Rock Band ? A Rock Band

The latest big thing in video games (other than Super Mario Galaxy) is Rock Band—a crazy mix of Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero where you get to play real songs and "Simon Says" your way through them on guitar, bass, drums or on the microphone.

The game was developed by Harmonix, the team that made the three wildly popular Guitar Hero games, so If you've seen Guitar Hero played, you have about half of what's going on figured out.

Guitar Hero nights have been popping up at local drinking holes, as the game really becomes more fun for everyone when alcohol enters the equation—just like karaoke—so it makes perfect sense that Rock Band would upset Guitar Hero at Ground Kontrol's monthly projection-screen feature. The second Tuesday of the month used to be Guitar Hero night, but, like Mike Tyson's Punch-Out eclipsed plain ol' Punch Out, Rock Band is the hot music-imitation game de rigeur. Dec. 11 at Ground Kontrol, 511 NW Couch St., (503)796-9364, 9pm, 21 & up. Free.

Carrie Brownstein, the guitarist from Sleater-Kinney, just reviewed the game for Slate.com, bringing her experience into the article in a hilarious and insightful way that makes for a great read. When Rock Band came to the WWeek office (as you careful WWire readers may remember), we wanted to have someone from a real rock band there to try out the game with us, but we didn't do to bad on our own.

Links:
Ground Kontrol's website
Carrie Brownstein's article
WWeek rocks out (WWire article)