Nirvana Bassist Krist Novoselic Struggles to Play “Rock Band” - “In Bloom”

Krist Novoselic, 43, former bassist for Nirvana, writes a blog for SeattleWeekly.com. Here’s the condensed version of his post on Dec. 29, 2008 when he encounters the Rock Band 2 video game in a store.

I had my first experience with a video game when I was around 10 years old. It was called Pong. The contest was between two rectangular “paddles” that could only slide up and down the edges of a TV screen. Between them we bounced a small square dot—the ping pong ball—back and forth.

More recently, while walking through a one-stop shopping center, I encountered the Rock Band 2 video game. It was set up on display for customers to try.

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.

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.

Regardless of my first experience with the game as a player, I’m loving Rock Band. Instead of file sharing, people are actually buying music again! HA!!!