Harmonix and EA want Rock Band at your bar

by Justin McElroy on Sep 1st 2009 9:54AM

To think, just a few years ago a bar advertising "Rock Band" would have just seemed infuriatingly unspecific. Now, Rock Band nights at taverns, dives and watering holes are becoming commonplace enough that EA and Harmonix are formalizing them just a tad.

At Rock Band Bar Nights you can register your event and get permission to use the game's logo and access to all of the songs in the Rock Band DLC catalog along with some other nice perks.

While we're on the subject, Joystiq Promotions is still looking for clubs that would like to take part in our Sins of a Solar Empire Bar Nights. Despite what you may have guessed, there are plenty of great spots still available.

Source

Tags: ea, Electronic-Arts, harmonix, Microsoft, Nintendo, rock-band, rock-band-2, rock-band-bar-nights, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (46)

Interesting idea. I could see it going horribly, horribly wrong, but an interesting idea nonetheless.

Geist,
I agree. However, you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. I applaud efforts at bringing a gaming experience to more casual environments. Steps like these are opening up the possibilities and allowing technology to move further away from the couch and my computer chair!

Bars have already done this for a while. This is the first I've seen any of the companies going along with it strongly.

The actual news here is that Rock Band can legalize your gaming nights. I'm pretty sure that playing guitar hero or rock band games in groups larger than 4 is illegal in the fine print just like any other form of media. Maybe a bar could get away with a DJ license but that'd be cutting it close. This way its 100% legal and they can use marketing material as well.

An even better idea would to pay $20 and all the songs open for a day during a house party.

What's the bet that most of these nights are ruined by some drunken asshole spewing all over the mic / someone getting carried away and stage diving.. into a table..

Just don't give drunk people a plastic instrument and a crowd..

Have you actually ever been to a bar or are you just going off the image of them that the movies have put in your head? Because in the real world, people don't really get shit face, puking drunk. It happens, but it's hardly the norm.

thanks, oolz, i was about to say the exact same thing. there are actually multiple bars in my area that have a stage with rock band set up on it, and it's actually pretty successful. and no, people aren't puking all over the instruments, and saying something like that means that you probably haven't ever been to a bar before. or if you have, you've been going to the wrong ones.

LOOK AT ME MOMMY (buuurrrpppp) IM IN A ROCK BAND!

F*cking come on

One of the local bars I frequent has it set up near the dart boards... they haven't broken more than I think one guitar. However, they don't do an organized 'rock band night'... it just sits waiting for whoever wants to use it.

It's actually a pretty fun event. A local bar bar near me does Rock Band Thursdays, totally free, people just take turns playing. With a full set of instruments it can be a blast. Drinking and Rock Band go to together pretty well, believe me. People never want to sing sober and this fixes the problem.

I'd rather do that in the comfort of my own home then with a bunch of drunken idiots at a bar.. that's just me though.

I sing sober all the time...

I sing sober all the time as well, alcohol will ruin your throat when you sing drunk.

@Mystile: Have you never gone to a karaoke bar? This is basically just an extension of that. Drunkenly mangling famous songs is half the fun.

true about the singing, but in my experience timing was much, much harder intoxicated. i couldn't get the timing right on the drums.

I need to go to more bars. I've never see a Rock Band set up around here....

ditto. I can see it as being a natural extension to karaoke though, and the setup/upkeep might actually be cheaper...

should be fun, i know i really came into my own playing guitar hero 2 when coming home plastered.
playing it in a pub might be fun but not sure i would if there was anyone in said pub i was trying to pull.
drums may be the exception but singing would be definite no no. i sang b4 when drunk but not a solo more a group yelling lol

How long until someone at Activision claims to have been working on this idea two years ago?

5...4...3...2...

To be honest, it's done wonders for a little bar down the road from where I live. Used to have 5 or 6 people on a good night. They installed a WII with golf and bowling. Now instead of 5 or 6 we get 25-30 throughout the night.

This is a stupid idea. Rock Band is a great game because it lets you pretend to be a rock star in the privacy of your own home, with close friends or family. Everyone who is there is most likely participating.

Why in the world would I want to watch a stranger play Rock Band in a bar? He's just going to look like a tool.

For the exact same reason karaoke is so popular. I've seen this in a few bars my area.

Exactly what The Moof said. A lot of bars have karaoke, which doesn't stop people from looking stupid on stage. I'd much rather watch someone Rock Band it out.

We're not all embarassed to have fun in front of strangers like yourself. Move along chicken shit.

I was wondering why this dumb comment hadn't been greyed out yet, but I guess I just had to refresh.

Well there is Guitar Hero Arcade, so if EA/Harmonix made a similar Rockband arcade cabinet, all they'd need to do is get it into the bar and they're done. Plus EA could sell the cabinet to the bar for a good 10 grand, roughly going by current arcade game prices.

Or, they could just not be assholes about it and come up with a promotion like this.

What? A company thinking about the consumers needs? Not happening buddy.

Easy brilliant marketing for EA/Harmonix.

This makes me want to have a Rock Band Bar Meetup for Cincinnati area 'Stiqers.

I've been trying to convince more than one bar owner here in Baltimore to do this for a while now (even offered my own RB setup for use) but I haven't found anyone receptive yet (not any place I want to drink anyway.) I think the big downside of this whole thing is that you have to have an ASCAP/BMI license for your bar to participate, which at least one bar I asked didn't have.

it's bad enough when bars get live bands (aka 2 dbags on acoustic). I can see this repelling as many people as it attracts.

There's a part of me saying that all we'll hear outta these Rock band nights is "Don't stop believing".........

And really, what song more captures that slightly-inebriated karaoke experience? :D

haha, i love how this post clearly highlights the differences between all the stay-on-your-couch gamers and the people who have no problem bringing gaming into the social spotlight.

i think this is exactly what they invented rock band for, IMO. yeah, obviously they're not real instruments, but that's the beauty of the whole thing: you don't have to spend years with an instrument to get on stage, even if it is a simulated experience. it's fun, a good way to have laughs with your friends, and in some cases a great way to make a fool of yourself. have some people play livin on a prayer on stage and see if it doesn't get everyone in the bar singing along.

So...is it cool if I claim that my house is a bar so I can get access to all the DLC for free?

Why didn't I think of this?

I could see playing call of duty in a bar where you've got like 10 stations all hooked up and then you know like if someone pisses you off or keeps spawn killing you over and over you can just walk over and punch 'em in the fucking face. that would be cool.

all of the DLC?? awesome

The rockband night i got to in NYC on tuesdays has been very successful and even held FundeRazor and demoed RockBand Beatles Twice now. (i'm the photographer for the event.)

what classifies as a bar to get free songs? does the bar in my basement count?

;)

Sounds like a great idea , never seen this done over here in Liverpool . Perhaps with the soon to be released Beatles - Rock Band we may see this somewhere soon . Hopefully where I live on Penny Lane .

Or you could just have a Rockband setup at your bar...

So will this be coming to Europe? Oh, sorry, stupid question, sorry...

Karaoke just got OWNED!

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Harmonix and EA want Rock Band at your bar

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Sep 1st 2009 10:01AM Geist said

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