In a dark saloon, a loner stands in the back corner. Nobody dares to go back and face him. His name is William Sundown, and he totally shreds at “Guitar Hero III.” Every Monday night at the Hidden Shamrock Pub on Transit Road, this 27-year-old Depew resident takes on all comers. If anybody is able to beat him at the video game he adores, they win a small bar tab. And let’s just say that most contestants end up paying for every drink.
“All these guys come in here talking about how good they are, but they never come in on Mondays,” muses Jennifer Smith, 25, who tends bar at the Shamrock. “I don’t think they can walk the walk.”
In case you’re out of the loop on the video game-turned-social phenomenon that is “Guitar Hero,” it’s the ultimate virtual-reality fix for anyone who has ever dreamt of being a rock star. Before the “Guitar Hero” era, your average awkward teenage boy would have to resort to playing air guitar to the Metallica song “One” in front of his bedroom mirror with an imaginary Flying V. Now, kids can strap on a small plastic guitar, fire up a video game and pretend they’re Kirk Hammett — and the better they get at aping their favorite ax-wielder, the more addictive the game becomes.
“You become obsessed to beat the game,” Sundown explained when asked how he got so good. “I go to Best Buy and play people, just to kill time.”
Apparently Sundown isn’t the only “Guitar Hero” fanatic who isn’t satisfied to just play the game from the comforts of home. A handful of local bars, clubs and restaurants have started to capitalize on the craze, holding hotly contested “Guitar Hero” tournaments or simply hooking the game up so patrons can rock out until last call. Local libraries have also gotten into the game; a tournament earlier this month in the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library brought in 19 “Guitar Hero” players from all around Western New York.
At a recent tournament at the Amherst location of Buffalo Wild Wings, a group of around 20 mild-mannered “Hero” aficionados, ranging from age 5 to 26, went head to head on two screens set up at the front of the dining area. A meticulously organized affair that uses March Madness-esque brackets, the Wild Wings tournament is among the most serious in town — it’s a symphony of clicking buttons and rock opuses, a carpal tunnel of love, a hand-eye coordination hall of fame.
What’s the draw?
But honestly, isn’t this still just a video game? What’s getting these people to leave the house?
For Marco Farinacci, it’s the promise of new challenges. The 5-year-old Kenmore resident beat the “Easy” level of the game in a week, “Hard” in another week and “Expert” in a third. Marco regularly wipes out his competition, effortlessly strutting his stuff like some kind of “Guitar Hero” Amadeus.
“Everyone in the house has stopped playing him,” explained Mike Farinacci, Marco’s dad. “He needs someone else to play.”
When asked what brings him out to the tournament, 26-year-old Mark Wrobel of Amherst admitted, “I can be cool in an absolutely 100 percent not cool sort of way, playing a musical instrument I have no business playing.”
Other Wild Wings players included Gina Vastola, 15, of Springville, who shared, “It’s so much fun; it’s way more interactive than other video games.” When asked for tips on how to be a good “Guitar Hero” player, she suggests, “You have to practice, and meet people that are good at it.”
Angelo Butera, 11, of Cheektowaga, echoed the community sentiment.
“It’s really fun competing with people,” he said.
The good and the bad
Having this cross-section of youngsters, teens, college students and young professionals talking to each other and munching on wings seems to fly in the face of all the warnings often heard about video games — namely that they encourage laziness, social incompetence, ignorance and eventual zombification.
If these tournaments are any indication, “Guitar Hero” promotes more activity and human interaction than your average video game. Plus, it creates rabid interest in an art form, as opposed to war, carjacking and Disney movies. When asked to name their favorite song to play on the game, children gave a range of answers that mark important periods of rock history, including Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas,” The Who’s “The Seeker” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “Cherub Rock.” If it weren’t for “Guitar Hero,” these kids would probably be stuck listening to “American Idol” artists.
But there’s one benefit of the game that the verdict is definitely still out on: Does it help you play a real guitar?
“I don’t think it has anything to do with playing the instrument better,” said Jeff McLeod, a Buffalo guitar teacher who also plays in the popular local jazz-fusion act Lazlo Hollyfeld. “I assign my students pieces out of a book. I’ll ask if they worked on it, and sometimes they’ll say, ‘I didn’t. But I played a lot of “Guitar Hero.” Does that matter?’ I don’t think so. They’re not playing the piece any better.”
Drew Azzinaro, a guitar teacher at Tone Doctor’s in Lockport, agrees.
“The only thing that I think that the game does for guitar playing and the guitar community as a whole, is get people interested in guitar,” he said. “The downfall is that people sit in front of the TV for two hours. If they would just take a half-hour and put it into practicing, they’d get much more out of it.”
But not all musicians are anti-“Hero.” Evan Kaderbeck, who teaches guitar at McClellan Music House in Buffalo, thinks the game strikes some pretty deep chords.
“I was suspect at first, but I think that it does help,” he said. “It’s a rhythmic video game, and it’s really good to get rhythm into a kid’s bones at an early age. Without realizing it, it enters your subconscious.
“Plus, it feeds the culture of rock,” Kaderbeck added. “One of my students is this 9-year-old kid who is so psyched about playing guitar. When we’re playing a song, before he even knows the notes, he’s head banging. His face is ecstatic.”
Sundown may be 27, and he may be utterly immersed in playing a video game that requires no artistic talent, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the expression of sheer delight that crosses his face when he’s virtually rocking the house is much like that of Kaderbeck’s 9-year-old.
Such is the power of rock.
Appeared in the July 24, 2007, issue of The Buffalo News.