Do You Really Want to Play Freebird?

One of these days, I’ll go to a show where people actually play real guitars. Really. But after having a blast at the Air Guitar regional championships a few months back, some friends and I thought we’d check out the Guitar Hero tournament held last night at the House of Blues. (I’ve been known to play a little GH in my day—I’m partial to Message in a Bottle on Medium difficulty, if you must know.) The event raised money for Camp Ailihpomeh, a week-long summer camp for Texas kids with hemophilia. The evening’s emcee was Rangers relief pitcher/sometime closer/always cutie, C.J. Wilson.

A couple hundred people turned out to see the gamers (many of whom came armed with their own personalized “guitars”) play in a bracket-style tourney and more than likely give themselves carpal tunnel in the process. Most of the early rounds took place on small TVs around the room, but the bigger show-downs—including duels between Rangers Wes Littleton, Jason Botts, and Wilson—took place onstage. The winner played a portion of Freebird with the guitar behind his head. He was good. But he was no Buck Nasty.