How I kept Scott Hanselman from getting booed off stage at CodeMash

Scott Hanselman and I were up on stage, really grooving with what we were doing. The crowd was going crazy. Then Scott just lost his rhythm, the worst nightmare for anyone on any stage. He couldn't keep up, and I felt like I was loosing him.

Three times I had to distract the crowd from his mistakes, until he could get back on track. Fortunately, it worked, and we made it to the end, without too many embarrassing moments.

...

Of course, I am talking about Rock Band at CodeMash.

Scott checked in at CodeMash fairly late on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008. I was packing away the TV and Rock Band setup we had at the QSI booth, when he walked up and asked if I could reconnect it so he could see what it was like.

I wheeled it into the grand ballroom, and set it back up. Of course a crowd started to assemble around us. We started up a game, with Scott on drums, and myself on the guitar. Scott admitted he didn't know how to play drums, and it showed. :)

In the game, if you make too many mistakes, you will be kicked out with a failure, but your bandmates can 'Save' you with use of their rock power to bring you back on. Three failures, and you get booed off stage, and you lose the game. During the game, I had to save Scott several times, which was as much fun as it sounds.

He had a great sense of humor about it, and he couldn't keep away from the the Rock Band game the whole rest of the time. If I ever hear Wheezer or Tom Sawyer again, I will puke.

Thanks for coming Scott!

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