Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" cues up second. Wearing black fingerless gloves, another contestant grins and kicks his legs wildly to emphasize his guitar solos. The competition is stiff, but he's still playing a video game. There's plenty of room to have fun.
Yet as Lamb of God's "Laid to Rest" follows and, on the TV, the virtual "Lars Umlaut" character windmills away in his Gwar-inspired face paint and heavily-spiked armplates, the next competing "guitarist" remains impassive and motionless. Video game or not, the weekly Guitar Hero II tournament can be serious business.
Free to enter (for now), the tournament, organized by the group We Are Dorks, allows axe-slingers to get their G n' R on every Wednesday from roughly 10 p.m. onward. The weekly riff-off rose from the ashes of now-defunct hardcore band Bydeathsdesign; former member Josh Edwards regularly played Guitar Hero II with his roommate and brainstormed about taking the action public while waiting his turn at the pool table in the dive bar's sunken southwest corner this past December. After just three weeks, as many as 40 people showed up each Hump Day night, a remarkable feat considering Edwards' www.wearedorks.net collective has only advertised via word of mouth and MySpace banners (the Emergency Room has independently included the night in its print advertising).
"We try to find all the dorkiest things we can do, and add alcohol," says Danny Redmond, Edwards' comrade. "It's been really easy to find interested people, especially since we all know lots of band guys."
The tournament begins in earnest in a few weeks, by which time the Dorks will secure small cash prizes and free beer, or, jokes Edwards, some goofy, oversize check "for, like, $8.37" for winners. "It's going to have to be a lot more structured," he notes. "We need sign-up sheets and official brackets." Additionally, play will be conducted in "versus mode" instead of the "cooperative play" mode emphasized tonight.
For now, novices can breathe easy. The inviting we're all just kicking it in a basement! atmosphere allows a girl in a tight black Kiss T-shirt to laugh over her dismal performance of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." "SONG FAILED" the screen admonishes as a 39 percent completion rate flashes. "My grandmother could have done better," a fellow participant jokes.
Tonight, the slowly growing late-night crowd watches the performers with a mixture of entertainment and bemusement. And why shouldn't they? Now that hipster trivia nights and punk-rock karaoke have become de rigueur bar-culture events, it's logical that theme nights geared to the joystick set follow. The tourney may be unabashedly "dorky," but it's a wholly original idea and a helluva good time ... no strings attached.