So. Observations from a concert featuring a fictitious cartoon Death Metal band (Dethklok from Metalocolypse).

* Did the opening band realize that they were opening for a parody of themselves? Seriously – complete with leaning over long hair circles… 

* The second band, Chimaira was pretty impressive. The drummer could basically keep 32nd notes going on double bass drums for the entire length of the song. Yet somehow he didn’t overpower the groove established by the rest of the band while doing this. As a hack pseudo-drummer (hack defined as fairly proficient at Rock Band drums), I know enough to appreciate his skills and to know that there’s no freaking way that their songs could be translated to Rock Band. Even if Harmonix came up with a drum set with two pedals, the incidence of snapped pedals would be off the charts… 

* Final note on Chimera’s drummer – I particularly enjoyed how he made the show a tactile experience as well as sonic. You could seriously feel the bass drums reverberating through your body in a non-stop barrage. The effect was hypnotic. This is probably typical of the death metal genre in general, but this guy was clearly the best of the 3 drummers who played that night. 

* Notes to sweaty guy #1 – So, Mr. Huge, Sweaty Mosh Pit Guy… Using your sweat drenched body to jam against me in an attempt to usurp my premier “fence” spot won’t work. Seriously – your nastiness is not grossing me out. I roll around with guys 10 times sweatier than you twice a week. For fun. And I pay to do it. You might start to gross me out if you were to sweat in my eyes or mouth though… (Yes – I’ve had both happen). 

* Notes to sweaty guy #2 – So, Mr. Bald, Shirtless, Five Foot Zero inches tall, Most Pit guy… OK. You do freak me out. Every time you slammed against me in your masculinity reinforcing mosh pit antics, I felt like some albino, mutant human weasel was thrashing against me. Just saying. 

* I haven’t been to a metal show in a while and forgot the red-neckery that goes on. (As a descendent of a long line of proud red-necks, I feel ethnically permitted to make observations on red-neckery.) You might be a red-neck if… You wear a mouth piece into a mosh pit. It actually makes sense though. If you intend to try to knock people’s teeth out in a mosh pit, it’s only fair to assume they will try to return the favor. And everyone knows them dentists is all perverts who just want to get like your Uncle Hank on a bender once they give you that knock-out gas… 

* Best moment of the night – asking a group of teenage goth kids if the intro video playing on the screen before the bands started was “the Metallica cause you kids watch the MTV right? and my buddy and me have a bet.” Their reaction was priceless. It was sort of a mute “Why is this old weirdo talking to us? About things we hate even? Is he trying to sell us drugs?” 

Wonderful.  Now when I talk to friends, an automatic computer program starts running in my head.  The code looks something like this:

if intNumberOfFriendsInGroup >= 3 and intNumberOfFriendsInGroup <=5 then
  if fnHasFreeTime(FriendNamesInGroup) = True then
    inputbox ("Hey - Wanna start a band in Rock Band?')  
  else
    msgbox ("Hey - you don't really need to " & strDistraction & " all the time, do you?")
  endif
else
  call subWhoCanWeAddOrLose
End if


And yes, band number two ("Da Mange") started in my basement last night and seems like they may be able to meet often... 

Current Mood: geeky

So after getting thoroughly hooked on Guitar Hero and witnessing

theferrett's obsession evolve in his LJ and Webcomic, I went all out and got Rock Band last week. Friday night, “Tushy Palace” formed and all I can say is “Wow!” Well, I can say a bit more, so here are a few of my observations.

5 people with 4 instruments seemed like the perfect ratio for our marathon session (9 PM to 4 AM [we probably would have gone til dawn but 2 of us had early morning plans]). When someone needed a break, they stepped out and the band kept on marching. When all five were fresh and wanted to play, we’d through down the gauntlet – “Whoever gets the lowest score on this song is out and I’m in…” Talk about motivation. Also, the 5th person was frequently dubbed the roadie if he was just sitting and watching the game. Roadie responsibilities usually included beer-runner.

Ted and I who are both Guitar Hero veterans (the other three never played Rock Band or GH) were in a constant competition against each other throughout the night. Amidst all of the smack talk and whining about the merits of the GH vs RB guitar, he uttered the most daunting words that sent a chill down my spine. While he was on bass and while I was struggling on a particularly challenging guitar part he casually says “Hell – look at this baseline. I can do this all night.” Oh, and for the record, we both agree the RB guitar fret button style is superior, but the mushy strum bar just feels… mushy. 

In four player mode, I can not express enough the value of a drummer with aggression and good rhythm. I think Milton brought our individual scores up by sheer virtue of his pounding rhythm (but god help us when he lost it in a song). 

I was amazed by how a group of macho self-respecting, “never sang in high school chorus”, and “would never do Karaoke” types all took turns on vocals. It started with Logan who we pretty much forced to sing since he is definitely the ham of the group (and has a flair for the dramatic). Once the rest of us saw that he could do it even though his voice sucked, we each eventually tried our hand. And there was a definite comfort but no shame in all of us sucking. Although the guy we have always called “Creepy” was ironically very good on “Creep” by Radiohead.
Letting each player pick their own difficulty level = genius. If they had forced the band to collectively pick a difficulty the game would have been much worse off as you would have to dumb the difficulty down to your worst player and better players would be bored stupid. 

The little awards for each player at the end of the songs are an awesome touch. They are just enough to give each player a bit of personal pride. The totally remind me of a 5th grade Awards Ceremony at my elementary school. The gist of the ceremony was that every kid got something. There were the obvious awards such as best grades and best attendance, but by the end, the teacher was giving out best handwriting and the always smiling award (seriously). 

Overall, I love this game as it greatly reminds me of the Lord of the Rings board game. Both have the players competing together as a team rather than battling each other. After we learned our lesson of bombing out 90% though an 8 minute Metallica song and having to play it ALL OVER AGAIN, we all started watch the life meter like hawks. When someone was about to die, we’d pause it and life-flight in a replacement player. It was very humbling and inspired great teamwork. 

It was also interesting that halfway through the night, we has all shed our names and were referred to as our instruments. “Drums – your missing the rhythm and it’s killing me!” or “Wow - nice solo, Guitar!” Our identities were further enforced as we started to realize our particular strengths – Milton the drumming machine, Ted the Guitar Master, Logan and me – the falsetto kings (queens?), Creepy – the Bass machine.

 

I think we’re hooked… Now if they'd hurry up and release the drum bag. Hauling them around is a royal pain...

Current Mood: satiated

Wow.  I had a heck of a weekend.  I leveled up (according to my own estimations) in 2 attributes this weekend:  Guitar Hero 3 and Jiu Jitsu.  

GH3:  I had one of those runs where songs which have been stuck on 3 stars for weeks all of the sudden start getting 5 starred.  If only it weren't such a enormous skill jump from Medium to Hard...  

BJJ:  A private lesson with one of the 5 highest ranked BJJ practitioners in the world will tend to teach you a thing or two.  And not just about the Brazilian accent.  "OK, my fren.  Grabba the all-bo an hepeat."

And Son leveled up to - he's now a level 1 swimmer (first time swimming at 8 months old).  Woot!  XP abounds!

Current Mood: accomplished

Happiness is...

Choking out someone who weighs 100 pounds more than you!

Current Mood: chipper

 I just had the opportunity to accomplish a life goal that I set for myself about 16 years ago. I just got back from my first Karate class in Japan!!! We found a website in English with the help of a Japanese speaking coworker: http://www.d-karate.com/english/02_school/index.html

So we hopped on the subway for the Saturday trial class. The instructor saw my coworker and I. His English was just a bit better than my Japanese (which is probably about 20 words). At first, he said we couldn't train because he has a different class for high schoolers. I informed him with hand signs that I am 32 and my co-worker is 23. He then gestured at our jeans and said "no train". I pulled out my Kung Fu pants out of a backpack to show him, so he let us join the class. It was a good 80 minute workout. Very cool. It was neat how after years of training, I could follow his entire class just by studying his actions and not understanding one word he said. He was very complimentary and it was a fun class. Stretches/warm-up, punching/kicking drills, footwork, then bagwork with a partner.

I believe it was only an intermediate class, but it was great! Definitely an experience I'll always remember.

Current Mood: sore

The CCG arcade game I was talking about in my last post is called "Sangokushi Taisen 2".  Here's a youtube video of a guy who kinda knows what he's doing on this game.  Honestly though - the kid we watched on an advanced board was awe-inspiring and makes this guy look like a turtle...


  

So there's a new genre of CCG's that are in popular abundance in Tokyo - CCG arcade games.  There were 3 themes we saw in the 8 story arcade we visited- soccer, feudal Japanese battles and a robotech variant (gundam?).  You buy your starter deck then sit down at the game.  You physically move your cards around the play area and the game recognizes the card (magnetically?) and interfaces with the video game.  Plus you win additional cards as prizes.  Pretty cool stuff.  I gave it a shot, but 2 archers and a mage does not an army make... (not to mention ALL the instuctions were in Japanese).  We watched a expert playing a hard mode and it was almost as intricate as Dance, Dance Revolution with your hands...  Wonder if this could ever catch on in the USA.

First whole day in Tokyo - most notable events other than sight seeing stuff - conquering the enigmatic subway system, buying numerous cans of Final Fantasy 7 Adent Children "potion"   (yes - they are consumable) and hanging out in very shady bars in a very shady part of Tokyo.  Actual words spoken: "Dude - you drink first - that way if there're roofey's in your drink, I'll haul you out of here."  Pretty impressive for a country not know for having "shady" parts.  Now to actually do some work tomorrow...

So yeah - I'm going to Tokyo, Japan for 2 weeks.  Leaving this weekend.  All I can say is WOW!  Any recommendations of things to do while I'm there?  Sumo and baseball are both out of season...  I do want to find a Karate school that will indulge me and let me train a class with them.  I want to hit the nightlife, eat lots of different foods... Any other ideas?

Current Mood: jubilant