Rock Band Steals the SXSW Show

Seen, heard, and partaken in at SXSW this year: Rock Band. No, not the bands playing at the music festival, the video game. It is everywhere. I just walked the stage floor and there were at least three booths with the game set up and people rocking out, plus a Guitar Hero III station. Tonight there are two separate Rock Band-themed parties, and one of them features a face-off between videobloggers like Veronica Belmont, Casey McKinnon, Zadi Diaz, and Micki Krimmel competing on stage as bands called “Overheard,” “Epic and the Fails,” and “Petty Internet Crimes.” Of course, they’ll be playing Rock Band.

Also, the Revision3 folks got a bunch of geeks together and made a Rock Band music video that’s going to be released tomorrow night (at least that’s what I think the deal is; I just caught a sneak preview on someone’s iPhone at a party last night).

Rock Band is, of course, huge outside of Austin too, but I’d say it’s a pretty solid contender for “this year’s Twitter.”