Can anyone stop the Rock Band?

Undoubtedly to get ahead of Activision’s Guitar Hero: World Tour, Harmonix has successfully done a variety of things: the company had a fantastic showing at E3 2008, is holding a nationwide Rock Band 2 tour, and has been increasing the online store’s DLC with some of the best songs yet.

If you haven’t heard about the tour yet, it’s probably because the official Rock Band Tour Web site only shows off a domain squatting image. It’s real, however, and is going to start in San Diego on Sunday, October 5th. Though I can’t imagine how it’s going to be set up, I do know that all of the participating acts will have their music featured in upcoming DLC. For the curious, those acts are The Cab, Dashboard Confessional, Plain White T’s, and Panic at the Disco.

Am I going? You bet your ass I’m going to try for tickets, but if I don’t succeed, at least next week’s downloadable songs will be there to see me through my sadness. System of a Down’s “B.Y.O.B.” is the track I’m most excited about, but the Crue Fest pack might tickle your fancy more. I can’t say that I’ve cared about Motley Crue since, well, ever, but by Rock Band associating itself with another nationwide tour on top of its own, you can tell Harmonix’s baby is gettin’ around.

The aforementioned E3 2008 showing provided a taste of what the Rock Band live tour will hopefully provide, including both the limited edition electronic drum set and the fancified plastic one. While I did enjoy banging on the latter, would it kill Harmonix to put some better pads on the bottom of those kits? Just like their predecessors, the newer drums were sliding across the carpeted E3 show floor as I played on Expert, and I had to stop drumming a few times to pull them back. Really, we shouldn’t need to buy off-market traction pads on eBay to compromise for junk like that.

Considering that there will be a metal insert in these new drum pedals, maybe the people at Harmonix are saving a more secure base for Rock Band 3. They’ll need to have a few tricks up their sleeves if such a release ever comes out, though they might not be too worried about it right now. Everything they’ve done is impressive, their future plans are tantalizing, and already, I really don’t see Guitar Hero: World Tour’s success riding on anything other than its household name. Its primary competitor, Rock Band, just can’t be stopped.