w a s t e . t i m e . n o w

You know I’m not the kind of guy who gets into video games. I’m not 20-years old and I don’t live with my parents. But this weekend I caught the fever — rock and roll fever.

You have never seen anything like Guitar Hero. It’s a PlayStation game with a guitar-shaped controller you sling over your shoulder and play like the real thing. It even has a whammy bar.

Choose a character, select a guitar, decide which song to butcher and just give ‘er. To make things a little less embarassing, you get to play with a friend. But it’s way harder than it sounds. Seriously.

Guitar Hero’s soundtrack features all your favourites, from Joan Jett and David Bowie to Sabbath and the Ramones. Rock anthems with only three chords are classified as easy, but my axe grinding through “Smoke On The Water” was still totally lame — and my friend Sarah and I pretty much cleared the room during our unique interpretation of “More Than A Feeling” (which I should point out is a five-chord song).

Now I can’t wait for my friend to get back from NY, so I can try wrangling another guest appearance at the big show. If video game creators ever get smart and make a game where chumps like me can play the drums in the privacy of our homes, I’ll probably end up buying the mother.