MEMBER BLOG

Who? THE Who.
Posted on Friday, July 18 2008 @ 01:36:25 Eastern

Special guest appearance for Rock Band 2 tie-in gig. Orpheum Theatre. Los Angeles.

Initially uninterested. Feet hurt after standing at E3 showroom pavilion for seven hours straight. Also played DDR. All three similar, very similar versions. Became more uninterested as day went by. Went anyway.

7:20pm. A bit late. But no worries. Special guests appear at 9:00pm. Play Rock Band 2 in the meantime.

Go upstairs. See Alex Navarro - awesome drummer and prior editor for GameSpot - next to Rock Band 2 stages. Lots of plasmas. The center plasma was framed. Wanted to shred it with my telekinetic fret-skills. (This is my journal entry, shut up.)

Watch Alex tear up drums. Tear up vocals, guitar, and drums myself. See Alex get giddier as 9:00 approaches. Okay, made that up. Actually see Alex keep his cool, but know his soul is getting giddier. Ask him who the special guest is. See Alex understand my emphasis of the word who. Watch him kinda, sorta, not really, but yes confirm.

Find my seat in the auditorium. 400-seat max or so. Find Blake Morse, fellow GameRevolution editor, in side aisle seats about six rows back from the stage. Find that seat is being saved. Find myself not caring. Find myself in argument three minutes later. Find myself moving aside. And then moving back again, because person found another seat. Mega-douche.

Mention to Blake, a bass player for Apple Pie Hopes - local Berkeley/San Francisco group - that the rumor is that it's "The Who". Hear him say that he's not going to believe it until they appear.

They appear. Blake blows his lid off and starts using heartfelt to-be-symbol-covered words.

Ridiculous standing ovation for the next two hours. (We weren't fooled again.)

Highlights: Roger Daltrey has still got the pipes and mic tricks. Pete Townshend breaks guitar string. Jests that the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith bundle comes with Steven Tyler's underwear. Crowd roars.

Back in hotel after three hours. Feet hurt like mad. Stood the entire time. But would stand even longer.

Come on, it's The #%*ing Who.