The Wait Is Over — Rock Band Track Pack Is Here!

I think Nickelback said it best:

Hey, hey, I wanna be a rock star...

Really, don’t we all? Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, playing Rock Band is pretty much as close as I’ll ever get.

But while I am only a legendary vocalist (and bassist) in my own mind, like all great rock stars, I still need new material to keep things fresh for my virtual audience. That’s why I was so excited that MTV Games finally released Rock Band Track Pack: Vol. 1 this week for both PS2 and Wii. So excited that I went to three stores on Tuesday looking for it, and spent a good portion of the day on Wednesday hitting refresh on the Best Buy website trying to buy it. Sure, I know I’ve only had the first Rock Band for eight months, but you have to keep working on your art, right?

Priced at $29.99, the Track Pack is a pretty good deal, considering that it contains 20 songs, all recorded by the original artists. Downloaded individually for Xbox or PS3, that would run you about $40. On the other hand, that only seems fair, considering that neither PS2 nor Wii players have ever before had access to the now 156 downloadable tracks that have been offered to Xbox and PS3 users since November 2007.

The song list for Track Pack Vol. 1 is pretty satisfying. I’m not a big fan of David Bowie in general, and it’s much harder to sing along with the Grateful Dead than I imagined. But there are a lot of tracks that I love. “Crushcrushcrush” by Paramore is my new favorite to sing, although I also absolutely love Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”, “Move Along” by the All-American Rejects, and 30 Seconds to Mars’ “The Kill” (although I kind of wish that last one was the acoustic version I’ve been listening to on the radio). The one that surprised me a bit was how much fun it was to sing Blink 182’s “All the Small Things”. (It would have been fun even if I hadn’t scored 100% on medium on my first try — but it probably helped.) I also like “Live Forever” by Oasis, now that I’ve moved from “I don’t think I know that one” to “Oh, yeah — I remember now!”

There are still lots of downloadable songs I want — AAR’s “Dirty Little Secret” and Weezer’s “El Scorcho” come immediately to mind — but I’ll try to be patient. After all, the best thing about the Track Pack is that it’s Volume 1. So Volume 2 has to be on the way. Although it can’t get here soon enough for me.

After all, my imaginary fans will expect new material at some point, and you have to give the people what they want.