We've Got a Rock in Common

Undersized and plastic. Faux frets in Playschool colors. It doesn't sound like a recipe for success, but when the newest version of Guitar Hero comes out in March, there will be dads all over the world forking out another fifty bucks or so to keep peace in the house. Thanks to the magical convergence of rock 'n roll dreams with video game addictions, boys from 10 to 20 have become intimately familiar with the music that provided a backdrop for my formative years. I slide right into the enabler role when I hear "All Along the Watchtower" and "Hot for Teacher" wafting up from the basement. It's something that I never expected to have in common with my kid, and it brings us closer – no question about it. You could have kindly described my dad's feeling for my music back in the day as a suppressed gag reflex, and Rock 'n Roll was a scrim between our lives.

 

I took my son and his friends to the Carnegie Science Center this evening for their eight big screens and a stage of Guitar Hero World Tour. I didn't read the description too carefully, for I was under the impression that the boys would be enrolled in the local part of a national contest for Guitar Hero supremacy. The picture in my mind- and the minds of the pre-teens I was chauffeuring to the Science Center – was one of long pulsing lines of Rock God wanna-be's clamoring for the spotlight of "The Works" theater on the fourth floor – adjacent to the big room of physics experiments. The turnout, in fact, was so light, that the boys were hitting the stage about every third time – getting plenty of opportunity to show off their chops. They did pretty well, too, although the camera trained on the stage and projected onto four of the eight screens didn't excite the kids into movin' with the groovin'. They sat on stools and focused on the tasks at hand – it takes super concentration to rip out these songs at the "expert" level.

I would imagine that this gig will gain in popularity as the weeks progress. This incarnation of the promotion will take place every Saturday night through March, and I learned from asking the facilitators at the event that there were plans to have some nights of contests and perhaps some celebrity appearances. They also indicated that they would be ratcheting things up beginning in the summer by adding the drums to the mix – right now it's just two guitars at a time.

They have a snack stand set up outside, and you can sit on the stools and eat nachos and watch the kids throw down and try to answer Rock trivia questions from the emcees while the next set is loading onto the computer (I was reminded that Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees once – and to his chagrin).

The boys loved it, and at $8.00 per person ($5.00 member rate), I imagine that I'll be forking out some extra bling on coming Saturdays.