The Ahlstrom Family Band

A couple of weeks ago, Andy and I started a family band, with Andy on drums and me on bass guitar. Occasionally we rotate - I play drums, and he plays guitar. When someone else comes over, we take turns singing. All thanks to Rock Band.

When we first heard Rock Band was coming out, Andy decided he must have it. We started with multiple conversations around wants vs needs. "I need Rock Band," he'd tell me. "But we don't have the money for it," was always my reply. Before Andy left for India, we borrowed a friend's copy of Guitar Hero, complete with two guitars. I was hoping it would take care of the desire and the novelty would ultimately wear off. Boy was I wrong - it was all anyone wanted to do, and the thought of having drums just made the Rock Band obsession even stronger. All the kids and the youth in our ward wanted to come over and play. Even our adult friends wanted to play! I felt like I never got a break from being the Rock and Roll Ahlstroms.

Which is why I was so nervous when Rock Band started showing up in stores. I knew it was only a matter of time before we'd have guitars and drums going in our living room. Besides, I wanted to buy Wii Fit - it's only half the price of Rock Band, and we've both been dying to try it. (Confession: I want to try the hula hoop. Why I can't just go buy a real hula hoop is something I still haven't figured out.) But after searching and searching, we couldn't find any Wii Fits in the stores, and we gave up for the time being.

And then the coupons came in the mail: one for an additional $30 trade-in value for any game system, one for an additional 50% trade-in value on 5 games, and one for 10% off the purchase of a new game. I suggested we trade in some Wii games we don't use and see what we can get for them. Andy surprised me even further by suggesting we trade in the old Playstation and the remainder of his rated R movies to get some additional credit. Sacrifices abound! We were both surprised to find out that we had enough credit to buy Rock Band, an additional Wii game, and still have some credit leftover.

So we've been rocking out the past couple of weeks. I must confess, I never wanted to be a rock 'n roll star, but this pretty great. It's super fun to sit down and play the guitar, and bang it out on the drums. It's even more hilarious to get someone singing along to the B 52's, The Police, REM, or Metallica songs. Good times, and we got it pretty much for free.

If you're ever in the neighborhood and want to come play...the Ahlstrom Family Band is always accepting new members.