It's been a very musical week (bet you could never gues, huh? :D).
First off: since my son got Guitar Hero III we've all stopped watching TV... no Christmas specials, no re-runs... just impromptu concerts in the living room passing the guitar around. Problem was, it was just one at a time: one person would play, untangle themselves from the guitar strap, and pass it to the next, who would strap in and play. Also, there was no competition or cooperation... just any song we liked that had been unlocked.
That is, until last Friday.
On the way home from work, I stopped at a few places and found...Guitar Hero II! Game + second (wired) guitar = real concerts!
Unfortunately, he stayed over at my mother-in-law's house all weekend, so we couldn't spring the news on him until Sunday night... but since he left his GHIII + guitar here, my wife and I decided to test the co-op mode (for bugs, of course... that's what programmers do :lol: ). We had a blast all weekend long.
During the week, the three of us would get together, play a little while, and switch off. Even the little ones tried a few songs (it's very amusing watching a small child attempt to play GHIII with a controller bigger than they are :P).
Meanwhile, I did my best when others had tired out to unlock songs on GHII... and almost immediately, I noticed a large difference in difficulty between the two games. I actually think the GS reviewer got it bass-ackwards: GHII is a lot tougher to play.
GHII requires you to play at medium to earn money for new stuff and unlock almot a quarter of the "free" songs. We're not talking easy ones, either: "Madhouse" by Anthrax, for example, is challenging for me... and I've been to see them twice, with Belladonna and Bush (somewhere, I have Charlie Benante's autograph... I hope I didn't lose it when we moved last year:shock: ). All that leads up to the last song to unlock a secret guitar: *&^%%$# "Freebird" takes forever to play through, and has so many random notes it's almost wrist-breaking.
GHIII... play through once on easy. Buy the rest of the songs. Simple. The big unlock on that is "Through the Fire and the Flames" by DragonForce (which you can see played on youtube by half the world by now)... but it's unlocked on Easy, so no big deal. The fun, however, is starting a band with another player and getting the 6 songs unlocked through co-op only... one on lead guitar (our son and I are the designated leads) and either bass or rhythm for the other (I seem to be better with rhythm guitar than bass, while my wife is pretty much designated bass player).
The whole thing was on pause on Wednesday though... that was the big Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Albany.
It was awesome.
First, the crowd: at no other show will you see 60-65-year-old grandparent -types rubbing shoulders with kids in Iron Maiden or Testament T-shirts... and all of them agreeing that the music is incredible.
Second, the show: I've never seen a more elaborate light-show... lasers, Vari-lights, huge cable-driven rigs suspended from the ceiling moving up and down and pouring forth dazzling displays of color... huge jets of multi-colored flames behind the stage... "snow" falling from inside the arena... just that alone would have been worth the ticket price...
...but the music was definitely the cap on the evening. The first half of the show is the first disc, "Christmas Eve and Other Stories," narrated by a man with an incredibly mesmerizing voice, and played with such force and emotion that you were almost transported through the story, and never wanted the journey to end. The second half was random selections from "Christmas Attic," "The Lost Christmas Eve," and "Beethoven's Last Night," as well as a new song from an as-yet unfinished album (I think the guitarist said it was called "Night Castle").
We seem to have all the ex-Savatage guys on the East Coast show (Chris Cafferty, Jeff Plate, and Alex Skolnick, who was also in Testament), and Cafferty and Skolnick can definitely shred like no one else.
During that second half, first two of the female singers and, at the end, the two guitarists appeared right behind us at the back of the arena... that was incredible.
Best of all, as I understand it much of the proceeds from their shows go to various charities (and $1 from each ticket goes to a local charity), so we got to help out the less fortunate on top of the spectacle and symphony.
Definitely check them out if their in your area, or see if you can get their CDs (if I'm not mistaken, some of the sales from those go to worthy causes as well).
Finally: I really hope this whole "Free Jeff" thing has wound down. Anyone seeing my new forum signature will see what I think of the entire reaction (and the more savvy might recognize where the quote comes from... yes, it's a song).
Rock the weekend, friends!