Rock Band – Sweet Success!

Well, last night Momma (and ‘momma’) completed all the songs in the Expert Level in Rock Band! This was my main goal and not an easy task. Actually, it was a lot easier than I anticipated…until I got to “Reptilia” by The Strokes. Yeah, I’ve never heard of that song either. Somehow I’d passed it in the Medium Level (a week or so ago, I completed all the songs in that level and decided to jump right to Expert. I sang one song on the Hard Level and got 5-stars right away…you only need 3-stars to pass the song, so I decided to spend my time tackling the Expert Level. Beating that level will automatically give you points for the levels below it.)

Anyway, “Reptilia” was wiping the floor with me and my microphone. I just could not get it. The way the game works is if you’ve built up some ‘points’ you can mess up a portion of the song and still move ahead if you can pull it all together quickly. The problem with this song was the fact that the first part of the song was extremely difficult for me, and by the time I made it through to a part of the song I could actually sing, the screen would flash red, and because it was the beginning of the song, I had no points built up to save me. I’d fail the song and get boo’ed off the stage. And, that’s really tough on my rockstar ego!

So, Claire and I found the song on youtube and I made it my personal mission to master it. (Yes, I’m a dork.)

Here it is, although, I don’t care to ever hear it again. Of course, after listening to it on repeat all day, it kinda wears on ya.

For some reason, the video isn’t embedding properly, so here is the link.

So, last night, Daddy had been invited to play in someone else’s Rock Band. While he went to be a traitor play drums and guitar with his friends from work, Momma and Claire had their challenge for the evening. Beat “Reptilia.” Move on in the game. (It was the last song to complete before moving ahead…you can’t move ahead until you’ve properly sung each song in the “city.” And, if you’re stuck on one song: too bad, so sad.)

I put the game in practice mode and tried something that I’d been working on all day in my youtube sessions. The lead singer’s voice is so bizarre to me and impossible for me to match. So, I had been playing around with octaves. You don’t have to match the voice or octave if you can match the note…so I tried it in practice mode, and by my calculations, I had just enough points to maybe pass the song!

So, I went into the “play a gig” mode and chose my White Whale of a song. Whatever I’d done with all my youtube practicing worked! I passed it with no problems! Success! It was all a breeze from there. In two hours, I’d sung through all the rest of the songs in the remaining cities, and had beaten the Expert Level.

So, where do I go from here? Well, there is an achievement you can earn when you sing a song at 100% in Expert Level. I’m so close with “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’m at 99%. This is another of Claire’s favorite songs at the moment. She calls it “Californay” and begs for me to sing it. A lot. All day. Hence, the 99% rating and huge score on that song.

I also have a huge score for “In Bloom” by Nirvana. So, I may try to get a 100% score on that one, too. (And, yes, Claire runs around the house singing “Don’t know what it means……..don’t know what it means……” Ha!)

And, to get “Reptilia” out of your head, here is “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers:

For some reason, the video isn’t embedding properly, so here’s the link.

You’re welcome.