Tip: Book a Band for Your Next Party

Maureen and I had a Halloween party about two and a half weeks ago, and we had a pretty good turnout. We had planned to hold most of it outside, as the weather had been so nice the past few weeks. However, in the middle of the week, October began to get colder true to form, so we basically nixed the idea of any outdoors stuff, meaning we’d have less room for people to move around.

When people started showing up, we basically started drinking and talking, and I put on a bunch of horror music off of my Xbox 360 (mainly Goblin soundtracks and Castlevania music) but this got to be a little lame. Then Maureen thought I should put on a scary movie. No one really paid attention (not that I blame them, it was the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Manos: The Hands of Fate - ugh). However before the party started, I had the foresight to ask Dustin to bring out Rock Band & Rock Band 2 if he were willing. He said if someone else brought drums, he’d bring the games and the rest of the gear. One quick call to Aaron later and the plan was set. Once they both arrived and unpacked their "instruments" is about the time the party really came to life.

Almost everyone played the game at some point in the evening (the exception was my friend Frank, who actually plays guitar and didn’t even want to try). People would be excited to play, especially certain instruments on certain songs. “Let’s play that!” “I’ll sing this one!” and so on. What was cool about it was that I heard friends of mine sing, and sing well, where I never had before. I saw friends of mine who had never met each other work together and have a blast. Later in the evening, Dustin’s fiancé Rose got people to play through some of the “missions” or set lists which unlocked more songs. Apparently, this was a real treat for her, as Dustin mainly likes to jam and not worry about objectives (that's typical Stein though, lemme tell you...).

I’ve been to Rock Band parties before, but never ones so populated with people. People took turns, or stayed on for awhile, but everyone who wanted to play got to. The best part is that although Rock Band was the centerpiece of the party, people not playing would go outside to smoke cigarettes or linger in the kitchen drinking and strike up conversations with whoever was nearby. Since a lot of my friends hadn’t met each other, it was really awesome and a great scene.

I don’t own Rock Band, but I’m starting to think it wouldn’t be a bad investment. I have like three friends who own it and can always bring it over on special occasions, so I’m not chomping at the bit. But I definitely will have my friends bring it (and their respective hard drives for more song selection) next time we throw a party. If you’re of the party persuasion or have friends coming over a lot, getting Rock Band/Rock Band 2 should definitely be on your to-do list, or your holiday wish list!

Max