that we each didn't get just a little further in the contest, but we each walked away proud to be holding the other ones hand. I'll take that over a signed guitar any day.

I just wish I could have both. :)