A Rock Band competition was held Tuesday night as a charity event to benefit the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School, which teaches little kids how to play real instruments so they’re not stuck in front of a TV breaking their fingers on Rock Band like we are.
The event was plainly titled “Rock Band at Vandy,” a catchy name with some good rhyme, and at least it avoided using another “’dores” pun like everything else at Vanderbilt.
Competitors from every school showed up as free agents and in teams to settle their differences in the form of rock. Each school was well represented, and one thing became clear: despite one’s major, anyone can pull off a sick 5-minute guitar solo and look damn good doing it.
Before the competition, one of the creators of Rock Band came to speak at the Student Life Center while the other developers remained at home mastering the guitar part for Snow (Hey Oh). Rock Band creator Eran Egozy spoke about the influence of video games, highlighting the cultural benefits of being exposed to many genres of music.
This event was put on by the Curb Center for Art, Creative Enterprise & Public Policy– whatever the hell that is.
Seriously.
It’s touted on its website as “the nation’s leading research and policy center focused on the American system of creative enterprise, expressive life and the public interest,” but if not even anyone at Vanderbilt has heard of it, America must not have much of an expressive life. Even the student members of the Curb center, myself included, have no idea what we do there. But whatever it is, it’s capable of sponsoring a night of fun and copious amounts of chicken like any other student org.
Overall Rock Band at Vandy was a huge success. Upon completion of their gig, the winning band had raised $1500, which they used to unlock 2 new songs and buy boa print pants for W.O. Smith.
