January Sessions

In January we only had 2 sessions due to conflicting schedules, but they were memorable nonetheless. For example, it was the first time we ever played with 2 Pro guitars.

Our weekly DLC strategy seems to be to play all unplayed Pro Guitar songs, then make progress on all unplayed Pro Keys songs. We'll eventually play all of these and get to the songs without Pro Guitar or Pro Keys (RBN and mostly pre-RB3).

Highlights:
- The zaniness of trying to sightread some of the recent European DLC on vocals made it quite hilarious (ex: "Peut-Être une Angine")
- blingdomepiece did an amazing imitation of a teenage girl when he sang "Open My Eyes"...
- Bongoo picked Expert for Pro Guitar by mistake, leading to some pretty striking numbers (ex: 1 song had 78th rank, 4% of notes, 388 points, 0 stars...)
- The beers of the month were "Rochefort 8" and "Rochefort 10" (Trappistes Rochefort), plus "Aphrodite" (Dieu du Ciel)

Bring on 2011!

Last month we had 3 sessions, which allowed us to complete the game's "Road Challenges and finish the year in style.

Going into 2011 we can finally say we're an all-Pro band (even Pro Bass), as I just received my Pro Guitar (Mustang). Even though it was pre-ordered, it took more than 2 months to arrive...

In order to learn Pro Guitar and Pro Bass faster, we'll now play in "All Instrument" mode, using 2 Pro guitars. The downside is that Harmonies won't count in the score, but we'll still sing at the same time to practice. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next Rock Band game.

Highlights:
- blingdomepiece's "Oh My God" singing was epic!
- The funniest wah-wah bass moment was during "No One Knows"
- We got some of our first FCs in RB3 on harmonies
- Some of our Expert Pro Guitar percentages were extremely low, but we were still in the top 100 scores for that instrument (ex: 8% of notes and 59th overall for "Hold On Loosely")
- Chrissy was sick for most of the month so she couldn't join us on harmonies
- We got an amazing 1.5 stars for "Llama"...
- The beers of the month were "Harviestoun Ola Dabh Special 30 Reserve", "Maredsous Brune", "Route des Épices" (Dieu du Ciel) and "Corne du Diable" (Dieu du Ciel)

"blingdomepiece" joins the band!

Last week we had a great session, with talented multi-instrumentalist "blingdomepiece" (of Score Hero fame) joining the band. If you've been following the band's history, the 3 Macas were alternatively joined by Trapper (1st band name: 3 Macas and a Trapper), some random people (2nd band name: 3 Macas and a Random Guest), DMan (3rd band name: 3 Macas and a Reject), Sylvie (no name change for historical reasons), and now Chrissy and blingdomepiece.

It was also a special session as blingdomepiece brought over one of the rare new Mustangs (Pro Guitar). We each tried this new instrument at various points during the night and I have to say that it is an amazing addition to the Rock Band platform. I can't wait to get my own and slowly learn to play a real guitar.

With a new member, we no longer will have to have both Bongoo and Raikan do multiple instruments. This will free up someone to concentrate solely on harmonies. We'll be rotating instruments for now for variety, but eventually settle on 1 or 2 core lineups. For example, it could be:

Bongoo: Pro Guitar or Harmonies (red)
Phoenix: Pro Drums
Raikan: Pro Keys\Bass and Harmonies (blue)
blingdomepiece: Pro Guitar or Harmonies (red)
Chrissy: Harmonies (brown)

Note: We will not be playing in "All Instruments Mode" because we want the Harmonies scores to count. We'll opt to remove Pro Keys or Bass, depending on the song. Hopefully this "bug" will be fixed in Rock Band 4...

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown: Didn't keep track, mix of 3s and 4s
- Our 1st ever song with a Pro Guitar was "20th Century Boy"
- We played DLC for the 1st time in RB3 (a few "The Doors" songs)
- We were at the last section for the "Road Challenges". After we finish this mode, we'll spend our time in Quickplay playing new DLC and our worst on-disk songs by stars, rank, etc...
- The beers of the week were "Blanche du Paradis" (Dieu du Ciel) and "Espresso Stout" (Dark Star)

"The Police" indeed

Last week, we only played 7 songs due to starting later than usual (Raikan has amazing board games), plus an odd moment when Chrissy came down the stairs and said, "Bongoo, the police is at the door for you!"

It turned out the neighbour was quite particular about warning her if we infringe a bit on her always empty parking space and she called the neighborhood's security service (not the real police, phew). The car was duly moved and a lenghty chat between herself and Raikan resolved the misunderstanding.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 7 songs: 4 stars (4), 3 stars (3, for "China Grove", "Crosstown Traffic", "Fly Like an Eagle")
- Raikan continues his tradition of messing with the look of Bongoo's character (normal look is "extreme metal"), choosing some truly odd combinations, including a really horrendous purple v-neck shirt...
- We have to restart "The Killing Moon" 3 times, finally passing it when we were about 1 nanosecond from dying (not an exaggeration)
- Trapper helped us with a few songs on keyboard\bass when Phoenix had to leave earlier than usual
- We finish the session with 17 unplayed RB3 songs
- While waiting for Raikan to come back from his talk with the neighbour, we entered Bongoo's real first name in Google (ex: type "(name) is " without clicking Enter), and Google suggested that he was "gay for robots", "gay", "mad for fish", "a douche"... Hmm, quite funny considering I'm a well-mannered (I hope) straight vegetarian! :)

Happy Robot Sounds

Two weeks ago, we played 25 songs, also in the "Road Challenges" section. We ended the session with 22 unplayed RB3 songs, 15 of which are without keys.

We got an odd "Happy Robot Sound" all of a sudden 3 times during the session. Someone joked that it sounded as if C3PO petted R2D2 in the right way... I also heard this at my place so it must be a RB3 glitch on the PS3 and not an issue with Raikan's sound system.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 25 songs: 4 stars (17), 3 stars (8)
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah keyboard moment was during "Whip It"
- We get our 1st FCs in RB3: 1 for Raikan on Pro Keys, 1 for the triple vocalists

Junior Chicken Sauce

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog...

Three weeks ago we continued our RB3 journey, playing 23 songs in the "Road Challenges" section. It was our 2nd week with Raikan valiantly attempting to play "Pro Keys" on Expert (doing an amazing job overall)!

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 23 songs: Gold stars (2), 5 stars (2), 4 stars (12), 3 stars (7, for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "25 or 6 to 4", "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", "Good Vibrations (Live)" , "I Need to Know", "Dead End Friends and "Llama")
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah keyboard moment was during "Killing"
- One "Road Challenge" set tells us that we "Need to Know" a "Centerfold" in order to "Kill(ing) Loneliness"
- It's hard to "Imagine" that there's an on-disk song without guitar...
- Raikan gets 2* for his 40% notes hit Expert Pro Keys performance of "Don't Stand So Close to Me"... ;)
- The "Road Challenge" sets throw us "Werewolves of London" twice in a row. At least it allowed us to get better at the song and get 5*
- We somehow got "2 of 22 Triples" when only Raikan and Bongoo were on vocals for "The Look" (must be the talkies)
- Hilarity ensued when Phoenix added "Junior Chicken Sauce" as random words to the the beat of "Killing Loneliness"

1st session with keyboard

Last week was our 1st session with the keyboard. All Bongoo was able to find in terms of new instruments\equipment before the session was a cymbal kit and a keyboard stand. To everyone's surprise, Raikan was able to get his hands on the very rare Canadian PS3 keyboard (EB gets 1-2 pre-ordered one per week it seems).

On our shopping list:
- Pro guitar with buttons (hopefully within 1-2 weeks)
- Pro guitar with strings (March 1st)
- Mic stand (Bongoo using Raikan's ceiling beams as mic holder)
- Keyboard (Bongoo)

Raikan played most songs on Expert Pro Keys, but had to drop difficulties a few times, which is understandable for a new instrument.

Phoenix tried with 3 cymbals for the first time (using 1 of Bongoo's new ones). This set-up will do until Raikan gets his Pro Ion kit. Phoenix also forgot to bring his Roland KD-8...

One interesting note is that we started playing the "Road Challenges" this week instead of just doing Quickplay.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 11 songs: 5 stars (1), 4 stars (9), 3 stars (1, for "Whip It")
- The game crashed when we were playing "Oye Mi Amor", the system perhaps rebelling that we were not all on Expert (Hard for Pro Keys)...
- We failed multiple times on "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1". The only good thing about that is that harmonies got easier and easier for each attempt

1st Rock Band 3 session

Last week we had our 1st RB3 session. What impressed me the most was the neat new sorting and filtering options. Since we have the entire song library, this will make it much easier to find what we want. It was useful from the getgo as we decided to start our RB3 career by playing the longest songs first.

I also liked the new "RB3" and "All Song" Leaderboards (no glitch so far!), plus the ability to sort by "Leaderboard Rank". The comparison with friends when you finish the song is also neat, as well as the ability to see Bass scores... It makes me wonder if Harmonix would ever have added all this in their game if we didn't create the Rock Band Score Reader plus RockBandStats.com (1st stat website) back in the day. Perhaps these kind of efforts were the catalyst for change.

The only disappointing thing about the launch was the lack of Pro instruments. Only Phoenix was able to play Pro as Raikan already had 2 cymbals (need another soon, but it also works with 2). Bongoo brought his new Mapex dual bass pedal for Phoenix's Roland KD-8. We are looking forward to the release of the Pro guitar and keyboard in Canada on the PS3.

We seem to be known as "Raikan81's band". Who knows how some people get their band name in the Leaderboards instead...

Chrissy joined us on harmonies, with Bongoo and Raikan also on vocals (in addition to guitar and bass, respectively).

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 18 songs: 5 stars (4), 4 stars (10), 3 stars (4, for "Roundabout", "Beast and the Harlot", "Caught in a Mosh" and "Bohemian Rhapsody")
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during: none! The wah-wah bass in RB3 is not loud enough...
- We were halfway through "Free Bird", our 1st ever RB3 song, only to find out that there weren't getting energy sections (someone had joined after the start of the song)!
- We finally got to play some Rammstein in Rock Band ("Du Hast", not one of the longest songs, but we made an exception)! Now let's get some Rammstein DLC (12-pack ideas here)!
- We failed on the last note in "Smoke on the water" (tough on Pro drums)...
- Our percentages were between 56% and 86% on "Roundabout", ouch!
- Phoenix got the #1 rank on Pro Drums for "Roundabout" (one of the first to play it). We then checked out the Leaderboards later, only to find out he's been beaten by xXSHLONGFACEXx...
- Phoenix has fun with Bongoo's new dual bass pedal, which inspired a "death metal" version of "Sister Christian" (much to the Trapper's delight)! :)

Double session week

Last week we had 2 sessions, which allowed us to catch up on all remaining RB2 songs (70). Our final score for RB2 is 1,455,577,362 points! :)

Tonight will be our first session with the much anticipated RB3. I can't wait to try the new keyboard and the Pro modes for all instruments.

For the foreseeable future, this blog will solely focus on the highlights of our weekly RB sessions. We'll be experimenting with the new modes and trying out the various Pro instruments, therefore there is no need to include details like "Top Performer", "Worst Performer", etc... I will also stop posting my top 3 DLC of the week as the focus will be on the RB3 on-disk songs.

Highlights:
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "Creep (Stone Temple Pilots)", "Exodus", "Fire (Live)", "Indians", "Infected Nation", "Long Train Runnin'", "Tha Shiznit", "That's tha Homie" and "Sending Signals"
- Bongoo gets a dual FC on voxtar for "Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom"
- Phoenix gets an impressive 91% on "In Memory" on Expert drums and survives a lot of tough songs (ex: "3rd Stone from the Sun")
- Raikan tries the drums and also survives some fairly tough songs (ex: "Manic Depression")
- We have quite a laugh for Parry Gripp's 2 new RBN songs on the PS3 ("Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom" and "Last Train To Awesometown")
- The last RB2 song we will ever play was "Redemption Song" (Bongoo voxtar, no drums or bass)

PS3 swap

Last week we had a short session due to Raikan's work hours. Thankfully this will be the last time we have to swap days or shorten the session as he just got a promotion. Congrats!

In order to avoid the need for Phoenix to bring his DLC complete PS3 to Raikan's new townhouse every week, they had the great idea to swap PS3s!

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 8 songs: 5 stars (4), 4 stars (4)
- Raikan was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (5), followed by Bongoo (3) and Phoenix (1)
- Phoenix was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (6), followed by Bongoo and Raikan (2 each)
- There were no FCs
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "Death Quota for Purification" and "Among The Living"
- It's quite ironic that we barely survived "Among the Living" (Expert)
- Everyone fails within fractions of a second of each other at 20% of "Death Quota for Purification" (Expert)

A variety of players in Kanata

Last week we had a great time at Raikan's new place in Kanata. It will be a great place for our sessions for the time being. Chrissy helped us out at the beginning of the session on vocals. Trapper even helped at the end on bass when a sick and tired Phoenix had to bow out. The extra help will come in handy when RB3 comes out (ex: harmonies, keyboard).

We gained 13M points after completing 22 songs (1382M to 1395M).

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 22 songs: 5 stars (11), 4 stars (10), 3 stars (1, for "I Shot the Sheriff")
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (12), followed by Raikan (6), Phoenix (2) and Trapper (1)
- Bongoo was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (11), followed by Phoenix and Chrissy (4 each) and Raikan and Trapper (1 each)
- Bongoo had the only FC of the night (1)
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "Jeepster" and I Shot the Sheriff"
- Phoenix didn't bring his real pedal and KD-8 combo, so we limited ourselves to the easier drum songs
- We also didn't have a mic stand, so Bongoo used the unfinished ceiling beam as a mic support for voxtar
- The PS3 freezes after the 1st song is played, perhaps due to Phoenix's excessive bass pedal hits at the loading screen?

"Move"-ing on

This was the 2nd week in a row that we started and ended our session with a bit of 4-player Disc Golf and Bocce, courtesy of the new Playstation Move and "Sports Champions". I am quite impressed with the new technology as it is very accurate.

This also marked our last session at Phoenix's place for a while, as we'll be moving on to Raikan's new abode next week. We played 15 songs, slowly catching up on our backlog of DLC (the whole month of September). It was an interesting mix of genres (urban, country, metal, etc...).

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 17 songs: Gold stars (3), 5 stars (10), 4 stars (2)
- Raikan was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (8), followed by Bongoo (6) and Bongoo (4)
- Bongoo was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (13), followed by Raikan (4) and Phoenix (3)
- Bongoo had the only FCs of the night (2)
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moment was during "Days Go By"
- We get a triple "Worst Performer" at 99% for Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot"
- We also get a double "Top Performer" and double "Worst Performer" for "Fancy"
- Bongoo gets a double FC on voxtar for "Beautiful" (vocals + guitar)
- We manage to survive until the 96% mark in the 8-minute long "Bleed", only for Phoenix to fail... It's a tough song, so surviving that long on Expert was impressive
- Talk about a crazy drum chart on Expert for "Packet Flier". It must be one of the toughest ones to FC, let alone pass, due to its insane speed...
- We get an odd "Song data unvailable" error after trying to play "Nirvana", by Juliana Hatfield. I noticed that the tier info was unavailable for that song. Hopefully re-downloading it will fix the error

Party time

Last week we finally managed to have a session and started catching up on some DLC. We played 17 songs, going up 17M points in the process (1350M to 1367M).

One interesting event was the knock on the door mid-session. We assumed it was Phoenix's next-door neighbour, who would usually ask us to turn down the volume past 11:00 PM. What we had forgotten was that this was a once-in-a-blue-moon Friday night session, so it turned out to be one of Phoenix's female neighbours from down the hall inviting us to a party (he had only met her once a year prior). Phoenix is recently single, so he was happy to find out that almost all attendees were female. After the mini-party, we came back to our session and wondered, what the hell just happened? I guess you never know what can happen when you're rockin' to this great game... ;)

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 17 songs: Gold stars (4), 5 stars (11), 4 stars (1), 3 stars (1, for "Buster Voodoo")
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (10), followed by Raikan (8) and Phoenix (4)
- Bongoo was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (12), followed by Phoenix (6) and Raikan (3)
- Raikan and Bongoo had 1 FC each
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "The Price" and "Asylum"
- We get 999K for "Seasons"...

4 weeks of DLC

We didn't have a chance to play last week due to Raikan's new work hours, but we'll be back this week for a special Friday session. We'll start catching up on 4 weeks of DLC (Disturbed, Country, Snoop Dogg and Dio weeks).

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (after playing them on all solo instruments):

3. "Valkyries", by Amberian Dawn:

This is another fun symphonic power metal song. It is not as heavy as previous Amberian Dawn RBN releases, but is still worth checking out. The constant pedal beat is fun but can get tiring. The guitar and bass charts have tough variable strumming, with some sections that are constant and fast. The guitar solo is short and challenging. The keyboard part in the intro would be fun to play in RB3, but it is unlikely that current RBN tracks have that charted. The vocals were not too difficult, but as usual the female singer has a good operatic voice.

2. "Wake Up", by Me Talk Pretty:

This neat sounding group is like a "rock" version of Lacuna Coil with soaring vocals and heavy riffs. The drum chart is really fun due to a unique flowing beat. It has an odd pattern due to the bass pedal and lots of pad action, but it feels great when you get it. There is nice variety in the groovy bass chart, with slow and fast parts, plus occasional chords. There are simple chord changes on guitar but they are still fun. The singer has a good range.

1. "Bleed", by Meshuggah:

This song will make your ears bleed, but in a good way... :) The volume for RBN songs is louder than regular DLC, so after playing the Snoop Dogg tracks on drums, it was kind of a rude awakening to play this song, especially with my right speaker being fairly close to my drums. This 8 min. song has an awesome chugging technical death metal feel, with non-stop heavy riffs with complex time signatures except for one short interlude near the end. The drum chart is really tough but has at least 4 really fun patterns with loads of bass pedal. There is crazy strumming on Expert guitar and bass, so I had to play it on Hard difficulty. The guitar chart on Hard has some interesting sections that mix singles and chords.

Honorable mention. "We Are the One", by Anti-Flag:

Last week had a few interesting songs from Snoop Dogg (more so the Re-Records than the Mixes due to the better instrumentation, ex: guitar, flute), but the song that deserves special mention is the neat sounding RBN punk song, "We Are the One". It has a fast beat with 2-3 patterns so it can be challenging to keep up. What makes it stand out is a really awesome dynamic bass chart. On guitar there is also a great variety of chord patterns, plus the "Whao, Whao, Whao-ao" section is fun to sing.

Disturbed, Country and... Snoop?

Last week we couldn't play due to conflicting schedules, so we're finally back this week for a triple dose of new DLC! I think this will be one of the most diverse session we've ever had (Disturbed, Country and Snoop Dogg)! If they ever released more SpongeBob SquarePants songs, followed by more Cannibal Corpse the following week, then it would beat this combination... :)

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (after playing them on all solo instruments):

3. "Women", by Jamey Johnson:

This cheekily funny song ("they're all craaaaaazy"...) is my 2nd favorite of the 4th Country pack, mainly due to its really fun hammer-on sections in the guitar solos. The twangy guitar chart also has some quick singles and chords throughout the song, plus a somewhat odd outro. The bass is constant and simple. As for the drum chart, there is enough variation for it to stay interesting.

2. "What Was I Thinkin'", by Dierks Bentley:

Dierks Bentley had one of my favorite tracks of the 1st country pack with "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)", so I'm wasn't too surprised that he ended up having my favorite of the 4th. As usual for this artist, the song has great rhythm and energy. The drum chart includes 3-4 fun beats, including a neat one with the green pad. The song has a very dynamic guitar chart with a great mix of chords and singles, plus a fun solo. The groovy bass chart also has lots of movement. On top of all this, the semi-raunchy story will keep you entertained.

1. "Seven", by Sunny Day Real Estate:

This RBN song tops my list due to its really amazing drum chart. It has 3-4 fast beats with constant movement and variation, but it is never impossible. There is a great section with stop/start sequences, plus another fun one with "double pad/bass pedal" alternating. The bass chart has a tough pattern at the beginning, but it then gets easier. The fast and fun chord patterns on guitar can sometimes be challenging. If only all emo songs were as enjoyable to play as this one...

Honorable mention. "Do Not Disturb (Tell Me How Bad)", by Let's Get It:

There were lots of other higlights last week, including some great hammer-ons and taps on guitar in "Bang Camaro" (also features an army of cowbell vocalists...), the always impressive riffs and solos of Five Finger Death Punch in "Hard to See", the awesome unique flowing beat at the very end of "Days Go By", the challenging patterns and variety on guitar in "Would You Go With Me", the quick double notes on guitar and bass on "It Happens", plus the impressive range on vocals in "Hell on the Heart" and "Fancy", but I have to reserve my special mention for the neat sounding pop-rock RBN song by Let's Get It. The main reason is due to its challenging and fun vocals that are all over the place. It also includes a tough rolling beat on Expert and a good diversity of beats. The guitar and bass charts are simple but the rhythm changes keep them interesting.

Hong Kong Cinema

Last week we didn't play RB as Raikan was sick. Instead, I shared one of my favorite Hong Kong movies with Phoenix.

As you can imagine from this blog and the website I created (RockBandStats.com), I tend to get pretty involved in my hobbies. My passion between 1996 and 2001 was Hong Kong cinema. I owned hundreds of DVDs and even went as far as writing a movie script.

Like most people who got into Hong Kong cinema, it started with Jackie Chan movies. My collection grew to include classics from John Woo, Jet Li, Stephen Chow, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Wong Kar-wai, Anthony Wong, etc...

Last week we watched an original version (Cantonese + English subtitles) of what I consider to be Jackie Chan's greatest achievement, "Drunken Master 2" (released here as "The Legend of Drunken Master"). The final 20-minute multi-part fight sequence is one of the most impressive in movie history. The period between "Drunken Master 1" (1978) and "Drunken Master 2" (1994) is to me the pinnacle of Jackie Chan's career.

In future weeks, we'll likely watch what I consider to be Jet Li's best ("Fist of Legend") and Tony Jaa's best ("Ong Bak", a Thailand modern action classic). We'll also see the John Woo movie with the best action scenes ("Hard Boiled", although "The Killer" is a better overall movie). I might even share my favorite Stephen Chow comedies ("God of Cookery" and "Love on Delivery").

All songs played

Last week we managed to catch up by playing all 32 unplayed songs. That will allow us to concentrate only on new DLC this week, as well as our worst songs by star (ex: we have 5 3-star songs). We added 26M points to our total (1324M to 1350M).

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 32 songs: Gold stars (5), 5 stars (19), 4 stars (7), 3 stars (1, for "Crushed Beyond Dust")
- Raikan and Bongoo were the "Top Performers" for the most songs (14 each), followed by Phoenix (8)
- Bongoo was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (17), followed by Raikan (6) and Phoenix (5)
- Bongoo had the most FCs (4), followed by Raikan (1)
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "Blow at High Dough", "Bulletproof", "I Got Mine", "The Crying Machine (Live)"
- Bongoo got double "Top Performer" for "Is There a Ghost" (FCs for guitar and vocals), while Raikan and Phoenix tie for "Worst Performer" (both at 99%). Apart from a few full band FCs, this might be the 1st time we have 4 people to mention for top and worst
- Phoenix showed great skills on drums, allowing us to pass "Crushed Beyond Dust" and "Hook, Line, and Sinner" on Expert (even getting 4 stars for the latter)
- Raikan managed to get "Worst Performer" and "Band Savior" on the same song ("Hook, Line, and Sinner")...

Kevin Bacon tastes odd

Last week we managed to catch up a bit and played 13 songs out of the 34 on our to-play list (unplayed + 3-star), gaining about 12M points.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 13 songs: Gold stars (3), 5 stars (5), 4 stars (5)
- Raikan was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (6), followed by Bongoo (4) and Phoenix (3)
- Bongoo was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (8), followed by Phoenix (2) and Raikan (1)
- There were no FCs
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moment was during "Yerbatero"
- Bongoo got "Top Performer" (vocals) and "Worst Performer (guitar) on the highly unusual "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon" by "iwrestledabearonce"

Rammstein night

Last week we didn't play Rock Band because Raikan was unavailable. Phoenix and I took the opportunity to watch some amazing Rammstein concerts (1998: Live Aus Berlin DVD, 2005 from France: Völkerball DVD).

They have the best live show in the business, with amazing pyro effects, interesting stage theatrics (especially between the singer and keyboardist) and great atmosphere. I can attest to that as I've seen them live every time they've come to Canada:
- 1999: Metropolis - Montréal
- 2001: Metropolis - Montréal
- 2010: Plaines d'Abraham - Québec

I've managed to get to the front for each concert and really feel the heat from the flames. The highlight was definitely the show in Québec as it was outdoors with a crowd of more than 100,000 people. The open sky allowed for an even greater variety of effects (see "Rammstein Québec" videos on Youtube). It's the craziest concert I've ever seen for many reasons (size of crowd, fight for survival at the front, raw energy from the band, variety of pyro and fireworks, etc...).

If you want to see their concert for this tour in full, search for "fuckingdevotee 2010-05-22" on Youtube (link here). It was 1 of 3 nights in Berlin in May, with all 18 songs filmed in HD by a fan. The band might eventually release a DVD from one of those nights. Here is the setlist if you want to see it in order:

- Rammlied
- Bückstabü
- Waidmanns Heil
- Keine Lust
- Weisses Fleisch
- Feuer Frei
- Wiener Blut
- Frühling in Paris
- Ich tu Dir weh
- Du Riechst So Gut
- Benzin
- Links 234
- Du Hast
- Pussy
————————ENCORE
- Sonne
- Haifisch
- Ich Will
————————ENCORE
- Engel

In Québec it was the same order of songs, but without "Weisses Fleisch" and "Engel". They played after it was dark outside so the effects were even more prominent than at the beginning of the Berlin show on Youtube. Some of the pyro and fireworks were also a bit more elaborate (ex: "Pyro line over crowd and explosion on stage during "Du Hast", intense flames at the end of "Sonne", etc...).

It is high time that this truly unique band comes to Rock Band (they have 1 song in "Guitar Hero 5" and 1 in the upcoming "Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock"). I'm surprised this hasen't happened already considering the recent support for industrial metal in Rock Band (ex: Ministry, KMFDM).

There are so many good songs to choose from, but if I had to limit it to a 12-pack, it would be:
- Ich Will
- Du Hast (EDIT: already in RB3, so I'll put "Tier" instead)
- Sehnsucht
- Du Riechst So Gut
- Mein Herz brennt
- Sonne
- Mutter
- Engel
- Morgenstern
- Ich tu dir weh
- Benzin
- Reise, Reise

RB3 practice session

Last week was almost a Rock Band 3 practice session as Phoenix used his Roland electronic drum kit to get a feel for playing with more inputs. Apart from some lag issues that I assume won't be an issue in RB3, it was a good way to practice for the transition to Pro instruments this Fall.

For Rock Band 3 we'll be doing some 3-part harmonies, so Raikan had his turn practicing doing 2 instruments at once (Vocals + Bass = Voxass?). Normally Bongoo does some sightread voxtar for the new DLC (Vocals + Guitar). Perhaps Phoenix can give it a try soon while drumming (Voxrum?).

The session was also special due to a surprise visit by Phoenix's high school friends. Sylvie also showed up and she played 2 songs on Bass. We had time to play 15 of the 24 new DLC of the last 2 weeks, gaining 9M points (1303M to 1312M) in the process. This will help us continue our climb of the "All Songs" Leaderboards. We had a lower average points per song than usual due to the RB3 practice but it was worth it for the experience gained.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 15 songs: 5 stars (6), 4 stars (5), 3 stars (4, for "Gotas de Agua Dulce", "Mala Gente", "New Dark Ages" and "Nightmare (Avenged Sevenfold)")
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (13), followed by Sylvie (2) and Pheonix (1)
- Raikan was the "Worst Performer" for the most songs (9), followed by Phoenix (6)
- Bongoo had the only FC of the night
- Raikan's funniest wah-wah bass moments were during "Approach the Podium", "La Camisa Negra", "How We Roll", "Goth Girls" and "Indigo Friends"
- It was awesome to play the accordion twice in 1 session on guitar ("Fíjate Bien" and "Goth Girls"). What were the odds of having 2 accordion DLC in 1 week?
- We kept failing during the "Nightmare (Avenged Sevenfold)" intro, only to realize after 6 tries that we had accidentally removed the overdrive before the set! :)