I love Rock Band. My kid, who's 2 and a half years old, has watched me play both Rock Band and Guitar Hero II for a good chunk of his life, relatively speaking. Since he's into Dad stuff these days, he now insists on "rocking" every day when we get home. He heads right to the cabinet and pulls out the GHII controller. I don't complain, as I prefer the action on it -- my RB guitar works, but feels a bit "squishy". I (used to) figure I could get away with just letting him play with the controller - hey, it's clicky and cool-shaped and has cool colored buttons, what kid wouldn't want to mess about with it? But the kid is wise to this action, and insists that the controller should be connected to the 360. He demonstrates. Not wishing to cramp his style, I assist him only after he's tried to plug it in a couple of times but just couldn't get it to plug in right (this is difficult enough for some of my peers, even).

With his controller at the ready, I ask the question:

"Are you ready to Rock?"

He assumes the Rock Pose: Feet apart, Guitar vertical, as if the Star Power had already been activated.

"Yes!"

I power on the 360. The opening video for Rock Band (1) starts. Before you hear Ian, you hear the kid, already belting out the long high note that intros the video. We usually watch the whole thing. After that, we switch over to RB2 and watch that video. A quick trip into the options to activate no fail mode, and we start the jam. His rocker looks like him, and mine looks like me. He makes sure I pick the right ones. We start up a Spongebob song to begin with usually, then alternate a few songs with some of my faves. I have to say this, the kid is better than I thought he would be. We're not playing Bodhisattva or anything, but he's got some rhythm skills budding there. A half hour later we're done, as it's time for Ben 10 or Batman or Diego or Johnny Test (etc. etc. etc.), so the controllers go back into their places, and at the end of it all we haven't made any money or gained any fans...

But I don't care. I know he doesn't either. He wanted to hang out with Dad for a while, and I wanted to hang out with him. At the end of the day, it's all about spending time together, and we have a blast doing it.

Me and my boy played a great sesh, and we'll do it again tomorrow.