Total Rock, Total Rewards Rock Band Competition - Las Vegas, Nevada

I was in Las Vegas, Nevada over the past week, and had the chance to take a look at this US-wide RockBand Competition (I say US-wide because the competition only has one stop in Canada, which kind of sucks donkey parts...) Prizes for the competition included cash amounts (going all the way up to $10,000 USD) and the opportunity to be the opening act for the B-52s.

So with such awesome prizes, what did I think of the competition?

Well, I don't know...

You see, contest information states that the competition will be held between 8pm and 12am at the Harrah's in Las Vegas. So we made our way to the Harrah's for 8h20pm, hoping to drop in, have a look at the competition, and then go play some slots. When we arrived at the bar where the competition was being held, we learned it would only start at 9pm.

Dissapointed and with 40 minutes to wait, we decided to head back to our hotel (which wasn't far from the Harrah's) with the intent of coming back later in the night. While we waited, we began to play penny slots, and took advantage of the free drinks offered by the casino. After losing 5$ and drinking ±7 drinks, we drunkenly found out it was midnight and that we'd missed the competition.

So, I'm guessing that the competition went well and wish to congratulate whoever won and will be representing Las Vegas in the final rounds. Hopefully you guys win and get the chance to open for the B-52s!

As for me, the experience of getting drunk off free beers and rum was enough to make for one hell of a memorable night!

Dman... (aka the drunken Reject)

Amp Energy Rock Band Competition Results

We just participated in the Amp Energy competition at the University of Ottawa today. The picture above shows when the Reject finally took over the stage! =)

The video of our performance will eventually be posted on the Facebook page of the event. We also filmed so we'll eventually add an embedded Youtube video to this post.

I think we performed well and had a good choreography to match our band name, but unfortunately we didn't advance to next week's Facebook voting round. We diverged a bit from what we planned in our practice session but that can be expected.

The main reason we lost is that the only criteria for victory was having the most votes from the crowd and passers-by after a 30-minute+ voting period (and yes, I did say 30). The competition being near a busy corridor, most people who voted didn't see anyone perform. As the organizer told me: "This is just a popularity contest"...

One piece of advice for participants in future weeks is to make sure you're allowed to test the calibration. We weren't, and you can imagine the effect that it has... for example having to rely on the monitors a whole lot more than usual.

We also learned after playing our song that the "No Fail" mode was on, plus the official camera didn't even see the game screen, so a lot of bands just played on "Easy" (we were all on "Expert") and concentrated pretty much only on their moves.

What counts is that we had lots of fun, and that we now have even more "Live" experience! That can only help in future competitions. Hopefully most "performance"-based competitions in the future will have judges, so being the winner actually means something. The one we participated in two weeks ago was strictly "score"-based.

Rock on Macas!

See the Macas Live once again!

For the second time in two weeks, the Macas will be performing Live! This time it will be from 12:00 to 14:00 tomorrow (Wednesday) at the University of Ottawa (2nd floor of University Centre, near the Tim's) for the Amp Energy Rock Band Tournament!

Thanks for the support two weeks ago at our first competition. We hope to see you there again tomorrow!

Rock Band Competition - Finals

Today was the finals of the Place d'Orléans Rock Band Challenge, organized by Hot 89.9! You can see our first day results here.

We were up against 3 other bands:

Monday winners "X-Aldin":
Tuesday winners "JATTM" (Jesus and the Thunderstorm Monsters):
Thursday winners "Loonie Crush":
In a round robin style first round, we faced off against each band by playing a Tier 6 Expert song. The 2 bands with the most wins would move on to the final round to play a Tier 7 song.

1st Round 1/6: "X-Aldin" vs. "JATTM" (Let There Be Rock):
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In a very close duel, "JATTM" gets 21K more than "X-Aldin", with the "JATTM" guitarist "Paden" getting 98% of the notes, 6% more than the "X-Aldin" guitarist. It gets pretty suspenseful at the end as "JATTM" needed to get the "Big Rock Ending" to win this round.
Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
"X-Aldin": 1,595K (99 99 94 92)
"JATTM": 1,616K (98 99 85 98)

1st Round 2/6: "3 Macas and a Reject" vs. "Loonie Crush" (Everlong):
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Our first matchup was against "Loonie Crush", a talented group with a very precise drummer. His skills are the key to their victory as he gets 98% versus 82% for Phoenix, with all other instruments tied at 99% or 100% (DMan). Phoenix points out that he would be closer to the high percentages for pretty much any other song.
Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
"3 Macas and a Reject": 1,109K (99 82 100 99)
"Loonie Crush": 1,483K (99 98 100 99)

1st Round 3/6: "X-Aldin" vs. "3 Macas and a Reject" (Spoonman):
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Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
Our second match was against "X-Aldin". DMan and Raikan get higher percentages plus we follow a good path, leading to our first victory of the day.
"X-Aldin": 864K (97 99 93 93)
"3 Macas and a Reject": 1,043K (98 99 94 93)

1st Round 4/6: "JATTM" vs. "Loonie Crush" (Carry on Wayward Son):
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In another close match, "Loonie Crush" wins by less than 100K, with the key being their performance on guitar and bass.
Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
"JATTM": 1,065K (95 99 95 94)
"Loonie Crush": 1,134K (98 100 95 98)

1st Round 5/6: "Loonie Crush" vs. "X-Aldin" (Aqualung):
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X-Aldin needs a win to stay in the competition, having lost their first two matches. They make a valiant effort, but eventually coming about 100K short of triple round 1 winners "Loonie Crush". Once again, the difference was in the skills of the "Loonie Crush" guitarist. "X-Aldin" goes home with the remainder of the 5$ gift certificates (100$?)
Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
"Loonie Crush": 1,867K (98 98 99 99)
"X-Aldin": 1,764K (99 98 98 96)

1st Round 6/6: "3 Macas and a Reject" vs. "JATTM" (Down with the Sickness):
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With the 1st place and 4th place round robin winners already determined, the stakes increase as this final 1st round match would determine who goes to the final round. A great performance by everyone and a good path seals the deal as we beat "JATTM" by about 100K. DMan and Raikan both get FCs! A 3rd place finish by "JATTM" rewards them with a worthy 200$.
Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
"3 Macas and a Reject": 2,195K (100 99 100 99)
"JATTM": 2,073K ( 98 99 98 99)

Final Round: "Loonie Crush" vs. "3 Macas and a Reject" (Ramblin' Man):
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Having won the round robin, "Loonie Crush" gets to choose the song and they pick "Ramblin' Man". We win the coin toss this time and get to pick who gets to play first. Naturally, we choose to go second. "Loonie Crush" has a great performance, which we fail to match by about 140K. Except for DMan who gets his 3rd FC of the day, we all miss in at least one key area where we don't usually miss (nerves? calibration?). We would love to have this one back, but getting to the final round and pocketing a neat 400$ is a great way to finish the competition!
Stats (Bass, Drums, Vocals, Guitar):
"Loonie Crush": 2,174K (99 99 99 99)
"3 Macas and a Reject": 2,036K (99 99 100 97)

This was a great setting for our very first competition! A big thanks to all who helped organize it and to everyone who were there to support us. Congrats to "Loonie Crush" for their well-earned victory! Every band did great and we hope to see you all at the next Rock Band competition!

Photos (courtesy of Sylvie):

Start of song:Here we go:
Phoenix and Bongoo:
Raikan and DMan:
Other angle:
End of song:
Announcing the results:
The finalists:
Phoenix rides the bus:
DMan wants to join:
The pathmaster:
Phoenix and Sylvie:
DMan the Spoonman:
Bongoo reflects on a great competition:

Rock Band Competition - Day 1

Today was our first live gig and our first competition! A big thanks to Ryan Lindsay and the rest of the Hot 89.9 crew for organizing this great event!

The competition started interestingly as we were introduced as the "Macaws" instead of the "Maacas". ;)

Round 1:
We play "White Wedding (Part 1)" on Medium difficulty. We each miss 1 or 2 notes except DMan, possibly due to the wacky calibration. Our opponents get a lower total score and we advance.

Round 2:
We play "Carry On Wayward Son" on Hard difficulty. The best 2 out of 3 bands will advance to the final round due to there only being 6 bands today. We go first once again and do pretty bad, mostly due to calibration issues. Bongoo tries to adjust his timing during the song but doesn't succeed, leading to many unison bonus misses.

The second band, "Totally Nuts" plays next, and they beat our score, even without their optimal line-up. So we are nervous as the third and final band goes on stage to play... Even though it appears that they would beat us, we are happily surprised at the end of the song to discover that they didn't! Phew!

Final Round:
So we go up against "Totally Nuts" in the finals. They are an amazing band (see their SH scores), with their superstars being "CanadienBakon" on drums (#3 PS3 drummer for RB1 and master squeezer), and "curtistheninja" on guitar (#3 PS3 guitarist on SH for RB2).

The bands can't agree on the pick for the final song, so we flip a coin, and guess what, our bad luck continues... "Totally Nuts" gets their pick and we get to play "Bodhisattva" (their choice perhaps due to Bongoo's bad run in Round 2?)

It's their turn to be first so they go on stage to calibrate. After some unsuccesful calibration runs, they finally get a chance to set a calibration that allows them to finish the song.

We are up next and also get a chance to calibrate. After the bad luck with the calibration and the coin toss, things finally start to gel and we all have an amazing run! Bongoo redeems himself for the round 2 debacle and we finish more than 100K ahead of "Totally Nuts" to win the day's event!

Congrats to "Totally Nuts" for giving us some great competition! With better calibration, who knows what would have happened. With the amazing scores they posted on SH (done while unconnected as they're not in the official Leaderboards), they definitely have the potential to be one of the top bands (for example, see the video of their Visions run...).

With our win we now play on Friday, where from 1:00 to 3:00 PM the 4 winners from Monday to Thursday will face off for the big money! A big thanks to those who came to support us and see you all again on Friday!

Video:



Pictures (courtesy of the event's Facebook page):

Phoenix and Bongoo:
DMan:
Raikan and DMan:
Phoenix:
Bongoo:
Crowd + Sylvie, Phoenix and Seb:
CanadienBakon:
curtistheninja:
Victory!
Oh yeah!

3 Macas and a Reject Live!

Unknown Caller: What would you say if I told you one of the greatest bands in the world - 3 Macas and a Reject - are coming to Place d'Orléans this Wednesday?

Phoenix: We'll I'd say you should go see them!

The unknown caller in the snippet above is Hot 89.9 Radio DJ Ryan Lindsay, who informed Phoenix last night of our band's selection in the Place d'Orléans Rock Band Challenge happening at 12h30 this Wednesday, March 18th, in front of the West 49 store in Place d'Orléans.

So we invite all our fans to come and show your support this coming Wednesday at Place d'Orléans as we show people how Rock Band is played!

Contest specifics (taken from here):

Preliminary Rounds

A minimum of eight (8) ‘bands’ will compete per preliminary round (Monday, March 16th – Thursday, March 19th, 2009).

In the first round, bands will be paired up and will have to complete the same song (chosen randomly) as their competing team, starting on an easy level. The team that garners the highest score will move on to the next round. For each round, the difficulty and song will change, with the winning teams moving forward. The final two teams competing each preliminary day will be required to complete a song on the ‘Expert’ level, with the highest scoring band advancing to the Finals.

Finals

The winning band each day will automatically move to the Final Competition on Friday, March 20th between 1pm - 3pm.


There will be a total of three rounds of competition for the Final Competition. The first round all eight (8) bands will be paired up. During each round, paired up teams will be required to play the same song. The song difficulty, like in the preliminary events, will increase throughout the Final competition during each round.

The winner of each pairing in the first round will move onto the semi-final round – four (4) teams in total. During the semi-finals the four (4) bands will be randomly paired up again, with the winning team from each pairing moving onto the final round.

The two teams that make it to the final round will have to play the same song (chosen at random), on the same difficultly. The team who receives the highest score will win the grand prize. The runner-up team will therefore win the 2nd place prize.

The two teams that lost in the semi-final round will also compete against each other. The team who garners the highest score/most points will take home the 3rd place prize.

Prize Details

The winning team of four (4) will win the grand prize: $1,000 worth of Place d’Orleans Gift Certificates (that can be split evenly amongst the band members).

The 2nd place team (or runner-up) will win $400 in Place d’Orleans Gift Certificates and the 3rd place team will win $200 in Place d’Orleans Gift Certificates.

Total Rock, Total Rewards Rock Band Competition

From the Rock Band Forums:

[...]

Throughout March and April, seventeen Total Rewards casinos* will host local, weekly Rock Band Competitions, allowing fans of the popular game to win an Xbox 360 and Rock Band bundle as well as other Total Rewards items and Rock Band apparel and accessories. Four regional competitions will then offer customers the chance to win more than $50,000 in prizes.

[...]

I'm heading to Vegas in April, if you guys want to join, we can show them how a real Rock Band band rolls!