Rock Stars & Guitar Hero 2006-11-08 by niobium | 14 Comments | On tour with his multiplatinum hard-rock band Korn last summer, Jonathan Davis regularly whipped crowds into a frenzy with classic-rock staples such as "Iron Man," "Smoke on the Water" and "More Than a Feeling." And that was before he even got off the tour bus.
Mr. Davis, Korn's lead singer, is part of an unlikely but growing fraternity: Rock stars who are also avid players of Guitar Hero, an electronic game that lets gamers pretend to be, well, rock stars.
From superstars like Korn to up-and-comers, Guitar Hero has quickly become a fixture on tour buses and in recording studios. Intended for air guitarists who might not be able to play the real instrument, the $70 PlayStation title has also won a following in the music world. Its devotees range from alternative-rocker Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to country stars Rascal Flatts, whose tour manager, Chris Alderman, says he frequently has trouble tearing the musicians away to conduct preconcert sound checks.
The game involves using a miniature plastic guitar to "play" along with songs associated with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Boston and the Ramones. Instead of strumming strings, players press color-coded buttons on the neck of the guitar to match "notes" that scroll across the TV screen. At the same time, players "pluck" a little toggle, earning points each time they hit a note successfully, which is then played through the speakers. A virtual crowd cheers harder the more skillfully a song is played.
The higher the degree of difficulty the player selects, the faster the notes come and the more of them there are. The game is one reason Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks recently agreed to pay $175 million to acquire the company that developed its software and hardware, Harmonix Music Systems Inc. A second version is due out this week from publisher RedOctane Inc., a division of Activision Inc.
For many rock musicians, the game's virtual stage would seem to be a pale, unsatisfying facsimile of what they experience every night. The music they're playing along with usually isn't even an original recording. Most of the songs in Guitar Hero have been re-recorded by studio musicians.
Many professional rockers, however, say the game lets them act out a fantasy that their real lives don't quite match. Sometimes, pretending to be a rock star for a few minutes can be more fun than being one.
Bob Bryar, drummer for the young alternative-rock band My Chemical Romance, whose album "The Black Parade" just made its debut at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album-sales chart, tends to be fairly retiring in his real-life role as a musician. "I feel better being in my own area" at the back of the stage, he says. Yet playing Guitar Hero in the privacy of his high-rise Chicago apartment, Mr. Bryar says he feels free to act like a flashy frontman.
"I've done some pretty embarrassing s-," the 26-year-old musician says. "Jumping off tables. Standing with my legs really far apart, in that goofy rock-star stance." He adds: "I got huge complaints at my apartment building because I put it through my Bose and shred Guitar Hero all night."
The game also gave Mr. Bryar the opportunity to best one of his bandmates at his own instrument. While My Chemical Romance was holed up at a rented Los Angeles mansion doing preproduction work on their new album, Mr. Bryar and guitarist Ray Toro built a daily ritual around Guitar Hero. Mr. Bryar played Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon" on the game, through a massive sound and video system, while his bandmate played along using his actual guitar. Although Mr. Bryar, the drummer, says he can barely play a lick of real guitar, he hit more notes of the song playing his virtual instrument than his bandmate did playing the real thing.
Indeed, a subject of hot debate among musicians is whether playing guitar actually makes one a better Guitar Hero player. Pressing little plastic buttons very quickly is, after all, quite different from playing actual notes and chords.
Michael Einziger, the 30-year-old guitarist for the hard-rock band Incubus, says he was "shocked at how hard it was" to play the videogame's version of his song "Stellar." He admits he was handily beaten by his then-14-year-old sister, Ruby Aldridge, when the two of them squared off earlier this year. "It doesn't have anything to do with playing guitar," Mr. Einziger says. "It's all rhythmic."
When the four members of the punk-pop band the Donnas got together to play Guitar Hero last week, guitarist Allison Robertson took some good-natured ribbing from her bandmates, says drummer Torry Castellano. That's because Ms. Robertson had a hard time playing along with the band's own song "Take It Off." "Expectations for her are pretty high because she's the guitar player and because she's so good at videogames in general," says Ms. Castellano.
Korn's Mr. Davis brought Guitar Hero on the road with him this past summer. But he is waiting until his band's next tour before inviting musicians from other bands to compete, when they will be able to play using a new, high-end audiovisual rig. "I didn't want to be a chump," he says. "I had to get my sound system hooked up right."
The game has even been known to suck up time in actual recording studios. While making their second album earlier this year, members of the Montreal pop-rock band Three Days Grace frequently sneaked off to play rather than attend to the business at hand. "I'd be in the vocal booth singing, and the rest of the guys would be downstairs rocking out on the game," recalls frontman Adam Gontier. Three Days Grace learned about the game from Tool, a superstar act that was recording at the same Los Angeles area studio. "We'd hear them screaming and freaking out," Mr. Gontier recalls.
One entertainer is hoping to use Guitar Hero to further blur the line between rocking a crowd and pretending to rock a crowd. Fred Armisen, a cast member on "Saturday Night Live," recently decided that Guitar Hero was enough like real musicianship to play it at a nightclub. Booked to open two New York gigs by the Seattle rock group Band of Horses, the comedian decided to forgo his usual standup routine and instead play Guitar Hero. He had acquired a taste for the game at the TV show's production offices, where cast members and writers played regular grudge matches during breaks.
Mr. Armisen strode on stage at New York's Bowery Ballroom, tiny plastic guitar strapped on, and told the audience he would be playing "a couple of songs I've been working on." He then turned to a giant projection screen at the back of the stage and played along with White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65." Mr. Armisen says he couldn't see the audience reaction, because he was facing the screen with his back to the crowd. Nor could he hear the live audience over the deafening roar of the videogame. "The fake crowd on the game loved it," he says.
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Tagged: Korn
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Shorten this up yo.
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hahaha that was hilarious!!! tis a fun game though!
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i think it's kind of pathetic that this game is so popular among musicians.
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I want this game...
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i love this game. working on it on expert. the 2nd one came out yesterday tho so now we have two guitars. but seriously shorten this
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Yeah I was with my band one night and we were playing this at Best Buy. It was so funny.
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My band plays this too.
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I read an article in the paper very similar to this. Give the source credit.
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One of my fav games at the moment. Hopefully the 2-player on GH2 will give some duo guitar solos!
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I love this game. It's seriously so freaking awesomesauce.
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tool used this? HA HA that is piss funny
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I remember hearing about this a long time ago and thinking it was a lame idea. But everyone I know who has played it says its fun as hell. Ill try checking it out sometime.
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hehe playing A7X's harmonizing riffs would be pretty cool if the 2 guitars on GH2 allows it.
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this could be pretty cool
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