3 Macas and a... vacuum?

Last week was our first week with 3 players as Sylvie will be away for a few weeks. Being a multi-instrumentalist (see "All Solo" Leadeboards), Bongoo proposed filling in by doing some voxtar (vocals + guitar), while Raikan moved back to bass.

The only problem was that we didn't have a mic stand. Phoenix had the brilliant idea of building one using, of all things, a vacuum and a tube! :) The tube was positioned on top of the vacuum handle and was cut to the perfect length to allow a mic inside at singing height.

This brilliant feat of engineering completed, we were able to start our night. The challenge for voxtar was to match pitch with what could be heard and remembered while mostly looking at the guitar chart. Everything went really well as we obtained many Gold stars and had a few 700K+ point increases. Bongoo consistently got between 90-99% on both vocals and guitar.

We played 24 songs with this new line-up, playing our worst ranked songs and the previous week's new DLC. This allowed us to gain 12M points (1,093M to 1,105M), moving us up the "All Songs" Leaderboards. We improved on almost all songs we were not in the top 200, plus our average score moved up 5K to 982K.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 24 songs: Gold stars (5), 5 stars (10), 4 stars (7), 3 stars (2, for "B.Y.O.B." and "Waking the Demon")
- Raikan was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (18), followed by Phoenix (9) and Bongoo (3)
- Raikan had the only FCs of the night (3)
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "Monster (Skillet)" and "Ride the Lightning"
- Even with a voxtar player, we got Gold stars for half the new DLC, including more than 1M points for "Monster (Skillet)" and a #1 rank for "Stand in the Rain"

Starting our climb of the top 10

This week we'll start our climb of the top 10 of the "All Songs" Leaderboards. We need more than 100M points to move up one position, but we'll get there eventually.

Last week there was only 6 new DLC (all Christian bands just after Easter), so we'll have lots of time to play our worst ranked songs. This will help move up our average score closer to 1M points (currently 977K).

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week:

3. "Feel Good Drag", by Anberlin: This is pretty rockin' song with some interesting mood changes. There is lots of variety in the drum chart, with some tough double bass hits. The guitar and bass were lots of fun during the verses. The singer can sometimes be a bit annoying during the chorus, but the song is very good regardless.

2. "Stand in the Rain", by Superchick: This song has some great melodic moments on vocals and some neat orchestral sounds, but it can still be quite intense. I liked the Terminator-theme-like section on drums (DA-DA-DUM-DA-DUM, omit the last DUM for the other instruments). The rolls were a bit annoying due to the speed changes. The guitar chart was fun due to its varied patterns.

1. "Monster", by Skillet: Believe it or not there are now 3 songs with this title in the game (the others are from "The Automatic" and "Lady Gaga"). There are quite a few titles that are common to 2 songs, but this is the 1st title that has 3. The song has great energy, and although it is fairly simple, it is lots of fun on all instruments. It is classified as "Rock", but I find it has a more "Nu-Metal" feel than "Fire It Up", another song from last week.

Honorable mention. "Live Life Loud", by Hawk Nelson: This Blink-182-esque song deserves a mention due to a pretty challenging drum track, definitely the toughest of the week due to its tricky rolls. The fast triplets are quite fun to play. The guitar chart is somewhat bland but the drum chart more than makes up for it.

The Macas are in the Hall of Fame!

This week we finally made it into the Hall of Fame (top 10 for "All Songs")! :) Going up further will take time as 9th place is more than 100M points ahead, but we'll get there eventually.

We gained 12M points for the night from 24 songs. For the last 8 songs Sylvie was replaced by her cousin Blanche. Thanks again for helping out!

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 24 songs: Gold stars (2), 5 stars (20), 4 stars (2 for "Wait Until Tomorrow" and "Ain't No Telling")
- Raikan was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (10), followed by Bongoo (8), Phoenix (7), and Sylvie (5)
- Raikan had the only FCs of the night (2)
- Sylvie's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "One Rainy Wish" and "Little Miss Lover"
- Phoenix did great during "If 6 Was 9", which has a very tough ending on drums
- Our score increases for older songs were quite varied, ranging from 3K to 980K

Hendrix G0 Round

This week we'll play last week's Jimi Hendrix DLC (1 album + 1 single), plus our worst songs by rank. This will move us past "Mary G0 Round" for 10th place in the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week:

3. "One Rainy Wish", by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: I got to say that there certainly is a love/hate feeling towards the late drummer Mitch Mitchell when playing these songs. I can appreciate all the complex beats that he comes up with, but sometimes he throws in some crazy fills and added hits that are almost impossible to replicate. This pretty laid back song is no exception, with its variety of awesome beats with double hits, plus its usual chaotic ending. It was quite a bit of fun to sing as well.

2. "Bold as Love", by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: This song has a nice chill feel and some neat vocals. It definitely has the best fills of the album, for example another unique drum pattern with double hits. The end of the song is great on bass, and overall it is pretty crazy on guitar (arguably more fun on Hard than Expert).

1. "Little Miss Lover", by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: This groovy song has by far the best bass chart of the week due to the constant movement It also has an interesting guitar chart due to the variety of patterns. The drum chart isn't overly difficult but it is also quite fun to play.

Honorable mention. "Little Wing", by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: This is a slower soulful song that contains some awesome fills. It seems the drummer just can't help but throw in some complicated patterns here and there. There were also some fun parts on guitar and vocals.

75% Gold stars and close to the top 10

This was a great week as we played 32 songs with the optimal line-up, getting 24 Gold stars and gaining 23M points. We now have have a total of 1,081M points, just 7M away from 10th place "Mary G0 Round" in the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Our average points per song is now 977K (up more than 10K). After joining the top 10, our next goal will be to move this average past 1M points. This won't be too difficult as we often gain more than 500K points per song when playing old songs (originally played with less than 4 players and/or not with the optimal line-up).

Another goal will be to have all of our songs ranked below a certain rank. This week all the older songs played were some where we weren't in the top 270. In a few weeks all the songs will be in the top 200, and in a few months every song will be in the top 100 except for some in the "Original 84".

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 32 songs: Gold stars (24), 5 stars (6), 4 stars (2, for "The Hungry Wolf" and "Toxicity")
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (14), followed by Sylvie (10), Raikan (8), and Phoenix (7)
- Bongoo had the most FCs (7), followed by Sylvie (4), Raikan (3), and Phoenix (1)
- Sylvie's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts", "El Scorcho", "Maps", "Message in a Bottle" and "The Kill"
- Phoenix manages to hit the PS button in the middle of a song...
- We finally get the point increase on "I.V." that we were looking for, getting Gold on the last vocal phrase (only small point increases until this week). Phoenix did a great job with the fast bass drum hits
- We barely survive "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" because of its crazy ending on drums
- Raikan has the hiccups during "Peace of Mind" (even activating overdrive accidentally), but we still manage to gain 400K points... :)