Harrah's Rock Band Competition

[MelonCollie01]

Well it sounds like you guys had a somewhat frustrating time in Atlantic city with the setup and two of the judges.

I will tell you that the setup at the Hammond regional doesn't sound all that different than what you had in AC, there was a TV for the drummer and one other tv for the the other 3 to share. They did have a huge projector shooting the game onto he back wall, but in order to utilize that you had to turn your back to the crowd and therefore couldn't use that screen.

We had a little trouble with the judges in Hammond too, we drew Battery as our random song and one of the judges remarked that our style and outfits didn't match Metallica (WTF???) like we knew we were going to play them.
Also one of the judges said "You guys started really slow, and I don't know maybe that is how the song goes, but you need to grab me right from the start." (No **** sherlock, Battery starts really slow, were you not just listening to that song or what!)
Everyone had to deal with the judges and their personal preferences from the regionals to finals, but I don't need the judges to be cruel like the one sounded like in the finals. Hope it didn't completely spoil the trip and experience.

Keep Rocking

Adam
"Free Beer" guitar
XBL GT: MelonCollie01
Platinum *****es!!!!

[S1ckH4nds]

We had a little trouble with the judges in Hammond too, we drew Battery as our random song and one of the judges remarked that our style and outfits didn't match Metallica (WTF???) like we knew we were going to play them.

That's ironic, because that's the same exact thing that had happened to Mario Speedwagon in the semi-finals; the singer was wearing a pink t-shirt and jean-jacket vest and the first judge said something like "I had to dock you points because I don't think James would ever wear pink".

[BryanAtomic]

Bryan, I don't think you needed to edit out your comments about the judges in the finals. There's no question in my mind that the first judge, the one who gave a four to FA/KE (who had the misfortune to draw "Ramblin' Man"), had no clue what she was doing. It was a random draw of six songs, that song was one of the six, and she gave a four simply because "ehhh I don't really like southern rock". Seriously; what the f*** was that about? Props again to HMXSean because at least he understood the competition, how it was set up, and what to be looking for, but the other guys literally seemed to be brought in on a moment's notice and were simply judging on arbitrary criteria that didn't really have anything to do with what was going on.

Yes that was what I was getting at. We had excellent judges in new orleans (Besides one silly comment about someones shorts, but that was actually reasonable, as it fit the Style score) and to come into the finals to have a judge examine a band based on how much she did or didnt like southern rock or how much she liked Smashing pumpkins in ANY round was really silly. I hope next time they will screen the judges a little better then what they did, as the finals guest judges acted pritty damn clueless.

The ideal judge set for the finals would have been HMXSean, one of the B-52's, and HMXJohnD. That way we would have had two judges we absolutely could be sure of judging based on the actual criteria, not some superficial bull**** like a few of the judges pulled. And one of the b-52's, as that way you had a person from a real band that knew what to look for and knew what he would want on stage before they went on stage.

[Paradiddled]

hey guys, its the drummer for Ninjas here. What a great weekend it was. I'll keep this short and simple since there will be some epic writings coming sooner than not



Grats to the gurnkillers, you guys did great and it was great meeting all of you and getting to see both your regionals and finals live.


Fa/ke, you guys put on a performance that even rivaled the b-52's the next night for your 2nd round, I'm happy I got a front stage pass to it.


Wet Nelson, you guys were hardcore to the bone, cool to hang out with, and definitely deserved to be there at the finals, despite what anyone else might 'think'

(Note: SCREECH!? or...IM NOT A FAN OF SOUTHERN ROCK)


anyways...I hope to see all of you guys competing in whatever tournament comes around next.


-Ninja Out

[whypick1]

That's ironic, because that's the same exact thing that had happened to Mario Speedwagon in the semi-finals; the singer was wearing a pink t-shirt and jean-jacket vest and the first judge said something like "I had to dock you points because I don't think James would ever wear pink".

And I got criticized becase "Kirk Hammett would not wear a blazer" (apparently the judges designated me the band whipping boy, because I certainly didn't get singled out for anything positive).

Glad to be back in Portland though, AC was getting hella expensive, especially for not actually winning anything while there (although you wouldn't know it considering how long we stuck around).

Oh, and I want to steal Fred Schnieder's tamborine.

[whypick1]

The concert itself:

*No new DLC announcements, sorry
*B-52s put on a good show
*The 88 are boring

As for Gurn...they were allotted 20 minutes...for 2 songs. Look, I'd say the danger of them playing GGaHT or The Camera Eye would be fairly small (know thy audience and all of that), but only 2 songs is rather weak. 3 would be perfectly understandable, which is exactly how Gurn felt as they tried to sneak in a 3 song setlist (totally a rock and roll move). The crowd looked a little perplexed as they were doing Hello There, but they started to get into it towards the end of Message in a Bottle, but unfortunately the curtains closed just before More than a Feeling could start. Hell, the video they played, where Sway explained the contest, went over all of the regional winners (including "The Gernkillers"), and the finals, was about as long as their set.

Overall, the competition was definitely a bit rough around the edges, but hopefully next time they learn from their mistakes. This was a rather big undertaking afterall, so it's not going to be perfect right out of the gate.

[Pluggers]

I just want Sean to buy me another drink. C'mon buddy!
Quote of the night from Sean during the after party: (He whips out his wallet and pulls out a card) "Corporate Credit Card. Oh yeah..."

Don't forget about the party in KC next week - going to be one helluva good time!

[whypick1]

Hanging out with Sean after the finals was cool, although I was afraid of two my bandmembers were going to get slapped with restraining orders with how much time they were spending with him. I got to mosh with him, and call him Not Lemmy.

Hey Sean, notice how I didn't mention that one thing I wasn't supposed to mention about that guy? Please don't ban me

[HMXdropslash]

Holy insane week, Batman. I can't even begin to describe all the madness that went on in Atlantic City over the past five days... no, wait, that's not right. I'm about to describe all that madness right here.

These are going to be some super-sized posts, so i'm going to start with the Eastern Regionals and then move to the Finals + House of Blues.

Ok, without further ado...

Total Rock, Total Rewards 2009: Atlantic City Regionals!

Random Round

Mario Speedwagon: Battery – Metallica
First off, i think this may be one the best band names in the history of Rock Band, if not ever. I had commented to Mario Speedwagon before they went on about not pulling Battery as the first band and they quickly assured me that they had no fear of the song. They were telling the truth. Not only did their lead singer actually know the vocal flow of the song, he brought a real cowbell for the mic tapping sections. Yes, a real cowbell. It was awesome. Christopher Walken would be proud. The judges had reservations about someone singing Metallica and wearing pink, but hey, both the Style and Performance scores were above average so it couldn't have been that bad.

Score: 452,052
Style: 23
Performance: 24

Strippers For Stephen Hawking: Ramblin' Man – The Allman Bros. Band
If you didn't know already, SFSH is a soon to be Husband & Wife band, so props to them for that (if you haven't seen the awesome proposal video, you can check it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDubUQb9AFQ). They also had a mysterious 5th band member, who i will refer to only as Pocket Squirrel. Anyway, as you can see by the score, SFSH took this song to school and back, and not in the short bus kind of way. This is one of my favorite Rock Band songs so i'm always happy to see it performed well. And by "well" i mean "95% one handed finger tappin' expert guitar solo".

Score: 1,105,730
Style: 24
Performance: 23

Blue Steel: Bodhitsattva – Steely Dan
Oh Blue Steel... i want to love you. Your band name is awesome, your lead singer is hilarious, and your drummer is fantastic. Oh, but no, not only is one of your guitarists a lefty (damn you leftys!), you also play on Breakneck Speed! Making me do work, how dare you! Anyway, it was pretty clear that Blue Steel were hometown heros. Their cheering section was huge, loud, and sign waving.

Score: 393,206
Style: 26
Performance: 23

The GurnKillers: Flirtin’ With Disaster – Molly Hatchet
Let's face some facts here, The GurnKillers were famous before they even stepped on the stage in Atlantic City. Well, at least with the massive, jumping, dancing, screaming, Gurn Army, crowd that was down in front of the stage. With the judges, i'm not so sure. Not only did they come prepared to alter their outfits based on the song, (and caught flack from the judges for "dressing on stage") they ripped up Flirtin' in a huge way. They rocked it so hard, they tore the fret keys off my precious guitars. I had to yank the guitar stand off the stage for fear of more destruction. Also worthy of note, Maria (our lovely MC) helped the drummer solve a mustache malfunction mid-song. Hot.

Score: 1,190,129
Style: 19
Performance: 23

Chris Derham and the 409 Surprise: Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
That's right! No Down With the Sickness! Take that, Disturbed! I want to know the origins of this bands name just because every time i hear it i can only think of "Formula 409". In any case, it was pretty clear that these guys were a bit of the underdogs. The judges came down on them pretty hard for their Style and Performance, but clearly their performance was photo worthy; They were photographing themselves on stage while they were playing. Ha! Revenge would be sweet for them though... read on.

Score: 437,379
Style: 14
Performance: 15


I've become pretty good at calling the rankings from my little home on the side of the stage and as we broke for Intermission i had it called as a tie between Strippers and Gurn. Well, as I was resetting the stages, replacing instruments (Thanks, Gurn!), and getting things ready to go, my radio comes to life and, lo and behold, it's a First Place tie between SFSH and Gurn! I was dead on! This meant that Round 2 was going to be critical to the winning band. Everyone really had to turn it up to eleven for this round... and indeed they did.

Also of note, by this time i had spotted both FA/KE and The Ninja's In Disguise in the crowd (I only spotted the Ninja's because they were, in fact, in disguise). It was "scope out the competition" time i guess. They were in for a hell of a show.


Band Choice Round

Mario Speedwagon: Kids In America – The Muffs
In a pretty brilliant move, Mario Speedwagon switched guitarist and singer for this round. With their switched up female vocalist front and center, they just let loose and tore the place up. For the whole song i had Nils, our graphics lead, commenting over radio about how she was just killing the vocals. Spot on and pure energy. The real cowbell from Round 1 was replaced with a real tambourine this round, again upping the ante with Style aspects no one had seen to date. The judges soundly agreed and rained praise down Mario's huge Performance leap forward. Original song, original Performance and Style aspects, amazing energy, and great stage antics set the bar really high for the rest of Round 2.

Score: 754,027
Style: 26
Performance: 27

Strippers For Stephen Hawking: Dani California – The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Ok, well, if you saw round one you would have probably wondered where the name "Strippers For Stephen Hawking" name came from since they were pretty much dressed as a swanky lounge act. Maybe it was just a clever name? Well, not just since in this round "strip" is exactly what they did. Our Round 1 lounge act turned into two Chippendales dancers, a French maid, and..well, Lt. Jim Dangle from Reno 911! Yeah... you read that correctly. I'm not quite sure how Stephen Hawking would react to this particular band of strippers, (Note to self: Send video to Stephen Hawking) but the crowd certainly seemed to love it. It probably helped that their lead Singer, the lovely French maid, spent a huge amount of the song actually in the crowd. Not only was the Performance amazing, they Gold Star'd the song, which was really rare in this competition. Gurn was going to really have to be on-game to take the Regionals after this knockout showing.

Score: 1,411,878
Style: 26
Performance: 25

Blue Steel: Dani California – The Red Hot Chili Peppers
The same song back to back... old news. Not Ballroom Blitz... what the hell?! That's right, Dani California was the star of the show tonight. It was easy to see, and hear, that Blue Steel were the local favorites. Their fan base out in the crowd was enormous and very, very loud. During this performance the Singer and Guitar player made a seamless role-swap that was just amazing as well as some crowd walks that were just as awesome. I love seeing new stage antics and Blue Steel's were really impressive. Blue Steel's killer Performance, Style, and Crowd weren't enough to make up for the low score though. They did get bonus points for being the oldest band there and still having the balls to compete with young'uns on-stage.

Score: 585,572
Style: 24
Performance: 26

The GurnKillers: Ballroom Blitz – Sweet
Ballroom makes it's first appearance! And what an appearance. If anyone was prepared for the outfits that The GurnKillers took the stage in, Sway wasn't among them. If you were there (or you've seen the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrBjq-wb3X8) then you know that Sway was at a loss for words when Gurn took the stage. Personally, i thought they were brilliant. The GurnKillers had a huge performance to top (Strippers) if they were going to take first in this tournament. Well, they came out with all pistons firing (and let's be honest, anyone who had eyes on their Guitarist and his Size 14 patent leather high heel boots and washboard abs probably had their pistons firing too). Gurn had clearly spent a lot of time with Ballroom and it showed. Their stage presence was unreal (seriously, watch the video. It's more than i can put into words here.) and they were rewarded handsomely for it by the judges. With a significantly lower game score than Strippers though, (they broke my poor Ion's bass pedal about 2/3rd's through) it was going to be a nail biter all the way to the final winner's announcement.

Score: 883,970
Style: 29
Performance: 26

Chris Derham and the 409 Surprise: Go With The Flow – Queens of the Stone Age
First off, since The 409's were a band made up of law students, everyone in production was paranoid that they were going to read through the rules and regulations and point out all kinds of inconsistencies and then force some kind of technical victory. As hilarious as that would have been, i have to say that The 409's are probably the easiest going group of guys i've ever met. I love when bands just pick songs they love and play them to enjoy them. This is exactly what The 409's did, and they did it dressed as a softball team and ref. It was clear that they were having an awesome time on stage and their singer is a great front-man. The judges were pretty harsh on them, but then again, "We don't dress like women." and by this point, the judges were probably confused about their own genders.

Score: 404,846
Style: 21
Performance: 21

The judges and scorekeepers went to work. The GurnKillers had decided not to replay Ballroom because of the bass pedal incident, so it was a tense time. Gurn and Strippers were in a dead heat so it was still anyones guess. Well... to break that tension the judges themselves decided to perform a song for everyone. Awww, what a nice group of guys. Well, you can't have a Rock Band performance without judges, so who stepped in to fill their shoes? That's right, Chris Derham and the 409 Surprise. With the new judges in place and the old judges on stage, the show began.


The Judges + Maria: Everlong – The Foo Fighters
With Sean taking control of the mic, he decided to put rest the rumor that he is, in fact, Dave Grohl. 5 out of 5 audience members agree. 5 out of 5 audience members also agree that Sean is, in fact, cooler than Dave Grohl, so the point is moot. So, despite Sean's amazing vocal stylings and crowd interactions, The Judges were promptly disqualified for not only changing drummers mid-song, but the second drummer was eleven years old. Maria was clearly there for the Style points, but when The 409's handed down their scores, i don't think anyone was shocked. Sweet, sweet revenge.

Score: 107,247
Style: -4
Performance: 3

Yeah, you read that right, -4. The score breakdown was actually "-10, 4, 2". Take that, Judges!

Anyway, with that trainwreck cleared off the stage, it was time to announce the winners of the Eastern Regionals. This whole time i'm sure Gurn and Strippers had gnawed their nails down to nothing. It was going to be close... and, well, it was. Close as in "Won by 1 point" close. And that victory belonged to The GurnKillers. Seems that men dressing as women on stage just barely went farther than men undressing on stage with a woman.

And that wrapped up the Eastern Regionals. I have to say, every band in AC for the Regionals defied expectations. The sportsman and band camaraderie was really fantastic. The GurnKiller's decision to not replay their second song really shows the depth of their character. They could have made a huge issue out of it, but instead decided to leave it to fate to decide.

Everyone who played put on spectacular performances and couldn't have been more worthy to be there. They really made the Eastern Regionals special. I'll have my photo's up ASAP.

That was just the tip of the iceberg though. We now had our 4 bands for the Finals and that means that everyone would be going all out for that grand prize. Friday would be insanity, the huge showdown between FA/KE, The Ninja's In Disguise, Wet Nelson and The Hot Commodities, and now, The GurnKillers.

That recap is coming, stay tuned...

[Kirksplosion]

I could come here and give 10,000 excuses as to why we did so bad, but they would be nothing more then excuses. I could tell you about how our trip started out with hours of delays, frustration, stuck circling the airport till around 8 at night (After being in the air since around 3, and after 2 hour delay at airport), equipment malfunctions, wardrobe malfunctions, yadda yadda yadda...and it still would not change the fact that we did nothing to compensate for those faults. The fact is that somewhere in between New Orleans and Atlantic city, we got gassed and lost our hearts. At some point during practice for the finals, and costume creating, we decided it was no longer worth the effort to try and win. It was not an active decision, not a single one of us said "Well who cares lets just go look like idiots and phone in the finals" but somehow we all ended up doing that. What a joke we behaved like, no energy, no desire, just content to bounce around on stage and wait for the end of the song.

Gotta tell you, this sounds like us during the Southern Regional. We were pumped and ready for this so hard. Calibration problems disheartened us, but we were going to carry on. Then we had nonstop problems during our first song: our guitarist accidentally picked Medium (he's an expert player), our bassist's contacts (yes, that's plural) came out halfway through the song, our drummer dropped his sticks at the end having to finish with his hands (that's actually kinda awesome), and I was told I got 80% (Getting below 95% is really rare for me). These problems really made us lose heart during this song. We came back for round two and rocked it as hard as we could, but the damage was done.

And, yeah, we love our guitarist's camo shorts. lol

It's sounds like every band put on a great show in AC (as it should be). Great job all around...I want videos!