Went to see a real fake Rock Band

Dark Side of the Moon is a Pink Floyd tribute band made up of Ohioans from around the state. Tonight, at their performance at Screamin' Willies, I sat and listened with closed eyes to the melancholy wail of the guitar blending in with the punctuations of singing and drums that make up the mostly instrumental stylizing of Pink Floyd, and I contemplated. I was trying to figure out why anyone would want to make a simulator of the inside of a dingy bar where you control the characters on stage as they played music that only a dozen of the patrons actual came to listen to, instead of just to drink. That's when it clicked; music rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero aren't bar simulators, but band simulators. As I watched the lead singer, the bassist, the guitarist, and the sax player jam and really get into the music (I couldn't see the drummer very well) I realized that those smiles on their faces, the way they moved around the stage, even the way they visibly relaxed when a song was finished, those were the same things I experienced when I play Rock Band 2. The fun doesn't come from pressing corresponding colored buttons to gems falling down a path on the screen. I have fun being a part (a very small part) of the spirit and driving force behind a song, as a make-believe member of the band. Now I wonder why others have a hard time seeing the same thing.