Rock Band

It all began with trying out Guitar Hero II on my cousin Dabz's PS2. Back then, we were still entertaining ourselves by using the standard analog shock controller. The songs grew on me and the techniques with playing with the controller became like second nature. Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's was then acquired by Dabz and we later on got hooked to the songs from there as well. It wasn't until Jostin got a guitar controller did things change. A new challenge was set and it took quite a long time before I could easily get through a song in the Medium difficulty.

When my father had purchased the Wii for quite some time, my sister and I had asked him to purchase the (at the time) new Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero III for said console. It wasn't long before I was immersing myself with it, trying to play songs on a higher difficulty until I managed to clear most songs on Hard, and some songs on Expert.

That hard work and experience of mine was what I took with me when I was invited for the first time by my blockmates back in my first year to try out a game of Rock Band at Blue Skies one day after classes with nothing else to do.

The experience was so much different. Besides the fact that I was playing with at most three other people, it was a completely different feeling. The essence of being part of a band to get through a song was just how one would want to feel when playing this kind of video game. It was exhilarating. I knew I wanted to experience it again.

Over time, we eventually formed a band with me on Guitar, Gabby on Drums, TC on Vocals and Lev on Bass and decided to join a few competitions: two of them organized by Ateneo orgs, while the other was a general RB Competition organized by an org in UPD in cooperation with XBX Interactive. The name of our band - POMSTARS - was all Lev's idea, and what was used for two out of three competitions.

The first competition was held in the Ateneo campus; the eliminations at one of the MVP org rooms and the finals at MVP Colayco Pavilion. At the time, we had a back-up vocalist - one of Lev's friends whose name escapes me - who helped us along when needed. We managed to get to the final round for the Medium difficulty (though we joined for the Hard difficulty and got knocked out) but due to one thing or another (which we figured was utilizing Overdrive to its fullest capability), lost.

The second competition was another Ateneo-based organization, which was held this time at someone's awesome house in La Vista. For this competition, the original band - me, Gabby, TC and Lev - attended, going with a different name that Lev also thought up: Night Shift. Only three bands had been competed for this (all students from Ateneo) and we ended up coming out on top quite easily and won gift certificatees for a gaming place in Greenhills.

The last competition we joined last school year was more general, where bands from Ateneo or UP joined. The eliminations were held at XBX Interactive, and the finals at Route 196. The whole experience of constant practicing and synchronizing with the rest of the band can never be summed up into so many words. But we had fun and that would be enough. We managed to place 3rd, and won gift certificates to Worlds of Fun.

The rewards are always secondary, as my father constantly told me as we awaited the results of that last competition. "Win or lose, it's all about having fun." And I couldn't agree more.