(This thread tldr? just read the yellow to get a quick cap) :)

Thanks to Rock band, I've met some pretty amazing people. Using the "Substitute in a random band" feature on rock band, i ran into Ebeve198819 (Calvin - Bass) Who introduced me to Intemidator (Decker- Guitar) and Gloraver3619 (Matt - Drums). Long story short, they asked me to join their band (Rock band 2 Kids) which was accidentally erased by a PS3 Crash.. so we formed the band, Rock Band 3 Kids!
We played just about every single night together, but we had very few similar DLC together, that the on-disc songs were pretty much all we played at first. After a few months we decided to share DLC, and shortly after we decided to buy all the DLC that's available! Then we went from having hardly any DLC, to having all DLC! We went and played every song, and we continue to get the new stuff every week!
So after over a year, lots of $$ and quite a bit of alcohol (On Calvin and Decker's end) we finally decided to meet each other, get together and do the ESL! I live in Ohio, Matt's in Indiana, and Decker and Calvin are in Illinois, so We weren't that far off from each other!
I took the bus to meet up with Matt, and Decker picked us up and we drove over to Calvin's, near Chicago. We decided to spend from Friday night to Monday afternoon over there, and let me tell you, it was amazing! Fancy Rockband-decked out basement, Ions, ESLs, Random Jammage, Alcohol, ScoreDuels, Snacks, Bowling? and lots of Espresso.. Oh my!
After playing online for over a year with these guys, you get to know them pretty well.. and they were exactly the same in person as they are online-- completely awesome!

Vox Scoreduels in person = AMAZING, btw.

So we were randomly playing ( practicing, Before the ESL) and we land on Hysteria. Tough on bass, right?
I'm singing, minding my own business, when i hear "CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK" so fast and loud i can't hear myself! I look over and calvin is down strumming EVERY NOTE in the song!
... i was like "Ummmm.. they're hammer ons, calvin...." and he replied "...... hammer whats?"
i immediately stopped the song and the whole band started flipping out... Calvin can pass Hysteria with a 97% on bass, downstrumming every note, and not knowing about hammerons?! He can pass thrasher, WAHNTHAC, .. i dunno, just about EVERY song in the game he can pass, and he dosn't know about hammerons?!
... we sat him down and had a talk.
..... and made him go through ALL the tutorials.
..... after he was like "Ooooohh!! that DOES make it easier!!"
pfft.

Our ESL run was amazing! There was talk of switching instruments, and me on drums (which wouldn't have been pretty) but we ended up staying on our main instruments through the whole thing. We started the ESL at about 11pm.... I didn't keep track of our scores, our FCs, or.... really, our gold stars either. we were having so much fun, i don't think i could have... Jumping around, dancing, drinking, ... spilling drinks, sing-a-longs... muting the tv (for the whole song) ... yeah, we had a blast!
We muted the TV for the whole song, and ended up getting gold stars on a few random songs.
I do remember the first non- gold star we got was the AFI song... by that time i believe it was like, 3am, and we were all falling asleep.. so we stopped about halfway through, and picked it back up in the morning.... which was more like 11 or 12.
We sat down and got through the rest of the set lists without any major breaks (other than potty breaks).. During visions, Calvin failed out right at the beginning.. since it was a talky song, i handed him the mic and grabbed the bass from him... Decker saved me and we beat the song without failing out! We got through the last two no problem at all with calvin back on bass.
We passed most songs with gold stars, 4 starred very few, and passed every song on the first try! In my opinion, that's an excellent run! We got 410 out of 420 stars, and earned platinum for calvin, who had never done the ESL before.

After the ESL we went bowling to celebrate! Had to get away from the TV for awhile, and there was a GOD-LIKE bowling alley not too far from there. WOW it was HUGE!!
It had a full-sized bar inside, a huge arcade, and a lazer tag arena attached, plus the lanes was giant! wow
We bowled a few games, but Matt isn't big on bowling, so Matt and I played DDR for a bit.. I failed easy and he was amazing on expert! While we were doing that, Calvin and Decker were in the bar. One of the employees came up to me and said "Wow, so you're in the band? You're the singer? Your guitarist is looking for you!"
Wut! lol, so matt and I were escorted to the bar area where Decker and Calvin were playing Guitar Hero 5 on a huge screen and all the employees of the bowling/bar/lazertag/arcade were standing around impressed...
Apparently the district manager wants us to come and play for them; bring our PS3 with Rock band and all the DLC, and the full band and play, and they'd pay us 500$ plus 30% overhead, plus all the drinks we want.
And apparently, they want us to do this weekly....

... wow


So, we go from teaching calvin hammer ons...
To doing the ESL
... then we get an actual paying gig.
... what's next?




So in other words, i want to say THANK YOU to Harmonix and Rock Band for creating such a fun and entertaining game, and thank you for the online play, and bringing such great friends my way. <3


Here's our youtube--
http://www.youtube.com/user/RockBand3Kids

calvin learns hammerons-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=320QgQ5wjPI

Right on

Music and Friends, Friends and Music...

Always a great combo in my book.

Excellent story! And I'm laughing at Calvin about the hammer ons. But honestly, I wonder how many people are like that? Probably a lot.

I was very surprised! He plays bass 99% of the time, but he can FC just about any song, up until it gets to the impossible stuff... hysteria, 97% average, downstrumming every note? Ridiculous! haha

cool story bro

Honestly, that is actually a pretty amazing story, really heartwarming. The only reason that wouldn't make a good movie is that there aren't any bad times!

Will you still be doing Battle of the Bands and versus plays during those gigs?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oddbrother

Will you still be doing Battle of the Bands and versus plays during those gigs?

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We're working with the location right now based on what exactly they want us to do, but i'm thinking it'll be a league type thing, maybe once a month we'll be doing tournaments with real prizes and such.. We'll see what happens. I'll Keep ya posted! It's near Chicago.. the city calvin lives in is Huntley and the bowling alley is right near there.

wow, get paid to play Rock Band?? :eek:

Good stuff, sounds like you had a blast! Paid to play? You take the money and you run! Make it a fun thing for the punters - pull people up and teach them to play.

Your post, made me more appreciative of playing RB with my roommates.