Harrah's Rock Band Competition

[moshun]

Ahh man, a friend of mine went to AC a couple weeks ago too with comped rooms and everything at that hotel and I didn't want to go. :\

[dropslash]

Hammond/Chicago!

Random Round:

Free Beer: Battery - Metallica
Definitely not the song you'd wish on anyone to have to play to kick the whole show off. They took it in stride though and powered through it. To be honest, it was a hell of a performance. You know, except for that weirdo lefty guy.

Vindictive Syndicate: Bodhisattva - Steely Dan
It was pretty clear that VS knew themselves some Steely Dan. They put on a great performance, blew the song away. Judges were left a bit cold though, not sure what was up with that. Maybe they didn't notice the BREAKNECK SPEED. It set the stage for the second round though...

Boom Boom Room Rockers: Ramblin' Man - The Allman Brothers Band
BBRR knew that their strongest RB aspect was not vocals and Ramblin' Man can do a number on your singer if they're not ready for it. So what did they do? They brought a stripper to dance for them while they played. Yeah, that's right. Now that's a hell of a way to distract some judges. Ha!

Ninja's In Disguise: Down With The Sickness - Disturbed
This was another band who clearly knew their way around this game and knew this song well. I appreciated that the lead singer filled in the missing whisper vocals at the beginning of the song. They breezed through DWtS and cemented themselves as top performers.

Abe Froman & The Sasuage Kings of Chicago: Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins
I wish i could come up with words to describe this band. It was like... Poison collided with Ringling Bros. while playing Mike Tyson's Punch Out at the ballet. They came into the Regionals directly from that night's local competition. Their stage presence was just... wow. Oh yeah, they had no problems with the song either.

Pirates With Lazer Guns: Flirtin' With Disaster - Molly Hatchet
During sound check the production team was baffled by the bands name because, well, the whole band was dressed pretty vanilla. Not for this performance though, it was full on pirate action including the tallest hat I've ever seen. The costumes were awesome but they didn't even need them to brisk through FwD without issue.

After Pirates played though, it was on. Never before in the history of Rock Band have we literally had Pirates vs. Ninjas. That fact alone was worth the wait for Round 2.

During the set break, good ol' John D (Hi, John!) took the stage to hit the crowd with some Rock Band trivia for fun and prizes. It turned out exactly how you think it did. Ninja's swooped in from the darkness to claim one prize package and Pirates raided the stage for a second. I mean, really, how can anyone hope to defeat pirates and ninjas at the same time. No sir, not happnin'.


Band Choice Round:

Free Beer: Dani California - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Wait, what? A Chili Peppers song that's not Give It Away, huzzah! Free Beer came out much stronger, probably due to the fact that they didn't have Battery shoved down their throats. They clearly new this song well and the performance really shined through... and then they gave everyone in Production heart attacks by smashing real-looking fake Rock Band guitars at the end of the song. It was hilarious and oh so awesome. No really... it was AWESOME.

Vindictive Syndicate: Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Holy Christ in a cardigan sweater. If VS was holding back on Bodhisattva, they really just let it all go on Ballroom. The gloves were off and they just destroyed this song in every imaginable way. Barrel rolls, T-shirt tossing, Breakneck Speed, you name it. They blew the doors off of the venue. They were handily rewarded with scores of "10, 10, 9", the highest judges scores to date. It was exactly what a Rock Band performance should be.

Boom Boom Room Rockers: Everlong - The Foo Fighters
Sans stripper for this round, BBRR was determined to show everyone what they could do. The Guitar and Bass player spent nearly the whole song in the crowd, like, literally playing without watching any screens, hanging with the folks down front and still shredding away. At one point, it was just the drummer on stage and i'm sure he would have been in the crowd if he could have been. They really knew how to work the room and it showed.

Ninja's In Disguise: Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Ninja's aren't known for their fear and it showed when they stuck with Ballroom after VS's performance. It was a high bar to get over but they brought it on the whole way. The execution was dead on. They really stepped it up from Round 1 and went nuts on this song. Their in-game score was higher than VS, but they weren't able to match the performance scores. The race to number one was insanely close at this point in the tourney.

Abe Froman & The Sasuage Kings of Chicago: Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Oh, that's right. 3 full on performances of Ballroom. It really was a blitz at this point. Abe & Co.'s insane stage presence really played to the nutty energy this song was heaping out. Even though they weren't able to match the game score of Ninja's or the Performance score of VS, they really put on an amazing show. They're one of those bands that you watch and are just like "What the hell is going on? I don't know, but it's awesome." They even had an errant stage diver during their show.

Pirates With Lazer Guns: Aarrrrrrrrr You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
There's no way that song name wasn't planned. The Pirates wrapped things up and they did it with a great song that should probably be played more than it is. Again, they knew this track inside and out and it really put an awesome ribbon on the evenings events. Their stage presence was just awesome, I mean, seriously, how often do you get to see pirates rocking out? Answer: Never, unless you were in Hammond tonight, and really... you had no excuse not to be!

At the end of the show it seemed like everyone sort of knew who was taking the evening's grand prize. Ninja's In Disguise were just A rate through both performances. In reality though, Vindictive Syndicate's 2nd Round performance (they destroyed Round 2) had the judges counting up every last point. Personally, i was hoping for a tie that would have culminated with a head-to-head battle of the Rock Bands throw down slobberknocker, but once every last point was added and tallied, Ninja's In Disguise took the gold.

I really can't stress enough how the quality of bands tonight was nothing short of stellar. I got to see some of the best performances i've ever seen, wildly creative, talented, and full on rock and roll. VS's Ballroom Blitz is like the new standard for what bands should be shooting for in the next few weeks leading up to the Atlantic City Finals.

To all the bands from Hammond tonight: Thank you. You guys were all simply fantastic and it really made the night awesome to be part of. I took a ton of pictures, i'll see about getting a bunch uploaded.

[SAMurphis]

Wow Great Breakdown DropSlash....how did the bands score compared to the Vegas group on the actual game score? And what happens in the event of a tie?

[brakop]

Definitely a nice breakdown DropSlash! Bryce from VS here, just want to say that the entire event was amazing and we had a friggin' blast playing The Venue! Multiple monitors, huge stage, awesome sound, AN AWESOME CALIBRATION, and Break Neck speed to boot! And of course, after the whole thing was over we came back to the hotel... AND PLAYED ROCK BAND! With all the other bands staying at our hotel, including Ninjas in Disguise! Let me just say that Ninjas have what it takes to go all the way, and I expect to see the take it in Atlantic City!

Speaking of awesome though, apparently we rocked so hard on our 2nd performance that both of our crowd member who were recording it had "technical difficulties" so if ANYONE has this, please, please send me a copy or post it somewhere!

And to everyone from Regionals last night, I think you all put an a great show, I don't think that crowd last night really knew what how to handle all of that Rock! Reminder! To any bands still interested May 15th! KC Rock Band party at my place! Contact me for details if you don't have them!

[SAMurphis]

Hey Bryce it's Shawn from FA/KE (the Vegas band) congratulations on the writeup...sounds like you guys burned the place down, and I would love to hear more about it. Shoot me an email when you can at mshawn2@mac.com.

Thanks!

[Wasch_24]

What's up everyone!?

Last night was a friggin' blast in Hammond!

Everyone put on an awesome show and the after party at the hotel was awesome.

I have a ton of Pics, with the results screens, that I'll get posted up sometime late in the day on Sunday.

Anyway, last night was an awesome experience and it was great being able to meet all the bands from around the Midwest.

Later.

[LiquidKourage]

Jason here, vocalist from Abe Froman & The Sausage Kings Of Chicago. We had an AMAZING time last night at Regionals, and I want to throw a shout-out to the rest of the bands who really brought it for the competition. It was an awesome night, felt great to get the rockstar treatment (even though we were run around quite a bit before the contest started!), and I had a wonderful time meeting all the other Midwest bands.

Congratulations go out to Ninjas in Disguise, who came prepared to win and looked great on stage. Hell, I'm just happy we didn't get laughed out of the contest due to our ridiculous costumes

[dropslash]

Originally Posted by SAMurphis

Wow Great Breakdown DropSlash....how did the bands score compared to the Vegas group on the actual game score? And what happens in the event of a tie?

On average, the game scores were higher than Vegas, but there were also more bands so that average is a bit skewed. The highest of the night, i believe, was Ninja's 1.5/6ish mil on Ballroom. A lot of the performances hovered near the million marker, some above, some below.

As for ties, i can't say anything about how the scoring is calculated but i can say that it would be nigh impossible to result in a tie. It's that way on purpose.

[SAMurphis]

Thanks dropslash...My tie question came from your statement

"Personally, i was hoping for a tie that would have culminated with a head-to-head battle of the Rock Bands throw down slobberknocker..."

And if a band wins first in performance and style but second in score and the other band wins first in score and second in style and performance, wouldn't that result in a tie?

[whypick1]

If Band A gets 30 points on style and 20 on performance, compared to Band B's 20 on style and 25 on performance, Band A still wins, since 50 > 45.