I was at E3 yesterday. I was supposed to leave on a late afternoon flight but I was implored by Jeff Casteneda to stay overnight and not miss the Rock Band 2 party. He just said that I could not miss it, particularly me. We’d talked about music at length when I was doing the Rock Band cover story so I know he knows my musical tastes. He was very emphatic. So I rearranged my flight for the next morning and planned to pull an all-nighter in the airport, during which I wrote most of a feature.
This was the ticket.
This was the club.
And this was the band.
You can’t really see them, but you’ve heard of them. It’s the Who.
Yes, THE Who.
Pete Townshend has been a huge guitar and songwriting influence on me for years but I had somehow never managed to get my ass to a Who concert. Seeing them in a 2,000-seat venue…unreal. I had great balcony seats in a small venue and got to enjoy the show with friends from Future. I don’t think they caught me welling up a few times.
It was worth staying up all night to make it happen, even though I suppose I could have gotten some sleep. I was in the mood to work so it was all good.
You may find photos of me singing or playing fake guitar in pre-show rounds of Rock Band 2, but know that they are all falsified in Photoshop and I would never do any of that in public.