When they were less than fab

The popularity of multi-player, interactive music games, such as Rock Band, has turned the family TV into Party Central. As yourhome.ca editor Jennifer Wilson-Speedy discovers, a night of good friends, spiced eggnog and off-key singing can be ear-wrenchingly fun.

It's a typical night for my husband and me. While our peers are out doing shots and hitting the dance floor, we're cracking open a bottle of wine and rocking out with plastic instruments. A few beverages help us channel our inner rock stars – and quash some of our embarrassment over taking it so seriously. We've invited our friends Matt and Tracy to be our bandmates for the evening.

Doling out the guitars and mics, plugging in the drum kit and loading up user-friendly The Beatles: Rock Band on our Xbox 360, I know I'm grateful for the beverages. As the de facto wielder of the Rock Band mic., hours of playing may have taught me most of the words, but they certainly haven't turned me into a singer.

With instruments in hand, it's time to pick a song.

This part's always tricky. Knowing the song makes playing easier, and is a great ice-breaker, but our combined knowledge of the Fab Four is a bit spotty. John Lennon died before we were born, so you could call it a generational thing.

My husband, J.D., was familiar with most of The Beatles' catalogue long before playing plastic instruments was cool. I knew a few albums, but I'm not very musical and would have been hard-pressed to hum a few bars before getting The Beatles: Rock Band.

We settle on "Twist and Shout," a shared favourite, followed by "A Hard Day's Night." Churning through the tunes, with a little more social lubricant in the form of spiked eggnog, wine and beer, some good-natured ribbing helps inspire confidence.

By confidence, of course, I mean we start to get cocky.

My 99 per cent accuracy on the vocals obviously means I'm destined for mega-stardom. J.D. rocked out a similar score on the drums on the hard difficulty level, to my medium, and Matt and Tracy cranked out some rock-star-worthy scores on hard and medium, respectively.

"Can't Buy Me Love" is up next, and we totally nail it.

We're enthralled. It's time to up the ante. J.D. decides to sing backup on "Hello, Goodbye" while playing the drums. That means I can no longer keep my wine glass in one hand and a mic. in the other.

Lamenting the fact we don't have a stand for our second mic., I try to hold it up so J.D. can croon and keep the beat. Of course, you need to watch the screen to get instructions for both the drums and the vocals – and we're not that good at multi-tasking.

I can't help but giggle as J.D. mangles the lyrics and misses the cues – "You say hello, I say hello" anybody? – which sets Tracy off.

Nearly doubled over with laughter, my mocking earns me a thwap on my mic-holding knuckles with a drumstick. He claims it's an accident; a casualty of an enthusiastic performance. I'm not so sure.

I get my comeuppance. My low scoring has landed me on bass. I toss a mic. over to Matt, while Tracy takes over the drum kit. J.D. returns to his expert setting on guitar, and we decide to tackle "A Hard Day's Night" again. We've forgotten to turn off the harmonies mic., so it picks up spotty vocals as J.D. and I sing along – earning few points.

It's "Good Morning, Good Morning" that really brings the pain. As J.D. explains his theory that alcohol, to a point, actually improves your performance, I'm trying to follow along on the bass while providing backup vocals for Matt. It's not pretty – for our ears or my scores.

Perhaps it's time to say, "Good night."