I've seen a million faces... and I've rocked them all...

Last night, after hours, I joined Baditude and some of his workboys at their work for a session of Rock Band. And I'm pleased to report that it was as fun as I was hoping and expecting.

When I first showed up, I sat out for a song or two, watching how it all worked out. There is one player playing lead guitar, one playing bass guitar, one person drumming, and the fourth singing. The two guitars play exactly like all the other Guitar Hero games. The drums plays in a very similar manner, in that you have to hit the correct pad when the falling note hits the bottom of the screen. The singing, however, is completely different. You get the words scrolling across the top of the screen, as well as a wavy line (like a heart-beat EKG readout) that indicates pitch. Somehow the mic senses timing as well as pitch, and you get indications of how well you're doing.

So I jumped in on guitar for a song, and it was pretty standard. I played on Expert difficulty, and maybe we were just on an easy song, but it wasn't too challenging. After the song, the guy at the drums said "Do you want to try the drums?" I said "I've been waiting a year to hear those words." :)

Drums was fun. Hard. But fun. I've practiced drumming off and on for years now, very informally, but I think I have only a little more knowledge and practice than the average person off the street. I'm not sure how much that helped, but I was able to jump right into Medium difficulty (and one Hard) without too much problem. What I found really interesting was when a Real Drummer (someone who actually owns a drum kit and plays in a band) was put on the drums, he couldn't get by at all. He was failing out of Easy. What was funny was that, like a real drummer, he just kind of kept his own rhythm, albeit rocksteady, but wasn't really able to adjust to what the game was prompting him to play. I think once he learns how to read the notes, however, he'll be awesome.

We rotated around a bit, and it came to my turn to sing. Ugh. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I loaded up "Enter Sandman", since I'd just seen a video of some Mom doing an awful job at it. What was reassuring, however, is that everyone was a pretty bad singer, and no one seemed to mind. And when I was playing a different instrument, I was so busy concentrating on my own stuff to even think about how the singer was doing. So I got through it the best I can, and no one laughed at me. Later that night, I sang "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi, and felt a little more relaxed. The singing was weird, since it was a lot of changing pitch and adjusting to feedback, rather than just being relaxed and singing.

All in all, I think it's a totally solid game, and would be AWESOME at a party (especially with enough beer to get Iwan on the mic). It will happen someday.

In other news, we just got word at work that we're in a big push on the project I'm a part of, and we can't request any new vacations through the end of February. In addition, we're asked to work overtime for the same length of time. I'm pretty bummed about it, but realize that I've had it pretty good for a long time, and it's time to pay some dues. It couldn't really have come at a worse time, though, since I already feel guilty for not being home, and missing out on my baby's life enough as it is (which, coincidentally, even makes Rock Band nights bittersweet). But things could be worse, so I'm not too complain-y. Just kind of sucks.

Time to wake up the kiddo. My favorite time of the evening! :)