Nirvana Bassist Struggles at "Rock Band" Nirvana

Nirvana's bassist struggles to perform his own song in Rock Band 2.

Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame complements music-based video games in a new blog entry on Seattle Weekly's website, introducing his post in the following way;

"Rock and roll has been proclaimed dead countless times. After a slump, rock usually bounces back in a wave of new bands and sounds. Things are different today: Rock has found new life with video games, and the phenomenon is leading to a revival of bands that have been around for a long time."

However, he wasn't too successful when it came to actually trying his hand at playing the bass line of a Nirvana song in Rock Band;

"I know about Rock Band, because Nirvana has some songs on it. I had never tried the game before, so I gave it a go. I worked through the menu and found the song "In Bloom." I picked up the little guitar-shaped controller and hit the stage.

"I knew the bass line to the song, of course, but I couldn't quite master this new, different way of playing it. The game reminded me of Space Invaders. I tried to hit the notes cascading down the screen, but could barely keep up."

It becomes a little embarrassing when a youngen watching the rock star fail at the video game takes the stage and shows him how it's done;

"Meanwhile, this kid was watching me fumble with the game. I became self-conscious and took the controller off. I handed it to him, and he proceeded to jam on the song-and was really good! He had no idea that I was the musician he was emulating on the game, and I didn't tell him.

"Life goes on: I walked away to buy some paint supplies, groceries, and other items from the store."

Still, Krist loves Rock Band. Firstly, because people are actually buying music, not file sharing, and secondly, the game lets you concentrate on different instruments in a similar way to how he hones in on a track's bass line. There's only compliments from Krist;

"Good music, film, paintings, books, and other forms of expression draw you into them. The excitement and power of rock fits well with the dynamic new world created by video games. The virtual universe is interactive, providing sensations that are real."

Head on over to The Seattle Weekly to read his full blog post.