{"id":259,"date":"2021-03-05T19:05:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T19:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dantejspado.com\/?p=259"},"modified":"2021-03-23T21:37:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T21:37:12","slug":"jack-black-inspired-me-to-join-a-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/05\/jack-black-inspired-me-to-join-a-band\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Black inspired me to join a band"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Dante Spado<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

School of Rock<\/em> was one of my favorite movies growing up. For several years when my family traveled to New York during the summer and for Christmas, my sister and I would watch the movie on the way up and the way back. That\u2019s about four times a year for three or four years. The point is, I\u2019ve seen it a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those unfamiliar, School of Rock<\/a><\/em> is a movie about a wannabe rockstar, played by Jack Black, who poses as a substitute teacher for some money and ends up forming a band with his elementary aged-students, one of whom is played by Miranda Cosgrove. It\u2019s a great movie, and during my younger years I longed for my own \u201cMr. Schneebly\u201d to show up and teach me to play guitar instead of math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Not your typical band, but these kids had some skill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, for those without the patience to learn how to play guitar or drums, there\u2019s a game called Rock Band<\/em> (I did play the trumpet for six years though, give me credit). If you aren\u2019t familiar with School of Rock, I KNOW you\u2019re familiar with Rock Band (or Guitar Hero). The games, which were a big hit in the early to mid-2000s, replace guitar strings for color-coded buttons that you press as the matching colors come down the screen. It\u2019s endless fun, and the game will have you feeling like Eddie Van Halen or Phil Collins in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the pandemic that I\u2019m sure you\u2019re all aware of, many activities that I looked forward to in college, like going out to bars, were put on hold. How does a second-semester senior fill his time you might ask? If you guessed playing Rock Band<\/em>, you\u2019re correct (50 gold stars for you<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It started out as a joke last semester. Before winter break, my roommate, Alex, told my other roommate, Randy, to ask for a Rock Band<\/em> drum set for Christmas. I think Alex thought it would be funny to ask for an outdated (albeit cool) piece of technology for Christmas (the first game came out in 2008). Sure enough, Randy asked for it and got it, which resulted in Alex bringing his old Xbox, guitar controller and copy of Rock Band 2<\/em> back to our house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all honesty, I thought it would be a fad. I thought we\u2019d play for a week or two and lose interest. Two Rock Band<\/em> games, a Guitar Hero<\/em> game, a microphone, a pair of clout goggles and dozens of hours spent playing proved me wrong. At several points throughout the day, we\u2019ll hop on to play two or three songs. I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve been listening to a Zoom class and Alex and Randy playing \u201cDrain You\u201d by Nirvana at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our setup. You get to wear the clout goggles when you sing a Nirvana song.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While I know it drives our girlfriends insane, it provides a lot of fun for us. Sure, I may not sound like Gene Simmons, but you\u2019d be crazy if you thought I don\u2019t try to belt out \u201cDetroit Rock City\u201d like him. Alex is no Dave Grohl, but he beats those drum pads to the rhythm of \u201cIn Bloom\u201d as good as anyone. And you can always count on Randy to get 100% accuracy on \u201cHungry Like the Wolf\u201d on expert mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is, while some people\u2019s new pandemic hobby is baking bread or watching The Queen\u2019s Gambit<\/em>, ours is playing Rock Band. <\/em>To bring this thing full circle, there\u2019s a song on Rock Band 2<\/em> called \u201cMaster Exploder\u201d by Jack Black. Yes, the same Jack Black in School of Rock<\/em> (the guy is actually musically talented<\/a>). It\u2019s a TOUGH song on all three fronts, and we spent a lot of time perfecting it. The Jack Black song reminded me of my childhood, spending many hours in a car watching School of Rock<\/em>, so a few days ago Alex and I sat down and watched it, as he hadn\u2019t seen it before. The movie still holds up, and features a lot of great classic rock songs such as \u201cImmigrant Song,\u201d \u201cMoonage Daydream,\u201d and \u201cEdge of Seventeen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may not sound like Mr. S and The School of Rock at The Battle of the Bands<\/a>, but if you swing by our house on any given night, you\u2019ll be sure to hear us rocking out.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(For those of you who are School of Rock fans<\/em>, watch this video of the ten-year reunion<\/a> for some serious nostalgia.) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dante Spado School of Rock was one of my favorite movies growing up. For several years when my family traveled to New York during the summer and for Christmas, my sister and I would watch the movie on the way up and the way back. That\u2019s about four times a year for three or four years. The point is, I\u2019ve seen it a lot. For those unfamiliar, School of Rock is a movie about… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dantejspado.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}