There's big news to report in the Burpo household - which combined with the other big news of starting this blog - equates to a whole lot of big news going on around here lately. But the very latest and greatest big news is that we've started a band! Now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "Melinda, please don't quit your day job - you have zero musical talent!!!" To that I say: A) In case you haven't noticed, I don't currently have a day job; and B) What about those flute lessons in grammar school? Surely that counts for something.
But here's the real story: We are the proud (Jeff being especially proud) new owners of Rock Band 2, the brand new sequel to the much-coveted original Rock Band. For any of you reading this who may have been living under a rock - Rock Band is a video game where you form your own band and play actual songs with "real" instruments. The better you are as a band at playing your instruments, the more points you earn.
Though we had heard a lot about it, we actually only had the chance to play it for the first time at the Point B weekend getaway on the coast last month when it was the big hit for Saturday eve's "game night". This game is for every man, woman and child out there who ever dreamed of being a rock star. And given that accounts for probably a large number of people on the planet shows why the game is pretty popular.
About two seconds after we walked in the door from the getaway, Jeff pre-ordered the soon-to-be-released-with-a-better-songlist Rock Band 2 on Amazon. And last week, IT finally arrived. Upon arriving home from work, Jeff had that puppy out of the box and set up in our downstairs TV room sooner than I can down a pint of Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Toffee Crunch. Now if only that happened when I announced it was time for someone to clean the cat boxes...
So, after some fine tuning of the instruments last Thursday eve and a few practice songs - Friday night was our big debut. Ian and Jeff started out with a little warm-up action while I was out in the late afternoon (see photo for evidence). But it wasn't until after dinnertime when Ian was snuggled all warm in his bed (actually, scratch that - he's still in a crib with no blanket which is a story for another post) that the real action began.
Beverages in hand, Jeff and I set out to become rock stars. First we had to choose a band name. No brainer. The Stumptown Burpies!! Stumptown is one of the nicknames for Portland (another perhaps better known one being "The Rose City" but we weren't about to call ourselves The Rose City Burpies). Stumptown just has a better ring to it - more hip and edgy, like our band. And then Burpies because well, I guess it sounds more interesting that Burpo? Plus, we needed something plural. Really though, it's better to ask Jeff about all this because the real truth is that we stole the name from his fantasy baseball team this year. That's what he called them so there you have it.
Then we had the daunting task of each creating our own band character. We got to choose a name, hometown AND cute outfits and hairstyles for them to wear. I'm Taedora and Jeff is Blue. I'm from San Francisco and he's from Austin, but our band is based out of Seattle (at least that's the official word on the street according to Rock Band, but we know better...). Once that was all settled, we were ready to rack up some points by playing gigs around town. From there, we just cranked out hit after hit for the rest of the night to big hits like those 80s song we all know and love - Eye of the Tiger or We Got the Beat, stopping only to head to the clothing store to buy some new grubbs with our hard earned money. So far Eye of the Tiger is probably my favorite song we've played (the better you get the more songs that become available) because you can really rock out to that tune! So far I've only played the guitar/bass and Jeff plays a lot of the drums, but there's a microphone so we can sing too karaoke style. I plan to do a lot more of that in the future since I have such a great voice and all.
Friday night I lost steam and had to depart the band for bed (I won't say what time because I don't want to make the band look bad) just when we had earned enough points for our own wheels to head out to another city for new gigs. Jeff spent the weekend earning us more points so who knows where we are now. Maybe our own plane by now! I know we're going to be big though. Watch for us on tour soon in a town near you.
Until I write again.
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