By Rosemary Peters
Students across the UP campus will have the opportunity to shred their stuff with a night full of finger-tapping and whammy-bar abuse at KDUP's first Guitar Hero competition next Thursday.
KDUP is UP's student-run radio station, located next to St. Mary's Student Center, behind the Chapel of Christ the Teacher.
"This year we wanted to get out there," senior Leanne Paredes, the promotions director at KDUP said. "We want students to know they have a radio station on campus and that we actually do things."
In October, KDUP hosted a free acoustic concert by the band We Are Scientists. Just a few days ago, the station held a contest to name the radio station. Now, the station is going to hold UP's first Guitar Hero competition.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a popular music video game in which the gamer rocks out to his favorite songs. The player uses a special guitar-shaped controller to simulate playing rock music by playing in-time to scrolling notes on-screen.
Guitar Hero III includes a "Boss Battles" through which in-game characters and other players compete against each other to determine who is the best rock star.
To participate in the Guitar Hero competition, students must show up at St. Mary's next Thursday. KDUP representatives will register students that day starting an hour before the competition. The Guitar Hero competition starts at 7 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.
After everyone is registered, a KDUP representative will put all of the names in a bowl and then pull out random pairs of names. These pairs will have a Guitar Hero face-off and whoever has the highest score in each pair will progress to the next round.
"I think the competition will be a lot of fun and very, very competitive because there are a lot of good Guitar Hero players out there," said senior Jack Cullen who will take part in the competition "I am super stoked for the competition because I believe I have a good chance of winning and would love to win a prize."
The Guitar Hero grand-prize winner will receive two tickets to a concert of their choice.
"We are leaving the decision open for what tickets the winner wants," Paredes said. "We have some leeway with record companies so as long as it's a reasonable request, we can probably get tickets to almost anything."
There will also be three runners-up who will receive Guitar Hero nylon bags and every participant will receive a t-shirt.
The competition is not just for Guitar Hero aficionados.
"I am excited to just go and watch my friends play some of my favorite songs," freshman Tina Schicchi said. "It is fun to see people get all intense about this game. Guitar Hero has really created a video game community unlike any other I have seen."
KDUP will offer refreshments and a lounge area where other UP students can watch their friends duke it out on a big screen.
"It's a community event," Paredes said. "We want students to hang out and support their friends."
Paredes, disc jockeys and station representatives hope that the contests and concerts will increase school spirit for the radio station, which in the past used to have much more hype.
With this increased school spirit, KDUP hopes to reach its goal of remodeling the basement and making it into a fully functioning recording studio.
Also, KDUP intends to inform UP students of all the resources that are already open to them through the radio station. In addition to radio shows featuring everything from a variety of music to Animorphs, KDUP offers students a place where they can find their favorite songs and CDs as well as a place where they can have their voices heard.
"We just want to pull more interaction," Paredes said. "And we want to give students with an interest in music, especially the music majors, a place to record their music and get out into the music world."
