Flashback Friday Moment of The Week: 12/6/2019

by Just Juan
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I decided to take a walk for lunch today and I ended up at Carvings on the George Washington University campus. While waiting for my grilled chicken sandwich, I heard a familiar song play on the radio loudspeaker: Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen”. I let out a little bit of a chuckle as I no doubt had a smile on my face as well. That brings me to this week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series: the Rock Band video game.

How I first came across this moment? I was first introduced to the game in the Summer of 2009. It was one of the games we played at Adrian’s apartment during Sunday evening fellowships.

What it meant to me then? Initially, I wasn’t a big fan of Rock Band. Whenever I played with the crew, I usually took control of the drums and I failed miserably…oftentimes ruining sets in Band World Tour with my inefficiency. I was slightly above terrible when we played “Mississippi Queen” though. That changed considerably when I moved to Maryland the following year. I purchased the game for my PlayStation 3—in contrast to the Xbox 360 we played at AJay’s spot—and started playing Solo Tour. After some initial struggles, I became very comfortable with the Fender Stratocaster. I got 4 stars for my performances most of the time though I found my groove with Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California”. I got 5 stars when I played those. I grew to enjoy the game as a change of pace from my usual playing of sports games and vehicular crime games.

What it means to me now? I haven’t played Rock Band since March 2012, as far as I can remember. Once I was on my way out of Joint Base Andrews for the assignment in South Korea, I kinda checked out on all things PlayStation 3. In fact, when I was packing my stuff, the whole setup I had for the game was amongst the things that weren’t making the trip across the Pacific with me, going into storage. Once I got settled in Opelika, I actually gave it away…the game, the guitar, the drums, and even the microphone. In hindsight, I probably should’ve hung on to it as I’m sure it would’ve been something Mercedes and I could play together as a fun in-home activity.

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