Rudy, Checo and Paul enjoying a Five Star Night Jam.
I like videogames.
A lot.
I don’t get to play them as much as I would like, but if there’s a good game I can get sucked in pretty well.
Which makes things like sleeping and eating and personal hygiene kind of fall by the wayside from time to time.
Not so much anymore since, well you know, an adult has shit to do like work and pay bills so I don’t play as much.
Which means yes! I do get to sleep and eat and bathe on a regular basis.
But that’s kind of beside the point.
There is a game I have now, called Rock Band.
Maybe you’ve heard of it.
That’s when people get all these plastic toys that LOOK like instruments, and
pretend to play music they have only heard once or twice in their lives with the assistance of a television. It’s like a Karaoke machine mated with DDR and gave birth to a misshapen guitar baby.
Anyway, I play this game at least once a week, usually for about two hours- even though I’ve owned it for almost a year now. It’s lots of fun, celebrates one of my favorite things- and it’s got lots of options. You can customize a character, and download a whole slew of songs from XboX Live.
For some of you, it sounds pretty dodgy- it’s a game- a dorky KIDS game that’s boring and goofy and no fun. But you-and I, and hell, well everyone- knows that anything can be made more fun with the addition of BOOZE.
Snakes and Ladders becomes a blast when you have to take a shot of Jager every time someone hits a Ladder.
And never mind Jenga- that game just gets harder as you keep drinking.
And Candyland is reserved for only the most blasted of individuals…
So, Rudy and I- as we always enjoy finding a new way to consume alcohol- devised a drinking game around our Rock Band fascination. It’s a very simple game, with a simple name.
Five Star Nights.
Technically it’s called Five Star and we just add Night to the end because that’s usually when we play. We’ll say “Wanna do a Five Star Night?” and that usually means- we’re going to play Rock Band and get lit like a candle.
So- here’s the way it goes.
You pick a song and your difficulty- If you want to get lit, go with easy songs and easy difficulty. If you want a challenge, up the ante. And play your song. Try as hard as you can to be a good performer! At the end of the song, it tells you how well you did, individually and as a band. The Band rating gets STARS, and Five Stars is the cream of the crop-the best you can do. If you get FIVE STARS- everyone in your band takes a shot! Yaay!
If it turns out you DON’T get five stars, fear not! There’s still another chance. The individual performers are rated on a percentage. If you DON’T get Five Stars, but someone in the band scores OVER 95% , then THAT BAND MEMBER has to take a shot ALONE! We made this rule as a stipulation when playing with people who aren’t good or too drunk to play.
Then, if you feel so inclined, switch up instruments- we have two vocalists so we switch them between bass and vocals every other song- or you can just pick a slightly harder song.
The Choice of booze is also very important in a Five Star Night. If you’re an efficient band you can get about 5 songs in an hour. If you’re a GOOD band, you can get that many shots in an hour. So… you need to be sure that everyone will drink the booze you’re shooting, and that it’s not too potent. A liqueur is perfect for this. We usually go with something between 20 and 30 proof- Jager is PERFECT. You can supplement your shots with a regular drink- beer or what have you.
So- yes.
That’s what I did last night.
