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I’ve heard rumblings about this for a while now, but it looks like it’s official: Harmonix is bringing Rock Band to pubs and bars. They’re calling it—wait for it—Rock Band Bar Nights. Maybe it’s not the most compelling branding, but it does have a sort of Soviet industrial efficiency to it. And come on, this is from a developer who called their rock band simulation game “Rock Band” (possibly because “Music Game” wasn’t able to be trademarked?).

image © HotHardware.com

No, no, no… I kid the Rock Band. I’m only miffed because I’d been thinking about buying a PA and a projector and trying to do something similar myself. I think it’s an amazing idea and long overdue. There are going to be over a thousand songs available for the game by the end of the year, so there’s no shortage of content. Gamers who have honed their skills in their living room can come on out and show off their mad rocking skills to an audience that will actually appreciate them. And it should help the DJ (RBJ?) run through the list of sign-ups four times faster than a traditional karaoke joint.

It also has the capacity to be four times as brutal to the listener if a band of drunks fumbles their way through the song… unless No Fail mode is turned off. Then, instead of listening to some dude slur his way through “Baby Got Back,” the entire band fails out thirty seconds into the song, to howls of delight from the crowd. Of course, this infringes on my jointly held patent for Gong Show Karaoke (© Leaf Standard and Bryan Stratton), but I’m willing to let that slide, because I’m lazy and would rather let someone else do all of the hard work.