The 24 Hour Setlist Returns for 2024

Here's my page for this year! 

Remember when I did this in 2015? I almost did it in 2016 too but got sick right before Game Day so I had to bail. Well, I'm giving it another shot and you can find many more details on that page. This one is mostly here to host the new setlist, which was curated with much more care than the 2015 one where I just scrolled through the game and lined up songs without thinking too hard about it. I've tried to build in the brief loading time between songs into the overall timing, which helped the 2015 marathon go way over 24 hours (although it wasn't as much to blame as the constant streaming trouble).

I won't be streaming this one, which I know might be disappointing. But then again, hardly anyone watched it last time. Honestly, I think most people just donated and then forgot about it, but that's ok! It's for a good cause and I could theoretically get away with not doing it at all, but come on - I can't resist that challenge. So here are all 254 songs! Can you find some of the little easter eggs in terms of placement? Enjoy and if you can, please donate!

Intro:
1. Queen - "We Will Rock You"
2. Twisted Sister - "I Wanna Rock"

Phase I
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Snow (Hey Oh)"
4. The Ramones - "I Wanna Be Sedated"
5. Weezer - "Say It Ain't So"
6. Cyndi Lauper - "Time After Time"

7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"
8. Warren Zevon - "Werewolves of London"
9. Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
10. 3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
11. Bad Religion - "Sorrow"
12. Foo Fighters - "My Hero"
13. Nirvana - "Come As You Are"
14. Tom Petty - "Free Fallin'"
15. REM - "Losing My Religion"
16. Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
17. A Flock of Seagulls - "I Ran (So Far Away)" 
18. Duran Duran - "Hungry Like The Wolf"
19. Semi Precious Weapons - "Magnetic Baby"
20. Iggy Pop - "The Passenger"
21. AC/DC - "Highway to Hell"
22. Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer"
23. Scorpions - "No One Like You"
24. Slipknot - "Before I Forget"
25. Blue Oyster Cult - "Burnin' For You"
26. Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird"
27. The Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi vs. The Pink Robots"
28. Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"
29. Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows"
30. Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye"
31. Harry Chapin - "Cat's in the Cradle"
32. Eagle Eye Cherry - "Save Tonight"
33. Bon Jovi - "It's My Life"
34. Fine Young Cannibals - "She Drives Me Crazy"
35. The Zutons - "Valerie"
36. The Offspring - "Self Esteem"
37. Squeeze - "Cool For Cats"
38. Roxette - "The Look"
39. Kaiser Chiefs - "Ruby"
40. Sonic Youth - "Kool Thing"
41. Dream Theater - "Pull Me Under"
42. Iron Butterfly - "In A Gadda Da Vida"
43. Slydigs - "Light the Fuse"
44. Black Sabbath - "N.I.B."
45. Linkin Park - "What I've Done"
46. The Automatic - "Monster"
47. Ray Parker, Jr. - "Ghostbusters"
48. The Coral - "Dreaming Of You"
49. No Doubt - "Don't Speak"
50. The Who - "Behind Blue Eyes"
51. Pretty Girls Make Graves - "Something Bigger, Something Brighter"
52. Deep Purple - "Smoke on the Water"

Phase II
53. Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again"
54. Blue Oyster Cult - "Don't Fear the Reaper"
55. Twisted Sister - "We're Not Gonna Take It"
56. Freezepop - "Less Talk, More Rokk"
57. Anvil - "Metal on Metal"
58. Tenacious D - "Rock Your Socks"
59. Kutless - "The Feeling"
60. Black Tide - "Warriors of Time" 
61. Billy Idol - "White Wedding"
62. Green Day - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
63. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"
64. David Bowie - "Space Oddity"
65. Flobots - "Handlebars"
66. Megadeth - "A Tout le Monde"
67. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Who'll Stop the Rain"
68. John Denver - "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
69. Rush - "Tom Sawyer"
70. Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box"
71. The Doors - "Break On Through (To the Other Side)"
72. Soft Cell - "Tainted Love"
73. The Damned - "Smash It Up" 
74. System of a Down - "Aerials"
75. Staind - "Outside"
76. Depeche Mode - "Policy of Truth"
77. Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris"
78. Yes - "Heart of the Sunrise"
79. Bon Jovi - "You Give Love A Bad Name"
80. Motley Crue - "Kickstart My Heart"
81. Linkin Park - "The Divide"
82. The Offspring - "The Kids Aren't Alright"
83. Riverboat Gamblers - "Don't Bury Me, I'm Still Not Dead"
84. Stan Bush - "The Touch"
85. Pantera - "Cowboys From Hell"
86. Ozzy Osbourne - "Mr. Crowley"
87. The Police - "Every Breath You Take"
88. Bachman-Turner Overdrive - "Takin' Care of Business"
89. Golden Earring - "Radar Love"
90. Robert Palmer - "Bad Case of Loving You"
91. Katrina and the Waves - "Walkin' on Sunshine"
92. The Sounds - "Living in America"
93. Pat Benatar - "Heartbreaker"
94. The Killers - "Somebody Told Me"
95. Harvey Danger - "Flagpole Sitta"
96. Hollywood Undead - "Young"
97. Cold War Kids - "First"
98. Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
99. The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"
100. Fuel - "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)"
101. Iron Maiden - "Wasted Years"
102. Black Sabbath - "War Pigs"

Phase III
103. Journey - "Don't Stop Believin'"
104. Toto - "Hold the Line"
105. Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
106. The Outfield - "Your Love"
107. Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
108. Alice in Chains - "No Excuses"
109. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
110. Gin Blossoms - "Hey Jealousy"
111. Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
112. Foreigner - "Cold As Ice"
113. Hootie and the Blowfish - "Let Her Cry"
114. Breaking Benjamin - "Failure"
115. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Otherside" 
116. Depeche Mode - "Enjoy the Silence"
117. Rush - "Subdivisions"
118. POD - "Youth of the Nation"
119. Rise Against - "Prayer of the Refugee"
120. 3 Doors Down - "It's Not My Time"
121. Lesley Roy - "I'm Gone, I'm Going"
122. Tonic - "If You Could Only See"
123. Kiss - "Detroit Rock City"
124. Dio - "Rainbow in the Dark"
125. HIM - "Wings of a Butterfly"
126. Ghost Hounds - "Ashes to Fire"
127. Bon Jovi - "Living on a Prayer"
128. Ram Jam - "Black Betty"
129. Chicago - "25 or 6 to 4"
130. Tenacious D - "Tribute"
131. Iron Maiden - "Fear of the Dark"
132. Ghost - "Cirice"
133. The Cranberries - "Zombie"
134. The Offspring - "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid"
135. The Clash - "Rock the Casbah"
136. Pat Benatar - "Love is a Battlefield"
137. Asia - "Heat of the Moment"
138. Cutting Crew - "I Just Died In Your Arms"
139. Incubus - "Dig"
140. Muse - "Starlight"
141. Belinda Carlisle - "Heaven Is A Place On Earth"
142. Boston - "More Than A Feeling"
143. Queen - "I Want It All"
144. Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start the Fire"
145. REM - "It's the End of the World As We Know It"
146. Linkin Park - "In the End"
147. Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Simple Man"
148. Nickleback - "How You Remind Me"
149. Tribe - "Outside"
150. The Doors - "People Are Strange"
151. The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
152. My Chemical Romance - "Welcome to the Black Parade"

Phase IV
153. Tenacious D - "The Metal"
154. Dio - "Holy Diver"
155. Motorhead - "Ace of Spades"
156. Alestorm - "Shipwrecked"
157. Children of Bodom - "Are You Dead Yet?"
158. Rammstein - "Du Hast"
159. System of a Down - "Spiders"
160. Testament - "Souls of Black"
161. Skid Row - "18 and Life"
162. Ghost - "Mary On A Cross"
164. Nightwish - "Amaranth"
165. Scorpions - "Rock You Like A Hurricane"
166. Anthrax - "Caught in a Mosh"
167. Living Colour - "Cult of Personality"
168. Megadeth - "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due"
169. Judas Priest - "Halls of Valhalla"
170. Dragonforce - "Through the Fire and Flames"
171. Iron Maiden - "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
172. Alice in Chains - "Would?"
173. Disturbed - "The Sound of Silence"
174. Queen - "The Show Must Go On"
175. Pearl Jam - "Alive"
176. Audioslave - "Like A Stone"
177. Faith No More - "Midlife Crisis"
178. Bang Camaro - "Night Lies"
179. The Protomen - "Light Up the Night"
180. AC/DC - "Thunderstruck"
181. Sweet - "Ballroom Blitz"
182. White Denim - "At Night in Dreams"
183. Jethro Tull - "Aqualung" 
184. Yes - "Roundabout"
185. U2 - "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
186. Dolly Parton - "Jolene"
187. Depeche Mode - "Never Let Me Down Again"
188. Foreigner - "I Want to Know What Love Is"
189. Jefferson Airplane - "Somebody to Love"
190. Shinedown - "Second Chance"
191. Jet - "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?"
192. Billy Joel - "Piano Man"
193. Molly Hatchet - "Flirting with Disaster"
194. Soundgarden - "Superunknown"
195. Temple of the Dog - "Hunger Strike"
196. Incubus - "Pardon Me"
197. Bon Jovi - "Blaze of Glory"
198. Kenny Loggins - "Danger Zone"
199. Silversun Pickups - "Panic Switch"
200. Rise Against - "Give It All"
201. Muse - "Knights of Cydonia"
202. Iron Maiden - "Hallowed Be Thy Name"

Phase V - THE GAUNTLET
203. Europe - "The Final Countdown"
204. My Chemical Romance - "Sing"
205. Queen - "Don't Stop Me Now"
206. Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
207. Jimi Hendrix - "All Along the Watchtower"
208. A-ha - "Take On Me"
209. Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
210. Bon Jovi - "Runaway"
211. Don McLean - "American Pie"
212. Pearl Jam - "Jeremy"
213. Iron Maiden - "Flight of Icarus"
214. Dream Theater - "Metropolis, Pt. 1 - The Miracle and the Sleeper"
215. The Protomen - "This City Made Us"
216. 4 Non Blondes - "What's Going On?"
217. The Cranberries - "Dreams" 
218. Tenacious D - "Master Exploder"
219. Mastodon - "Colony of Birchmen"
220. Sonata Arctica - "Flag in the Ground"
221. System of a Down - "Chop Suey"
222. Pat Benatar - "Invinicble"
223. The Darkness - "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"
224. Heart - "Crazy On You"
225. Bonnie Tyler - "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
226. Aerosmith - "Dream On"
227. Everlife - "Real Wild Child"
228. That Handsome Devil - "Rob the Prez-O-Dent"
229. Styx - "Renegade"
230. The B-52s - "Rock Lobster"
231. The Strokes - "Reptilia"
232. Shaimus - "Like A Fool"
233. Rush - "2112"
234. Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son"
235. The Isley Brothers - "Shout"
236. Earth, Wind & Fire - "September"
237. David Bowie and Queen - "Under Pressure"
238. Van Halen - "Runnin' With the Devil"
239. Talking Heads - "Psycho Killer"
240. Death of the Cool - "Can't Let Go"
241. Janis Joplin - "Piece Of My Heart"
242. Counting Crows - "Mr. Jones"
243. Blues Traveler - "Run Around"
244. Boston - "Smokin'"
245. Bent Knee - "These Hands"
246. Ohio Players - "Love Rollercoaster"
247. Soundgarden - "Spoonman"
248. Deep Purple - "Child in Time"
249. Quiet Riot - "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)"
250. Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
251. Iron Maiden - "Run to the Hills"
252. Judas Priest - "Painkiller"

Outro:
253. Queen - "We Are The Champions"
254. Semisonic - "Closing Time"

The 24 Hour Setlist Returns!

Once again, I'll be helping Extra Life support children's hospitals all over the world by streaming a Rock Band marathon. I plan on singing 302 songs this time and I've upgraded my internet so the quality of the stream should improve.

Rock Band 4 has injected some new life into the series and that means DLC singles are being added weekly once again. This has made the 2016 setlist much different than last year's and I'm really excited about that. Here are just 10 of the songs that are joining the line-up! This list is exclusive to the blog...if you want to learn more songs, check out my Extra Life page!

Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
Joan Jett - I Hate Myself For Loving You
Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line
Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 1 - The Miracle and the Sleeper
Earth, Wind & Fire - September
4 Non Blondes - What's Up?
Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster
Soundgarden - Superunknown
and the theme of the 2016 24 Hour Setlist...
Skillet - Feel Invincible

When the setlist is finalized, it will be posted here. In the meantime, feel free to donate at my page!

The 24 Hour Setlist - Postmortem

The 24 hour singing marathon is over and raised $780 for Connecticut Children's Medical Center. Thanks to everyone who donated and if you haven't and still want to, I just found out that Extra Life keeps collecting donations until the end of the calendar year before it goes to the hospitals.

The marathon itself was a pretty epic experience. I felt like I was sitting in a room separate from time while the hours flew by in the outside world. The biggest surprise was how little of a strain it put on my voice. I was expecting to have a lot of trouble and bought a huge case of water bottles and lots of cough drops...but I barely used them. I'm not sure what to credit for that - maybe it was the heavy training I did the weeks beforehand or maybe it was the all the fruit I ate that day (moisture, yo)- but my voice proved inexhaustible. My body, however, was a different story. Around 5:30 am, the 20 hours of singing hit me like a brick and I struggled to stay awake for the last hurrah. Still managed it, but I butchered Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages" by basically singing it in my sleep.

I've been asked if I will do it again in 2016. It's early, but I lean towards yes. Still, there will be many things to address before I can fully commit to another day's worth of song. I'll list them here to better explain myself and just for my own reference.

Streaming Tech Issues

This is by far the biggest problem that came up during the marathon. The livestream crashed every hour. That's not hyperbole by the way, it actually crashed once an hour. You could set your watch by it. The last two hours or so of the marathon was done totally offline because I was just too tired by then to put up with that bullshit. I'm not sure exactly where the problem lies, either. I was using a pretty new and powerful laptop and the capture card came highly recommended. It could be just that our internet isn't powerful enough, although I upgraded it last year after I started working for Degica so I could download games easier. I hope during the intervening year I can figure out a solution or else I'm not sure it's worth it.

More Focused Song List

This year's song list was thrown together a little sloppily. I basically just scrolled through the Rock Band 3 list and picked songs I liked in the order they appeared. With the benefit of hindsight, I can put together a new list that better captures that feel of increasing challenge I wanted. I can also eliminate songs that just weren't good for this. One example - Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" is good for a laugh, but that song is so repetitive that I almost fell asleep while singing it when I finally got to it around 6:45 am.

And I don't need to do every Iron Maiden song. Should probably keep it to the best of the best.

The arrival of Rock Band 4 brought a lot of new songs onto the platform and the weekly DLC additions have resumed, so next year's list will look a lot different than this one which is fun. I'll also have to rein in the amount of songs. I had 335 songs and I was sure I knew how the timing would work but that didn't work out. Near the end I was three hours behind schedule, meaning that I was singing songs at 8:30 a.m. that I expected to be singing at 5:30 a.m. Because of that, I didn't even get to the "Gauntlet" of 35 tough songs I had planned for the end before the 24 hours were up. A lot of the delay can probably be blamed on streaming issues, but I still think I would cut the amount down to 300 even.

The State of Rock Band 4

Rock Band 4 is a new game with a lot of changes to the interface, most of which are only noticed by hardcore fans. Still, one particular change makes it much harder to set up a 24-hour marathon. In Rock Band 3 you can create and save lists of songs to play through in full at a later time. I put in all the marathon songs in 3 sets of 100 plus the aforementioned "Gauntlet" which I didn't get to. It was very handy to just hit a few buttons and have 100 songs play uninterrupted.

Rock Band 4, for reasons that are not clear, removed this feature. In other words, I would have to scroll through the master list of songs and select each one. Repeat this process 300 times. If you thought this year was behind schedule, doing it this way next year would be nuts. However, it may not be this way in a year. The developers plan to keep patching in changes to the game and have already fixed a few fan complaints this way. We'll hope that something emerges within a year that will make this more feasible.

That's it for this year. I would encourage anyone to get involved with Extra Life. It's really a great cause.

The 24 Hour Setlist - Final Update!

Please donate here! Everything goes to Connecticut Children's Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford.

My 24 hour Rock Band marathon begins this Saturday, November 7 at 8:45 a.m. I'm going to spend that first 15 minutes or so setting everything up and going over the details. However, I don't think anyone will be watching at that point which is why I'm also posting it here.

There are 335 songs in all. You can see the full list here.

I have roughly 15 minute breaks scheduled after each hundred songs. The last 35 are "the gauntlet," a group of the hardest songs in the game that I'll be taking on after singing for like 20 hours already. Should be dramatic. I'll be taking advantage of long guitar solos and other instrumental breaks (i.e. Free Bird, Green Grass and High Tides, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, etc) to use the bathroom or have a quick snack. I'm hoping to interrupt the setlist as little as possible because it's already 24 hours and doesn't need to go any longer. However, I'm not going to crap my pants for the sake of not pausing the game so depending on what happens there may be some abrupt interruptions.

When it comes to the singing itself, this isn't really a performance...it's a marathon. If you're expecting Josh Groban, you're going to be disappointed (plus his songs don't have enough instrumentation to really fit into Rock Band). I'll be going "half-voice" in order to make sure I can keep this up for a long time. There are a handful of songs with some growling and obviously I'm not doing any of that. I'll just substitute some freestyle singing for those sections.

I've got a huge package of bottled water ready for Saturday. I'll also be using cough drops and tea during the breaks. Still figuring out what to eat, but whatever it is it won't be anything too heavy.

Finally, I'll be streaming the whole thing here. Watch as much or as little of it as you like, but I hope you will help me raise a lot of money for CCMC. They deserve it! For more on Extra Life, check out my page there.

The 24 Hour Setlist - Questions and Answers

The big day is less than a month away, so I figured I would try and answer whatever questions might come up about this unique undertaking.

Where do I donate?

My Extra Life page is here. It also gives an outline of why I chose to do this and what their cause is all about.

Can I donate now or do I have to wait until the marathon?

Whichever you like. If you are planning to donate, make sure you do it before November 8, because that's when the marathon ends.

Where do I watch the stream?

At my Twitch channel. Right now there isn't anything on there, but starting at 8:30 am on Saturday, November 7 it will broadcast all 24 hours of the marathon. I know nobody's going to sit there for all 24 hours, but I hope people pop in and out. You can leave comments in the chat window to the side and I'd appreciate it if someone could let me know if the audio or video quality starts to give out.

What is with you kids and this Rock Band stuff? How can you sing in a video game?

Well, I'm firmly into my 30s now and still a big fan of these games! For those who nothing about this series, Rock Band is not your typical videogame. Up to 4 players can play together on instrument controllers (lead and bass guitars, a drum set and a microphone) and try to replicate the rhythms and melodies of real songs that get licensed for the series.

The vocals system is reminiscent of a karaoke machine, although in addition to the lyrics, the game shows you the pitches of each note relative to the others. Your job is to be as accurate as you can in singing the song.

Why don't you just learn a real instrument?

Sure, just as soon as everyone who plays Call of Duty enlists in the military and heads to Afghanistan. Actually, that doesn't really work on me cause my voice is my voice, regardless of where I use it.

Why did you pick this game to play for 24 hours?
I figure if you're going to play a game this long, you should be good at it. I've never been as good at a game (or perhaps anything else) as I am at Rock Band. This post has more about my history with the games.

What are the songs?
All 335 songs on the 24 hour setlist are listed in order here.

Rock Band 4 just came out. Why are you doing this on Rock Band 3?

The short answer is that I planned a lot of this before I even knew Rock Band 4 was going to happen. It would be tough to switch this late in the process.

The longer answer is for any RB fans who were looking for more details. Up until recently, we weren't sure how much of the previous series content would be available so soon after its launch. Worst case scenario is that I wouldn't even have enough for 24 hours (I didn't want to repeat any songs). Also, we've recently found out that they won't be any quickplay setlists, meaning that I would have to select each of 335 songs one at a time...for 24 hours. I would much rather let the huge setlists I've already put together in RB3 just play out.

So I suppose this is my farewell to Rock Band 3, which I've had for 5 years. If I do this again next year, I'm sure I'll have come up with a feasible way to do it in Rock Band 4.

How are you going to sing for 24 hours straight? You're going to kill your voice, are you crazy?

Maybe. I hoped the audacity of the idea would get some interest.

My approach to the challenge is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I don't plan on singing "full voice," like I would at a karaoke place or in the car. Going "half voice" is a lot less strain on your vocal cords and probably more sensible when I have another mic collecting streaming audio right near me. I hope it sounds at least decent, but I'm not out to win a Grammy with this, I'm trying to go the distance. Other than that, it's a matter of stocking up on bottled water and cough drops, going to the bathroom during long guitar solos and enjoying myself!

Any more questions? Leave them in the comments and I'll be happy to answer!

The 24 Hour Setlist - Full List of Songs

Be advised that all these times are approximate and could be compromised by things like long load times and unexpected interruptions.

8:45 - 9:00 a.m.
Setup and Opening Remarks

PHASE I

9:00 -10:00 a.m.
Queen - "We Will Rock You"
The Ramones - "Blitzkrieg Bop"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Snow (Hey Oh)"
Joan Jett - "I Love Rock N’ Roll"
Nirvana - "In Bloom"
Weezer - "Say It Ain’t So"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"
The Presidents of the United States of America - "Lump"
Warren Zevon - "Werewolves in London"
The Flaming Lips – "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
Stephen and the Colberts – "Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)"
Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
The Ramones - "I Wanna be Sedated"
Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"
Bang Camaro - "Push Push (Lady Lightning)"
Screaming Trees - "Nearly Lost You"
Foo Fighters - "My Hero"

10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Nirvana - "Something in the Way"
Blur - "Song 2"
Duran Duran - "Hungry Like the Wolf"
John Lennon - "Imagine"
3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
The Offspring - "Self-Esteem"
Garbage - "I Think I'm Paranoid"
The Knack - "My Sharona"
Bang Camaro - "Pleasure (Pleasure)"
Pretty Girls Make Graves - "Something Bigger, Something Brighter"
Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye"
The Offspring - "Gone Away"
Slipknot - "Before I Forget"
Squeeze - "Cool For Cats"
Opiate For the Masses - "Burn You Down"
Electric Six - "Gay Bar"

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Iggy Pop - "The Passenger"
Tom Petty - "Free Fallin'"
Weezer - "Buddy Holly"
Blue Oyster Cult - "Don't Fear The Reaper"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Interstate Love Song"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
Semi Precious Weapons - "Magnetic Baby"
Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box"
Skylliton - "Crabplosion"
Judas Priest - "The Hellion/Electric Eye"
Blue Oyster Cult - "Godzilla"
Sonic Youth - "Kool Thing"
The Who - "Baba O'Riley" (Teenage Wasteland)
No Doubt - "Don't Speak"
Rush - "Limelight"
Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"

12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer"
A Flock of Seagulls - "I Ran (So Far Away)"
R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
The Offspring - "Pretty Fly For A White Guy"
Bad Religion - "Sorrow"
Ray Parker, Jr - "Ghostbusters"
Roxette - "The Look"
The Automatic - "Monster"
Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"
The Offspring - "Hammerhead"
Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird"
Avenged Sevenfold - "Afterlife"
The Who - "Behind Blue Eyes"
R.E.M. - "Orange Crush"

1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Motorhead - "We Are The Road Crew"
Queens of the Stone Age - "3s and 7s"
Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"
Muse - "Hysteria"

Rob Zombie - "Dragula"
Kaiser Chiefs - "Ruby"
Roy Orbison - "You Got It"
David Bowie - "Space Oddity"
The Coral - "Dreaming Of You"
Anvil - "Metal on Metal"
The Von Bondies - "C'mon C'mon"
The Doors - "Riders on the Storm"
Green Day - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Dani California"
The Doors - "Break On Through (To The Other Side)"
Rush - "Tom Sawyer"

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Blondie - "Call Me"
Motley Crue - "Dr. Feelgood"
Queens of the Stone Age - "Little Sister"

The Clash - "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
GlaDOS - "Still Alive"
Tenacious D - "Rock Your Socks"
Deep Purple - "Smoke on the Water"
Flobots - "Handlebars"
The Offspring - "The Kids Aren't Alright"
Depeche Mode - "Policy of Truth"
Bikini Kill - "Rebel Girl"
Pat Benatar - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Golden Earring - "Radar Love"
Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Black Tide - "Warriors of Time"

3:00 - 3:20 p.m.
Nirvana - "Come As You Are"
Motley Crue - "Kickstart My Heart"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Proud Mary"
Children of Bodom - "Are You Dead Yet?"
Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."
The Doors - "People Are Strange"

3:20 - 3:30 p.m.
Break

PHASE II

3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Who'll Stop The Rain?"
Kutless - "The Feeling"
Alestorm - "Shipwrecked"
Simon & Garfunkel - "The Sounds of Silence"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Vasoline"
Bad Company - "Shooting Star"
Megadeth - "A Tout Le Monde"
Bon Jovi - "You Give Love A Bad Name"
The Offspring - "All I Want"
Kiss - "Rock and Roll All Nite"
Modest Mouse - "Float On"
The Zutons - "Valerie"
Nirvana - "About A Girl"
Jonathan Coulton - "Code Monkey"
Stan Bush - "The Touch"
Europe - "The Final Countdown"
Night Ranger - "Sister Christian"

4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Katrina & The Waves - "Walkin' on Sunshine"
Bad Religion - "21st Century Digital Boy"
Megadeth - "Hangar 18"
Freezepop - "Less Talk More Rokk"
Sweet - "Ballroom Blitz"
Puddle of Mudd - "Blurry"
Pat Benatar - "Invincible"
Bon Jovi - "It's My Life"
Depeche Mode - "Never Let Me Down Again"
Megadeth - "Tornado of Souls"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Mr. Crowley"
Rush - "Subdivisons"
The Doors - "Touch Me"
The Sounds - "Living in America"

5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Bad Moon Rising"
Bon Jovi - "I'll Be There For You"
Alice in Chains - "No Excuses"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Over The Mountain"
Iron Maiden - "Wasted Years"
P.O.D. - "Youth of the Nation"
Megadeth - "Peace Sells"
The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"
Mastodon - "Curl of the Burl"
Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell"
The Police - "Every Breath You Take"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
Pantera - "Floods"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Bark At The Moon"

6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Bush - "Machinehead"
Freezepop - "Brainpower"
Black Sabbath - "N.I.B."
Linkin Park - "New Divide"
System of a Down - "Aerials"
Hollywood Undead - "Young"
Ghost Hounds - "Ashes to Fire"
Billy Joel - "Pressure"
Motorhead - "Killed By Death"
Lesley Roy - "I'm Gone, I'm Going"
Bon Jovi - "Wanted Dead or Alive"
Linkin Park - "In The End"
Bang Camaro - "Night Lies"
Rise Against - "Re-Education (Through Labor)"
Metallica - "Ride the Lightning"

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Simple Man"
Pat Benatar - "Heartbreaker"
Bon Jovi - "Bad Medicine"
Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
Green Day - "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?"
The Offspring - "A Lot Like Me"
Dio - "Rainbow in the Dark"
Journey - "Don't Stop Believing"
Megadeth - "Symphony of Destruction"
Filter - "Hey Man Nice Shot"
Rise Against - "Prayer of the Refugee"
Evanescence - "Bring Me to Life"
Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Mama, I'm Coming Home"

8:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Pat Benatar - "Promises in the Dark"

Guns N Roses - "Shackler's Revenge"
The Outlaws - "Green Grass and High Tides"
Soft Cell - "Tainted Love"
HIM - "Wings of a Butterfly"
Antoine Dodson & The Gregory Brothers - "Bed Intruder Song"
The Clash - "Rock the Casbah"
Iron Maiden - "The Trooper"
Bon Jovi - "Blaze of Glory"
Kiss - "Detroit Rock City"
Outside - "Tribe"
The Police - "Roxanne"
Judas Priest - "Breaking the Law"
Lenny Kravitz - "Are You Gonna Go My Way"
Megadeth - "Take No Prisoners"

9:30 - 10:15 p.m.
Linkin Park - "What I've Done"
Dire Straits - "Walk of Life"
Deep Purple - "Child in Time"
Three Doors Down - "It's Not My Time"
Living Colour - "Cult of Personality"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Parallel Universe"
Alice in Chains - "Would?"
Authority Zero - "No Regrets"
Pearl Jam - "Alive"
Sonata Arctica - "Flag in the Ground"

10:15 - 10:30 p.m.

Break

PHASE III
10:30 - 11:30 p.m.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under The Bridge"
REO Speedwagon - "Keep On Loving You"
Jet - "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?"
Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
Pat Benatar - "Love is a Battlefield"
Judas Priest - "You Got Another Thing Comin'"
The Strokes - "Reptilia"
Black Sabbath - "War Pigs"
Iron Maiden - "Aces High"
Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
The Guess Who - "American Woman"
Wolfmother - "Joker and the Thief"
Linkin Park - "Numb"

Rise Against - "Savior"

11:30 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Boston - "Peace of Mind"
Silversun Pickups - "Panic Switch"
Pat Benatar - "Shadows of the Night"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son"
Tenacious D - "The Metal"
Boston - "More Than A Feeling"
Molly Hatchet - "Flirtin' With Disaster"
Dio - "Holy Diver"
R.E.M. - "It's the End of the World As We Know It"
Bon Jovi - "Runaway"
Anarchy Club - "Blood Doll"
Yes - "Heart of the Sunrise"
Jefferson Airplane - "Somebody to Love"

12:30 - 1:30 a.m.
Queen - "Another One Bites the Dust"
The Who - "Pinball Wizard"

Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Otherside"
Motorhead - "Ace of Spades"
Incubus - "Pardon Me"
Boston - "Smokin'"
Ayreon - "Dawn of a Million Souls"
Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter"
Pearl Jam - "Jeremy"
Shaimus - "Like A Fool"
That Handsome Devil - "Rob The Prez-O-Dent"
The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again"

1:30 - 2:30 a.m.
My Chemical Romance - "Welcome to the Black Parade"
Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows"
Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation"

Rammstein - "Du Hast"
The Killers - "Spaceman"
Nickelback - "How You Remind Me"
Paramore - "That's What You Get"
Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
Iron Maiden - "The Clairvoyant"
Eiffel 65 - "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
John Parr - "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)"
Def Leppard - "Rock of Ages"
Coheed & Cambria - "Welcome Home"
Bon Jovi - "Living on a Prayer"

2:30 - 3:30 a.m.
Billy Joel - "Piano Man"
The Acro-Brats - "Day Late, Dollar Short"

Iron Maiden - "The Prisoner"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Fire"
Hypernova - "Viva La Resistance"
Iron Maiden - "The Wicker Man"
Billy Joel - "Only the Good Die Young"
Shinedown - "Diamond Eyes"
Iron Maiden - "2 Minutes to Midnight"
Rise Against - "Give It All"
Deep Purple - "Highway Star"
Queen - "The Show Must Go On"
Yes - "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven"

3:30 - 4:30 a.m.
Jethro Tull - "Aqualung"
Queen & David Bowie - "Under Pressure"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Purple Haze"

Ozzy Osbourne - "Diary of a Madman"
Iron Maiden - "Can I Play With Madness?"
Faith No More - "Midlife Crisis"
Styx - "Renegade"
Iron Maiden - "Fear of the Dark"
Janis Joplin - "Piece of My Heart"
Foster the People - "Pumped Up Kicks"
Iron Maiden - "Infinite Dreams"
Chicago - "25 or 6 to 4"
Shinedown - "Second Chance"

4:30 - 5:30 a.m.
Anarchy Club - "Get Clean"
Def Leppard - "Photograph"
Dragonforce - "Through the Fire and Flames"
Cutting Crew - "(I Just) Died in Your Arms"
Foreigner - "Cold As Ice"

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)"
Queen - "I Want It All"
Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again"
Grand Funk Railroad - "The Loco-Motion"
Billy Idol - "White Wedding"
Tears for Fears - "Shout"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "All Along the Watchtower"
Boston - "Foreplay/Long Time"

5:30 - 5:50 a.m.
Jackson 5 - "I Want You Back"
Tenacious D - "Tribute"
Rush - "Fly By Night"
Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
Iron Maiden - "Hallowed Be Thy Name"

5:50 - 6:00 a.m.

Break

PHASE IV - THE GAUNTLET
6:00 - 7:00 a.m.
Foreigner - "I Want to Know What Love Is"
Anthrax - "Caught in a Mosh"
My Chemical Romance - "Sing"
Nightwish - "Amaranth"
Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
Iron Maiden - "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
The Allman Brothers - "Ramblin' Man"
Dead Kennedys - "Holiday in Cambodia"
INXS - "Need You Tonight"
Rush - "The Trees"
Yes - "Roundabout"
Kansas - "Carry on Wayward Son"

7:00 - 8:00 a.m.
The Darkness - "I Believe in a Thing Called Love"
Mastodon - "Colony of Birchmen"
Pink - "Raise Your Glass"
Everlife - "Real Wild Child"
Death of the Cool - "Can't Let Go"
Tenacious D - "Master Exploder"
Iron Maiden - "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"
Soundgarden - "Spoonman"
Queen - "Don't Stop Me Now"
Paramore - "Misery Business"
Rush - "2112"

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
System of a Down - "Chop Suey"
Iron Maiden - "Phantom of the Opera"

Aerosmith - "Dream On"
Testament - "Souls of Black"
A ha - "Take On Me"
Iron Maiden - "Run to the Hills"
Dream Theater - "Panic Attack"
Iron Maiden - "Flight of Icarus"
Quiet Riot - "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)"
Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Judas Priest - "Painkiller"
Queen - "We Are The Champions"

9:00 a.m. - ????
Sleep

The marathon starts on the morning of Saturday, November 7 and can be watched on my Twitch channel. Here's my page at Extra Life if you want to donate early or just read more about the event. Hope some of you will check it out!

The 24 Hour Setlist: Introduction

For my first ever participation in the Extra Life charity event for children's hospitals, I'll be singing a 24 hour marathon on Rock Band 3 from November 7th to 8th!

Here is my page on Extra Life, which has more information on that initiative. The marathon will be broadcast live on my Twitch channel.

So why Rock Band? I don’t say this lightly, and this is not hypberbole, Rock Band changed my life. We knew right away it was a cooperative game experience like none other as we selected our roles in the band. My brother Alex had a knack for the Guitar Hero series and continued that role on Rock Band. Our lifelong friend Mark took on the drums. As for me, there was nobody on the mic so I basically found myself there my default. We never did find ourselves a permanent bassist, although a few great candidates came and went over the years.

As for the mic, I loved it. My voice was the controller. I used to be nervous about singing in front of people, but I found much more confidence as I went from failing out on “Reptilia” to being able to get 100% on insane Iron Maiden songs on the hardest difficulty even while I had bronchitis. Rock Band vocals were the only video game I had where I was the most skilled person I knew (not the best singer in general, but the best at singing for the game, I don’t want to sound too over the top). At the peak of my powers, which was around the time that Rock Band 3 came out, I had gold-starred (very high scores on expert difficulty) hundreds upon hundreds of songs in RB’s ever-growing library and was one of the top 100 singers in the world as ranked by the online leaderboards.

Eventually, the genre of music games fell on hard times. Activision’s competing Guitar Hero games, which had sloppily adopted the full band format as well, flooded the marketplace with half-baked spin-offs. As for Rock Band, they were a little too eager to silence idiots who would insult the games since “it’s not like playing a real instrument.” You don’t say? All this time I thought guitars only had five notes, who knew? Not sure how that applies to singing, anyhow. Your voice is your voice. Anyway, Rock Band wanted to prove that it could actually teach people real music, so for Rock Band 3 Harmonix invested considerable expense into a “pro guitar” mode that would enable people to play along to the real notes a controller modeled after an actual guitar. There was also the addition of the keyboard that had its own “pro” mode. It was impressive ambition, but in the end Harmonix greatly overestimated the demand among players for “real instruments” and Rock Band 3 sold far less than the concurrent Guitar Hero game that had no such ambitions.

The company added more songs to the game’s huge library for a couple of years afterward, but the genre was fading away. Nobody I knew wanted to play anymore. Finally, they announced that the DLC songs would also be coming to an end. The world may have decided that “the era was over,” but I really wasn’t ready for it to go. It had brought too much joy into my life. The news of Rock Band 4's upcoming release was hugely uplifting and I decided that this year's Extra Life event would be one epic way to say goodbye to Rock Band 3.

We're still months away from the big day, but I'll be practicing on the Twitch Channel hopefully once a week (Friday nights) and later this summer, I'll post the setlist in all it's 335 song glory! Please look forward to it!