Rock Band Turns 4 Years Old! Post Your RB Memories

[LunaticSoul]

First time I played Rock Band.. uhm, always had been a fan of music games, but I didn't ever get caught in the GH wave of popularity, the only one I played as a friend's house was GH2 and I tbought it was great. Later, after discovering HMX was producing Rock Band, I decided in summer 2009 to give it a shot: bought one RB strato, one game. Thought honestly I didn't need all the other instruments, as I thought nobody was interested in playing.. Boy I was wrong! Every friend of mine was already a fan of the game/became a fan and in less than one week we bought all together a "band in a box" RB1 set. Still hooked to the game!

My best memory linked to the game.. Firstly, all the good bands I discovered, Rock Band really helped me broad my musical taste, as I was a bit "close-minded" before..

Secondly: all the fantastic parties I have done in this two years. The best one we made (and the craziest!) was an outdoor Rock Band party for my 21th birthday this year: to celebrate it we made a fictional band, we prepared "comical" lyrics to sing over the original ones for six of the songs we had on RB and we literally made a gig, with a wooden stage, ampli, pyros.. but we were actually playing Rock Band! The videos are huge as our performance lasted nearly 40 minutes, but here are some pictures of the night:

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[Jae_Onasi]

My best memory so far--playing Beatles Rock Band with 3 generations! My kids and I have been playing Rock Band for awhile, and we especially have fun playing Lego Rock Band. When Beatles Rock Band was announced, however, I knew I had to get that one right away. My sister and I love the Beatles, but even better, my dad is probably one of the BIGGEST Beatles fans ever. The expanded number of players would allow even more of us to game together, too. So I pre-ordered the game and invited them all to come to my house on release night. The morning that I was driving to the store to pick up the game, I was listening to WGN radio (AM 720) out of Chicago. John Williams was hosting at that time, and was talking about why he couldn't understand what people got out of playing music 'on plastic guitars'. I called up the show, and actually ended up on the air explaining to him (and the rest of Chicagoland!) how fun the game was, and how it was bringing our entire family together in a really cool way.

That evening, my dad and my sister came over to game. My dad took lead vocals, my sister played drums, I sang harmony, and my hubby and kids took turns playing guitar and bass. We had a FANTASTIC time bringing 3 generations together to enjoy the night and share amazing music and gameplay rocking through some of our favorite music.

[Sayburr]

I had heard of Guitar Hero previously, but thought to myself, “one player glorified air guitar, not for me”. Then I started hearing about Rock Band. Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Vocals… all able to play local. Wow, how awesome is that?

Rock Band wasn’t released in time for our Halloween party, but it was our turn to host the New Years Eve party and I thought, “how cool would it be to have a ‘band’ for New Years?”

I kept up, on IGN.com with what was going on and found out that The Who was on-board with the game and planned on releasing an entire album, one of my all time favorite albums.

I was in! On launch day Alesia was going shopping with the kids. I hate shopping, but asked her to pick up a copy for me along with an extra guitar controller. My nephew and his best friend were so excited when they brought the game in to me, but it was after 10pm so after they helped me unpack the game, they had to go home. Alesia said there were only two bundles left at Game Stop and one extra guitar so she was glad she picked it up for me before it they were all gone.

Not knowing what to expect, I was not overly excited myself so I waited until the next day to set things up. I started playing guitar on easy and was quickly hooked. Oh, what fun this game is! I talked Alesia into trying out the drums and all of a sudden she was all over them, grinning and having a lot of fun.

We went to bed around 3am that night, and we played every day for quite a while… until we got suck on Enter Sandman. Even on Easy we just couldn’t get past it. I called my son-in-law up and he drove an hour to come and unlock that song for me.

Then, the best thing ever happened. New Years rolled around. The game was set up and after the New Year rang in I went in and started playing the game. People gathered and started playing the game with me. Having four people playing at one time with an audience was a great experience. People dancing around the house and singing along was simply amazing. It had to be the best gaming experience I have ever had, even better than when we would daisy-chain together four x-boxes to play four player Halo on four different TVs.

We played that game from Midnight until about noon the next day as people got too tired or too tipsy to continue playing. I know for a fact that six friends went out that week and bought either a 360 or a PS3 and a copy of Rock Band for themselves. Over the next year or two people would come over to the house just to play Rock Band.

My fondest memory, therefore, is Rock Band being the best party game every created and nothing will ever match it for the fun factor it produced.

… and the Forums. I remember thinking I need to see if I can find out what songs will be available to purchase for the New Years party. I had already picked up several song and was going to see if there was a list of upcoming songs when I stumbled on this web site. I found the atmosphere friendly and soon signed up.

In addition, who would have ever thought that a music game would make sure its songs were forward compatible and that I would have over 1,000 songs to choose from? No game has ever been so forward thinking and consumer friendly. Even though I don’t play nearly as much anymore, I still support HMX by buying songs simply because they are the best.

[ecIggy]

Too many memories to list here, all fantastic. My 1st was RB1 on release night, playing well past everyone else left. Totally losing my voice after getting addicted to singing. I actually remember deciding our line-up one night at a bar. Essentially it boiled down to the hyper spazzy kid calling drums, the token black friend of the group (tho he actually wasn't) calling bass, and my other GH2 counter-part taking guitar... I got stuck on vocals and they had to suffer. Even 2 nights ago we totally fogged up the basement blasting Avenged, Metallica, and Journey. That never gets old!

[TheHundredDollarHeadache]

It started with playing RB1 at Best Buy. My Best Buy had the full version of the game, not just a demo.

At the time, I had a Wii, and I knew Wii RB1 was a gimped piece of junk, so I mostly played Guitar Hero until Wii RB2 came out. On the Wii, I made it to a billion fans after playing for a few years, having fun dressing up my characters and watching them perform as I played, getting about $30-40 of songs from the Pepsi promotion.

I then got a 360 with a complete RB1 setup at a garage sale for cheap, so I moved to 360 and started rebuying songs. But, that 360 broke down, so I had to wait until I got the money to replace it. I then followed the news of RB3 with much anticipation.

By the time I got the money to replace everything (thanks to government cheese - I mean "excess financial aid after scholarships"), RB3 was out, and I was mesmerized by the Pro Modes, and eventually made it to a billion fans. I also managed to rebuy most of my songs before the financial aid ran out.

But, I started to miss RB2, as my characters in RB3 never seemed to look or move right. So, I went back, re-creating my Wii RB2 band on the 360, and they look better than before.

[Jarr3tt88]

Congrats on your accomplishments Harmonix! I would like to take the time and say thanks for the memories! There sure has been alot of those in the past 4 years playing Rock Band, and even on these forums! Rock Band has given me entertainment for many hours day and night, and provided me many challenges. Best investment I ever made You've made me poor with all your awesome content in bands which is phenomenal. I've found new bands I've never heard of before, Bang Camaro, Rose of Jericho, Black Tide, Paramore, Johnathan Coulton, and the introduction of my favorite band ever BOSTON! and many more of course too many to list!

I'll never forget 2007. The months of build up agony and anticipation that the greatest game of all time would finally be released. I remember receiving a text from my friend about Rock Band as we had been fans of Guitar Hero. I checked out the news reviews and was intrigued. When that Welcome to the Jungle video first surfaced, it was over. I knew I had to have this game! I watched that video countless times, air drumming, singing, and playing along with my explorer guitar.

Midnight release nov 20th, 2007 I was on line at Best Buy. I knew I was getting the bundle, and I dragged my friend there to wait with me. I was one of the first people there! I was really excited and couldn't wait to get the bundle, rip it open and start rocking the drums! I've always been interested in the drums, but never felt like I could do the independent limb thing. I still have the pic on my phone I took of the wall of RB1 bundles. Great memories came when I started to progress on the drums from medium to hard. I've never forget the day I passed Run to the Hills on Expert drums. I never thought I would see the day! I never imagined being able to play expert drums, but I soon was getting gold stars left and right with 100% It was a great feeling of accomplishment when I got my AN-I-MAL!!! Achievement; Still my most prestigious

I've met several awesome people on Rock Band and on the forums.

I've had a popular youtube channel show casing all the awesome DLC from this game, over 8 million total views until one day where the WMG take over wiped out several known channels. Devastating. But it was a pleasure to show those people the charts to help get more sales for DLC! To get even more awesome songs in my favorite game.

Thanks Harmonix. Heres to many more years to come!

[Tykki-Teme]

I was lead to Rock Band 2 through Guitar Hero III, to which I was lead to by Frets on Fire. I got Rock Band 2 just before christmas 2008, and I freaking loved it. I played it quite extensively; After only a couple of months, I was playing nearly all songs I had on expert drums (Note: I had absolutely zero prior drumming experience). Soon, I added RB1 to my collection and started buying DLC more and more.

Today, nearly three years later, the only game that is able to keep my attention for more than a week, is Rock Band 3 (for comparison, I had waited a time long for Uncharted 3, played it for less than a week and that was it). I have all possible instrument types and nearly 900 songs, including all available game and track pack exports and about 150 RBN songs. I play almost all of the instruments on expert or hard. After all this time I still play the game nearly daily, and love every second of it.

Greatest game series of all time, is what I'm saying. Keep up the excellent work, people.

Also, in addition to providing me with countless hours of entertainment, Rock Band has greatly expanded my musical tastes. About 95% of all music I listen to today has one way or another been introduced to me through Rock Band. For example, two of my three favorite bands I have discovered through Rock Band.

And thanks to the pro instruments, I can play drums amazingly well (Well, amazinigly well considering I learned it through a video game :P) and I've finally began learning real guitar and keyboards. Even if I count all my other games together, they still haven't done as much for me as Rock Band has.

[Lord_Mhoram]

Does.....not.....compute

I didn't know much about music games, so I bought the most recent. And it was before Rock Band came out. I bought that a month later, and was hooked.

[generalbane]

RB entered my life in the winter of 08, as the effects of GH finally started to wear off of me. I was at Best Buy with tons of Christmas money and decided to take a chance on this new game, mostly for the drums. It was an instant obsession. When I finally completed Run to the Hills on expert drums, I knew I had accomplished a mighty feat indeed. Metallica was my first DLC, and RB 2 solidified my undying love for this game. The biggest thing I owe to RB was it introducing me to Dream Theater through RB 2. When I tried Panic Attack for the first time on drums, I was blown away. Thank you HMX for all the magic you have created and best of luck to all you do in the future!

[Pime_Taradox234]

I remember, it was back in 2008. Friend of mine and I wanted to get Rock Band 1 for his PS3 (I didn't have one yet but I would later in the year). I even bought an extra guitar before he bought the full bundle so that we could have the full band experience when we started. It was a lot of fun. Although, the first time I actually got to play RB was a little bit before that, at some other friend's house. Shortly after 2009 started I already had my PS3 and I eventually got to borrow RB and the drumset for myself. Gee, I remember how happy I was when I passed my first song on Expert drums (Enter Sandman :P). I didn't feel like I was ready for expert yet, lol.

I've enjoyed playing all 5 instruments so far but drums and vocals are my top favs. I can do fairly well on drums and even though I have a bad singing voice, heh, I still enjoy singing in RB.

Also, it's thanks to RB that I became increasingly interested in rock music again. Although Guitar Hero 3 (my first music game) did that first, RB spurred my interest even more. Also because of RB, I got into Rush (my most favorite band that I've been listening to for 2 1/2 years now) and Silversun Pickups (another fav).

RB is just great. I haven't really gotten tired of playing the games yet. Even though there hasn't been as much DLC that I've been interested in as before, I still enjoy playing what I have now. Thank you so much Harmonix for making this awesome franchise. Hope you guys continue making it more awesome.