InfiniteTides

Welcome to Halcyon Infinity’s (name of my RB2 band) live blog of the endless setlist.  I’ll be posting updates to this post beginning at 8:00am eastern and continue to do so between songs.  Time and energy permitting, I may even post pictures.  The endless setlist will probably take 8-9 hours to complete, so stop by often to see how it’s going.

8:05am The roadies were a bit slow setting up.  Actually, I had to carry one of my notebooks out to the living room, and then I couldn’t easily find where the Endless Setlist is in the RB2 menu.  Now that I’ve found it, I’m almost ready to start playing.  First I need that 2nd cup of coffee, then it’s on!

8:13am First song, Eye of the Tiger.  I’m glad this was an easy warm up song, because my fingers are not yet ready for something too tricky.  This song has no guitar solo, but I only missed a couple of notes, one due to itching my cheek.  5 STARS

I’m grabbing that 2nd cup of coffee now, so the show will resume after a short break and a word from our sponsor.

8:23am Just played My Own Worst Enemy.  Not a bad song, pretty much all easy chords, but I’m playing on medium so everything will have only easy stuff to play.  99 percent on this one.  I missed one note, don’t ask me how!  5 STARS

8:29am The 3rd song, I Was Wrong.  Somewhat boring song about being wrong and stuff.  I missed 1 chord, but still got 5 STARS

8:35am So Whatcha Want (by the Beastie Boys)  This was possibly the most boring song for guitar on the entire game.  I’m seriously considering firing all of my roadies, because I just took a sip of my coffee, and it’s luke warm. :(  5 STARS

8:41AM Song 5, E-Pro by Beck.  Though I like this song in real life, it’s quite repetitive on guitar.  I received 5 STARS

8:47am Song 6, Hungry Like The Wolf – Duran Duran.  This is the first solid warm up song, and my fingers are starting to feel awake and ready to play.  I missed one note on this one too.  No 100%’s yet.  I blame the guitar I’m using, not because there’s anything wrong with it.  It’s a Guitar Hero Gibson, but I prefer my Rock Band Fender for feel.  5 STARS

8:53am Song 7, Pretend That We’re Dead – L7  I ended the song strong by hitting the big final note, but I also hoarded a little energy.  I think I was distracted by the female voice coming out of my band’s random male vocalist’s mouth.  99%  5 STARS

8:59am Song 8, Rebel Girl – Bikini Kill.  For some reason (I stink!) I only achieved 97% on this song.  That’s terrible considering how easy it is on guitar on medium difficulty.  Some people don’t like this song, but I really do.  The lyrics are fantastic, and I like the lead singer’s slightly off pitch voice.  5 STARS

9:05am Song 9, Nine in the Afternoon -Panic at the Disco  I can’t help but like this song.  Dude’s got a good voice, and the song just makes me feel good.  I know it’s pop, not rock at all, but it’s a guilty pleasure to sing along with this one.  100%  WOO!  5 STARS Also, it’s after 9:00am, so I turned my stereo up a little!

9:12am Song 10, Float On – Modest Mouse.  The lyrics to this song appeal to the Taoist in me, but the singer’s voice leaves something to be desired.  5 STARS

9:17am Song 11, Drain You – Nirvana.  This is a fun song to play on guitar because of the chord changes.  It doesn’t hurt any that it’s Nirvana, and I like Nirvana (for the most part).  I think that after the next song, I’ll take a short intermission during which I’ll upload a couple of picture (if they don’t suck too bad).  5 STARS

9:25am Song 12, PDA - Interpol.  There is nothing special about this song, and the lead singer’s voice is boringly monotone.  I think it’s safe to say that I’m going to get 5 STARS on all of these relatively easy songs, so unless I state otherwise, just assume that’s what I earned.

I’m taking a short break to upload some pictures I took of my TV screen.  Hopefully they aren’t too blurry.

9:48am Song 13 Man in the Box – Alice in Chains.  You would think I would know by now to not try to sing while playing guitar, because my concentration on the guitar lapses when I do.  I can’t help myself.  This song is just too good to NOT sing along with.

9:53am Song 14, Cool For Cats – Squeeze.  This is easily the WORST song on the game.  Words cannot express how deeply and thoroughly I LOATHE this song.  Nevertheless, I did achieve 100% on it.

9:58am Song 15, Hello There – Cheap Trick.  I’m glad this song is short, but it was almost too short.  I barely got my 5th star on the second to last note.  I’m taking more pictures, hopefully more than one will turn out good enough to post!

10:03am Song 16, Today – Smashing Pumpkins.  I LOVE this song.  I managed 100% despite singing along.  This one is definitely one of my favorites on the game to sing, but the guitar part is a little too easy.

10:10am Song 17, That’s What You Get – Paramore.  Another of my favorite songs on this game.  Paramore is one of the better rock bands fronted by a female vocalist.  This song is a little pop, but it’s still very good and fun to play on guitar.  I enjoyed playing this one immensely!

10:16am Song 18, Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum.  There’s no way anyone can NOT like this song.  I don’t care if you are a-religious or even anti-religious.  This is just a fun catchy song that’s fun to play.  This was the first song thus far that’s had a couple of tricksy parts in it.  I messed up the “train whistle” parts several times, but still managed to get 5 stars.

10:22am Song 19, We Got the Beat – The Go-Gos.  I don’t much care for Belinda Carlisle’s (I think that’s who’s singing) voice on this song, too squeaky for my ears.  The guitar part is fun.  This song’s got a bit of a surfer riff going that’s mildly challenging, and does tend to get a little redundant toward the end.  The song is just short enough that I don’t dislike it.  100% on this one!  Woo!

10:29am Song 20, New Kid In School – The Donnas.  Good song, very easy on guitar.  Even the solo is a bit too easy, but I like this song for the vocals and the cool squeak of fingers up and down guitar strings between some of the notes of the intro.

10:35am Song 21, Feel the Pain – Dinosaur Jr.  This song starts out a little boring by repeating the chorus a few times too many, but once it gets going, whoa!  Fun to play!  The guitar solo isn’t too difficult, but it’s rewarding when you get it right.  And I love the change of tempo in this song.

10:42am Song 22, Pump It Up – Elvis Costello.  Somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty lies Elvis Costello, only cheesier!  Honestly, I lose interest in this song shortly after it starts.  Pure cheese.

10:48am Song 23, One Step Closer – Linkin Park.  I like this song on guitar, but not to sing.  The game makes you sing both lead and backing vocals which is nearly impossible!  Fun to play on guitar, but mostly because it keeps you busy, not because it’s super difficult.  There’s one tricky part in the song that I nailed, but missed one easy note.  Doh!

10:53am Song 24, Welcome to the Neighborhood – The Lybyans.  Meh.  Maybe this song is too punk for me to enjoy.  Maybe it just plain sucks.  Either way, I don’t enjoy this song in the least.  On the bright side, it’s relatively short.

I’ll be taking another short intermission at this time.  Maybe I have a decent picture to upload.  I’ll post it after I get some breakfast.  My stomach is beginning to complain of emptiness and I’m feeling a little hypoglycemic.

A delicious marshmallow cereal is an essential part of every successful rock band’s intermission!  ON WITH THE SHOW!!

11:22am Song 25, White Wedding pt1 – Billy Idol.  This was a very popular song in my youth, and it holds up well.  The guitar part is fairly challenging and fun to play.  Too bad you don’t get to play more of the notes on the medium skill setting, because at times you feel like you should be strumming.  You can hear guitar notes being played, but YOU aren’t “playing” them.

11:30am Song 26, Psycho Killer – Talking Heads.   Boring, overly long song, ending in a most pointless unenjoyable guitar solo.

11:35am Song 27, Lump - Presidents of the United States of America.  This is a very short song, so you have to be careful not to miss too many notes.  Before you know it, the song is over and you can’t get that fifth star.  Luckily, I only made a couple of mistakes and got 98% on this song that I like a lot more than I should.

11:42am Song 28, Conventional Lover – Speck.  I don’t understand the guitar part on this song at all.  There are some tricky fingering parts during the chorus of this song, but then they dumbed down the solo so much that I lost interest completely!  You can hear many notes being played that you don’t get to play that I feel cheated out of the song on the medium skill level.  It’s too bad, because the song isn’t good enough by itself to make me WANT to play it without giving me more notes to play.

11:48am Song 29, De-Luxe – Lush.  I like this song a lot despite its understated melodic vocals of which I’m not normally a fan.  The guitar part isn’t super hard or anything as long as you can keep the rhythm.  There are no tricky parts and no solo to mess me up, and I’m busy the whole time while playing this very nice little song.

11:56am Song 30, Shooting Star – Bad Company.  A long, sad, potentially depressing song about a rock-n-roll star who drinks himself to death.  It’s at this point that the Endless Setlist is hitting its stride, and I’m fulling enjoying the ride.

12:03pm Song 31, Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers.  This song is WAY too easy on guitar, and the overdrives are placed so that they’re nearly worthless unless you’re playing with someone else in your band.  As far as the song goes, I like it.  It’s from a time before the Chili Peppers began to suck.

12:08pm Song 32, The Middle – Jimmy Eats World.  Another fun pop-rock song that I like.  The guitar part is lively and busy, but not too difficult.  It has a short, but fun solo.  It’s quite easy to get 100% on this one, and so I did.

12:15pm Song 33, American Woman – The Guess Who.  I don’t dislike this song, but parts of it are so slow that I strum too soon, wishing for more notes.  The guitar sounds like a dying farm animal, and I think it could be replaced by bagpipes, and the song wouldn’t suffer any.  “You know I gotta leeeeeeave.  You know I gotta gooooooo.”  Well leave already!  Sheesh!

12:24pm Song 34, Livin’ on a Prayer – Bon Jovi.  Songs about hope are few and far between in the rock world, so how can you not love a song like this?  I’ll tell you how, excessive wha-wha pedal on the guitar!  I can’t tell if I’m playing lead or playing a kazoo!  Is it just me, or does Bon Jovi always sound like Van Halen Light?  Believe me, that’s not a good thing.

12:31pm Song 35, One Way or Another – Blondie.  Remember the late 70’s when stalking was sexy?  Maybe it was just Debbie Harry that was sexy.  I don’t know.  I was too young.  Anyway, this is a fun song to play guitar on, and the ending trips me up almost every time!  Still, I got five stars.

12:39pm Song 36, A Jagged Gorgeous Winter – The Main Drag.  This song has a really cool guitar riff in it.  Too bad you have to play through 75% of a crappy song to get to it.  I don’t hate this song because it’s about my least favorite season.  I hate it, because the song sounds awful!  This might be my 3rd or 4th least favorite song on RB2.

It’s time for another intermission.  I need a break, and I might even take a shower.  Before playing the last song, I stood up really fast and got a head rush!  Now I know how Keith Richards must feel all of the time!

1:17pm Song 37, Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac.  I like this song a lot, because of its unusual rhythm parts on the guitar.  It does, however, go on a little too long.  I only got 98% on this one because it was so long.

1:23pm Song 38, Kids in America – The Muffs.  A very busy songs this one is.  I messed up several times and was fortunate to get the 5 stars only because it’s a long song with lots and lots of chords.  If you like playing lots of chords and switching them frequently and quickly, this is the song for you! :)

1:29pm Song 39, Girls Not Grey – AFI.  I think I used to like this song until I played it a few times on Rock Band 2.  It’s redundant, and the guitar riffs are repetitive and understated.  About the only time you can clearly hear what you are playing is during the chorus.  AFI is one of those whiny alternative bands today that is a dime a dozen.

1:37pm Song 40, Lazy Eye – Silversun Pickups.  I LOVE THIS SONG!  It’s not awesome on RB2, but it’s just so mellow with smooth guitars and soft lyrics that build up into a gentle scream (if there is such a thing).  This is a band I’ve come to love, and hope to see more of their songs as DLC.

1:44pm Song 41, Come Out and Play (Keep ‘em Separated) – The Offspring.  I loved this song when it first came out.  It’s still fun to play on RB2, because it’s got lots of cool chord switches and a great surfer guitar riff.  Still a good song, but it almost tripped me up.  I had to start concentrating harder to keep the 5 star streak going.

1:50pm Song 42, Mountain Song – Jane’s Addiction.  I like Jane’s addiction a lot, but this song can be difficult to play if you aren’t paying attention or if you’ve been playing the game too long, and your mind isn’t as focused as it was earlier.  This song is a wake up call.  I need to raise my level of play if I’m to keep going with my 5 star streak which now stands at 42 songs.

1:56pm Song 43, Where’d You Go – Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  Another song I loathe.  I don’t know what it is about ska, but it grates on my nerves like sandpaper.  And this song is so full of cheese that I wish I had crackers to go with it.  Awful awful awfail song.  And too easy on guitar to boot!

2:03pm Song 44, Alex Chilton - The Replacements.  UGH!  This song was a chore to get through.  I know I must have played it once before, but it wasn’t at all familiar.  I struggled a couple of times but then got locked in on the chord changes.  No problem, but I don’t like this song.  Two bad songs in a row is not a good sign!

2:09pm Song 45, Rock’n Me – Steve Miller Band.  The good:  I don’t hate this song, and it’s got a catchy guitar riff that’s fun to play.  The bad:  The rest of the song on guitar is utter shite!  It’s rubbish to have to play a million notes quickly in a row when the song is actually playing extra notes that you know you should be playing too.  I feel like too many songs in RB and RB2 use the cheap as hell approach of stringing a thousand notes together, and if you miss a couple or your guitar doesn’t register a strum perfectly, you lose your multiplier.  It’s rubbish!  4 Stars The streak is over. :(

2:19pm Song 46, Tangled Up in Blue – Bob Dylan.  Does anyone really LIKE Bob Dylan?  Can you even understand him more than half the time?  He sings like a cartoon character caught in a vacuum cleaner!  This was a nice, easy song to calm me down after the rubbish Rock’n Me shite.  Thanks RB2, for not making the next song something evil.

2:27pm Song 47, Alive – Pearl Jam.  Another great song that I love and enjoy playing.  This one is challenging and rewarding.  You feel good when you nail the tricky guitar riffs, and there is a very long and tricky solo at the end that’s fun too.  More Pearl Jam please!

2:34pm Song 48, Round and Round – Ratt.  Although I’m a child of the 80’s, I don’t love or even like most of the hair band rock from that era.  All of the falsetto singers and the high pitched guitar solos never appealed to me.  This song’s not terrible.  It’s easy enough to play, but the guitar solo should have more notes in it.

I’m well over half way through the Endless Setlist.  I’m going to take another short break to eat some lunch, then I’ll be right back to rockin’ out.  I might even turn up the sub.  >.<

Only 36 more songs to go!  I can do this!  My hands are not yet cramping up, and the fact that I’ve only received less than 5 stars once makes me think I’m still playing at a high enough level that I won’t get booed off the stage.  Let’s call this a 36 song encore!

3:01pm Song 49, You Ought To Know – Alanis Morrissette.  Screamings of a raving lunatic scorned.  This song couldn’t end soon enough for me due to content.  The guitar part isn’t all that great.  NEXT!

3:07pm Song 50, Alabama Getaway – The Grateful Dead.  This song has some interesting meandering guitar and a couple of decent solos.  Nothing too complicated.  The song itself is nothing special, and I don’t like the Grateful Dead especially well, but I don’t hate this song.

3:13pm Song 51, Testify – Rage Against the Machine.  OMG!!!  Exactly what I needed to play to keep my energy up!  This song ROCKS!  The guitar riffs in this song more than make up for the slower parts where little is going on.  I’m ready to rock on!

3:17pm Song 52, Supreme Girl – The Sterns.  What a pleasant, short, fun little song this is!  I’ve played this one a couple of times before, but forgot about it.  It’s a gem on guitar.  Lots of fun little changes.

3:22pm Song 53, Pinball Wizard – The Who.  I genuinely like this song on guitar, and since I know most of the words it’s alright to sing along to, but I would never admit to liking it.  It’s a very solid RB2 song that’s fun to play.

3:27pm Song 54, Our Truth – Lacuna Coil.  Though I’ve heard this song a hundred times, I still don’t know what it’s about.  I think something must be lost in translation from Italian to English or something.  It’s sort of a mediocre RB2 song on guitar.  There are a couple of cool parts to it, but overall, it’s rather bland.  Nothing special about this song whatsoever on guitar.

3:32pm Song 55, Uncontrollable Urge – Devo.  OMFG!  This song threatened to completely lock up my left pinky finger!  So much action on the blue and yellow buttons makes my hand start to cramp up!  How dare they put this song on RB2?!  With that said, I love playing this song. :)

3:38pm Song 56, Bad Reputation - Joan Jett.  An excellent little song to rest my pinky finger on!  No one screams quite like Joan Jett.  She’s cool in my book, and I can definitely relate to this song.  It’s a good one.

3:44pm Song 57, Night Lies - Bang Camaro.  This song is the epitome of what a RB2 song SHOULD be!  Sure it’s rock pulp at its best.  It’s cheesy, it’s sleazy.  It’s stereotypical (double entendre intended x2) rock and roll, but I love this song.  It’s a lot of fun to play on guitar, because it’s busy without killing your wrist.  It’s got the right mix of riffs and interesting patterns.  I always enjoy playing this song.

3:53pm Song 58, Any Way You Want It – Journey.  Another classic rock song on RB2 that totally belongs.  This song has got catchy lyrics and the guitar track is top notch.  I even enjoy the not-too-difficult solos they let you coast through, and they sound good when you nail them.

4:03pm Song 59, Teenage Riot – Sonic Youth.  This is definitely one of my favorite songs on RB2.  Once it gets going, the guitar track is excellent.  There are cool patterns to play that are challenging and rewarding when you get them right, but you aren’t slammed for getting them wrong, because there are lots and lots of notes to play in this long song.

4:10pm Song 60, Shackler’s Revenge – Guns N’ Roses.  What a schizophrenic mess this song is!  This song has no clue what it’s meant to be.  It’s all over the place with some synth, some heavy guitar, some horrible squeaky guitar atrocity no one in their right mind would call a solo.  Fingernails on a chalk board might sound better.  I can only wonder how much money G&R paid to get this song on RB2.  This one is right down at the bottom of the barrel of bad songs.

4:18pm Song 61, Let There Be Rock – ACDC.  I’m not a fan of ACDC at all.  Never have been.  Never will be.  And this song has problems.  It has nearly 2 minutes of total guitar silence when I didn’t get to do anything but stand around looking cool!  It has an intro that if you aren’t ready for it, will eat you alive and make you feel like starting over.  It has a seriously tricky section in the middle that I totally mucked up.   But it also is a very long song with lots of guitar solo time that let me nail a lot of notes and save the 5 Stars.  So it’s an okay song in my book…I guess.

4:27pm Song 62, The Trees – Rush.  There’s trouble in the forest!  Rush is in there making epically long pointless music about trees that no one should want to listen to.  BORING!

4:35pm Song 63, Aqualung – Jethro Tull.  What an absolutely brilliant song this is to have on RB2.  The song is a little long, but that’s perfectly fine.  On guitar, this song isn’t easy, but it’s not insanely hard either.  It’s got many excellent patterns to play, there are cool time changes, and one really good solo.  I don’t know what more you could ask for in a song on this game.  I didn’t listen to Jethro Tull in my youth, so I’m not a fan per se, but I really really really like the way this song sounds.  They have used one of the most interesting vocal filters in this song that I have ever heard, and used it to perfect affect.

4:44pm Song 64, Down With the Sickness – Disturbed.  This was a pretty good song when they played it on the radio.  But when you hear the album version, with the singer pretending to be abused by his mother…bleh.  Couldn’t they have left that part out?  It adds nothing to the song.  As far as the guitar track goes, it’s solid, fun to play, because it’s relatively easy once you get the pattern down.  So it’s sort of an over rated song on RB2.

4:49pm Song 65, Chop Suey – System of a Down.  This is a great song made less great on RB2 by the stupid idiotic rubbish thousand consecutive notes you have to play multiple times in this song.  They better not make you do that in The Beatles Rock Band or I’ll just not buy it.  Still, this is a great song that I enjoy playing and singing along to.

4:56pm Song 66, Everlong – Foo Fighters.  I LOVE Foo Fighters.  I LOVE this song.  This song could not be too long.  In fact, I think it’s too short, but that’s because I’m playing the guitar and not the drums.  The guitar part is busy, and medium hard with a few changes that can trip you up if you aren’t watching ahead on the track.  Definitely one of the best RB2 songs.

I snuck a peek at the next song, and I’m a little worried about my current 5 star streak coming to an end.  I’ve only ever gotten 5 stars on this song once.  The song…Master Exploder!  >.<

5:03pm Song 67, Master Exploder – Tenacious D.  I guess I had nothing to worry about after all.  I’m getting much better at shorter, difficult songs like this one on medium.  It was a piece of cake, and a VERY FUN song to play.  I wish there were more Tenacious D songs on RB2.

5:08pm Song 68, Give It All – Rise Against.  I don’t like this song.  It has a rubbish beat, and the guitar part is lame.  There are no fun riffs, no cool solos.  I don’t even know why this shite is on RB2.  The lead vocalist can’t even sing.

5:15pm Song 69, Carry on Wayward Son – Kansas.  At first I thought this song was overly long, but it’s just an illusions created by the massive number of guitar solos it has.  When I looked at my paltry score, I realized this song doesn’t have that many notes.  It just feels like it, because practically the hole song feels like a guitar solo with no chords whatsoever.  I do like this song because it’s fun to play and sticks in your head.

5:21pm Song 70, Rob the Prez-O-Dent – That Handsome Devil.  This is one weird, quirky, cool-as-hell song that is just fun to play on guitar.  It’s got some rather tricky chord changes and some cool patterns to the notes that makes it challenging and rewarding.  Good good song!

5:28pm Song 71, Spoonman – Soundgarden.  Do I even need to say it?  This song is awesome.  This band was awesome.  This track is great fun to play (and listen to) and sing along with.  I LOVE this song.

5:32pm Song 72, Ace of Spades – Motorhead.  Let me start by saying that the guitar track on this song is good.  It’s enjoyable to play, and a little challenging, though short.  The lead singer’s voice, on the other hand is freaking AWFUL!  It’s like he’s the poster boy for why you should never gargle with razor blades!

5:39pm Song 73, Almost Easy – Avenged Sevenfold.  First off, this band has a really cool name, much better than Halcyon Infinity.  This is a pretty good song, despite another lead singer who has a throat full of gravel.  The guitar part is solid, a little tricky in parts, but only because of the speed at which you need to execute the fingering changes.  Once you get it down, it’s enjoyable to play this song.  It’s almost like they put all of the bestest songs near the end of the Endless Setlist.

I have a loose sticker on my guitar’s green button.  I’m blaming that loose sticker for any mistakes I’ve made or will make for the rest of the set!

5:47pm Song 74, Ramblin’ Man – Allman Brothers.  I spoke too soon!  What is with these hippie jam bands and their long songs that sound the same from beginning to end except for the mediocre rambling guitar solo throughout?  What gives?  This isn’t a bad song, just a long song that I don’t care to play.

My calculations show that I have just 10 more songs to play in the (not quite) Endless Setlist.  I need to take a break, however, to mow the lawn before the temperature begins to drop.  I’ll be back in about an hour to finish off the last, and hopefully, best songs on the list.

6:56pm Song 75, Get Clean – Anarchy Club.  I think this song might be trying to tell me something.  After mowing the yard, I jumped right back into the Endless Setlist only to find that mediocre piece of fecal matter waiting for me.  Someone at Rock Band’s home office must have made a mistake in including this song in this game.  There is nothing special about it.

7:03pm Song 76, Peace Sells – Megadeth.  This song must be super popular over in Iceland or something.  The pealing sticker on my green guitar button didn’t bother me nearly as much as the “singer” in this song talking and talking and talking at the start of this song.  I thought I was in a town hall meeting or something.  I don’t like this song.  I don’t like this band.  I don’t like the guitar track on this song much either.  Meh.  NEXT!

7:10pm Song 77, Colony of Birchmen -Mastadon.  Something tells me that I must be missing quite of bit of the notes playing this song on medium, because I was able to get 100% of them.  That should not happen with only 8 songs left (counting this one) of the Endless Setlist.  They certainly wouldn’t have decided to just drop in an easy one to see who is still paying attention, would they?  The vocals on this song are like background noise, and the guitar track is just way too easy.

7:17pm Song 78, Souls of Black – Testament.  Did someone just turn up the gravity in here, because things just got heavy on RB2!  This is yet another easy track on guitar, but at least the riffs are heavy and not unenjoyable to play.  I have no idea what the singer was saying, kinda garbled.

7:25pm Song 79, Bodhisattva – Steely Dan.  Thank you, RB2 for putting this song in the game.  I had never heard it before playing it on RB2.  Though I could do without the vocals altogether, the guitar track is fun fun fun!  I almost wish it were a little longer, but it’s just short enough that you don’t get burned out on it.  Excellent song for guitar.

7:33pm Song 80, Shoulder to the Plow – Breaking Wheel.  Another heavy metal song where the lead vocalist sounds muffled, like he’s singing from my sock drawer.  There are some interesting time changes in this song, and a couple decent riffs on the guitar track.  I guess I kinda liked playing this song, but it’s nothing special.

7:41pm Song 81, Battery – Metallica.  I loved the intro to this song, but then it kicked my ass!  I was very lucky to get 4 and half stars on this one.  I’ve only played it a couple of times, and I think I failed out last time on the hard difficulty setting.  Suffice it to say, this is one song I need to practice.  I admit that although I sucked, I did enjoy the guitar track to this song.  It’s nice and challenging.  All I have to do is ignore the idiot singer who is screaming “BATTERY!” at me every 10 seconds!

7:48pm Song 82, Visions – Abnormality.  WTF?!  This vocalist (because he’s definitely not a singer) sounds like gremlins (not the fuzzy cute ones but the scary OH SHIT I FED THEM AFTER MIDNIGHT ones) on meth!  Once again, I’ve come to the conclusion that words and even actual language that people can understand are not important to rock music.  This song is nothing but slightly organized chaos.  This song sucks.

7:59pm Song 83, Panic Attack - Dream Theater.  WOW!  I had forgotten what a great song this is!  First of all, the drummer of this band MUST be a robot of some kind to pound out the complex and multiple rhythms that he does and as fast as he does.  I’m sooooo glad I’m not trying to play that song on drums!  On guitar, it’s quite possibly the best all around song to play.  It has some of the most interesting transitions and time changes.  I definitely love this song and will seek it out to play again in the future.

On to the final song.  I already looked and saw that it’s Painkiller by Judas Priest.  I don’t like very much of Judas Priest’s music, but I think I’ve played this song at least once before.  I don’t recall whether or not I got kicked off stage for excessive suckage.  I don’t think I will this time.  I’ve got mad skeelz…on medium difficulty.

8:12pm Song 84, Pain Killer – Judas Priest.  As soon as the music started, I remembered that I had played this song before, but not on guitar.  It was one of the songs I was forced to sing, because I had to beat the song on the hard difficulty setting, and there was no way I could do it on guitar.  I HATE the vocals on this song.  That woman cannot sing AT ALL!  The guitar part is quite enjoyable, however.  I would have liked the song had it not been for the screaming that was going on throughout.

That concludes the Endless Setlist.  I hope you have enjoyed reading about it.  I know I enjoyed playing it.  I’ll be posting a few more pictures shortly, but that about wraps it up for me for the night.

It seems that every time I get a three day weekend, the preceding work week drags its feet, making it seem more like 7 days than just 5.  This week has been no exception.

Thoughts of how I’m going to squander the three day weekend make the work week seem longer than it really is.  So it’s probably just my perception of time that’s all messed up, not time itself.  Before Wednesday, I thought my two days of training in Michigan were going to be unbearably long, but the two guys who I went with made that time fly by.  It’s frightening how silly three guys in a van can be.  A well developed sense of humor is important when spending 10 hours a day with the same two people.

I’m planning on a lot of video gaming, at least on Saturday.  I want to complete the Rock Band 2 Endless Setlist, 84 songs in a row.  I’ll endure 7 to 8 hours of “playing” a plastic guitar if I don’t take too many breaks.  If it ceases to be fun after 3 hours, I can easily see myself bailing on the marathon, but I’m looking forward to the challenge even if I’m only playing on the medium difficulty setting.

The rest of the weekend will be spent relaxing, taking it easy, maybe watching some favorite movies.  I need to check out the original Metropolis, but I have to find a version with English subtitles.  I MIGHT get around to playing some Bioshock.  The game lies unopened on my desk in my bedroom at the moment.  Maybe I’ll even finish a couple of blog posts that I started earlier in the week, that is, unless I decide to delete them.  I often do that.

Whatever I end up doing this weekend, a computer won’t be very far away.  I think I’ve earned some downtime.  I’ve earned this three day weekend, and I don’t want to squander it…but I probably will.

Everyone knows you don’t buy two new video games at once unless you don’t plan on playing one of them very much.  So why in the world did I order Rock Band 2 and LittleBigPlanet knowing that they both had the same release date, knowing that I would inevitably favor one game heavily over the other?

Apparently my short memory let me down once again.  It’s strange that although both RB2 and LBP originally had the same release date, LBP was delayed, and because RB2 shipped via USPS, they both arrived at my apartment on the same day.  So which one did I play first?  Neither.

I played LBP enough during the beta period that I’m not exactly chomping at the bit like I thought I would be when I ordered it.  Over the weekend, I reformatted my PS3’s hard drive to get rid of Linux, and the Rock Band game save was the only one I wasn’t able to backup to a flash drive.  So I began playing through again with the guitar on medium difficulty.  I’m only 40 songs into it, and I’m not sure whether I want to finish off the rest of the songs or jump right into Rock Band 2.  I may not be playing either RB2 or LBP for a while.  After all, I have a spider to play with.

I just read some disturbing news.  One of my favorite bands, Tool, has chosen to license three of their songs to Activision for the Guitar Hero World Tour.  The songs are Parabola, Schism, and Vicarious.  This kind of pisses me off, because most gamers agree that Rock Band is the superior game.  Not to mention the fact that I own Rock Band, and there is no way in hell I’m going to buy Guitar Hero World Tour just because one of the world’s best rock bands is letting them use three of their songs. Such a disappointment.  Good thing the world is ending tomorrow.