Remind me to never again go on vacation right before GDC. Scratch that — remind me to never again not go to GDC. Because this year’s conference has turned into a particularly juicy show for fans of music games.

Take, for example, last night’s live, on-stage demo of Green Day: Rock Band. According to IGN, Harmonix showed off five (or, I suppose, technically six) tracks from the game:

• “American Idiot”
• “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
• “Brain Stew/Jaded”
• “Hitchin’ a Ride”
• “Wake Me Up When September Ends”

IGN had good things to say about the in-game models and three-part harmonies, and of course brings up the predictable question about price versus value. I’m going to leave that alone for now; until we get a better idea of the length and breadth of the set list, it’s hard to say whether the game will be worth the presumed full-retail price tag.

I do want to point out that I think Harmonix did a clever thing by performing “Brain Stew/Jaded” together but “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” singly, without the attached (and far superior) “Holiday.” Seems like a pretty clear indication that we’ll be able to play Green Day’s handful of mooshed-together medleys singly or together. Come to think of it, though, I suppose “Brain Stew/Jaded” is quite a bit shorter than “Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams” — so perhaps it’s more a factor of length than anything else.

One thing I’m particularly glad of: This should mean they’ll definitely be showing off the game at PAX East later this month — a show which, thank all that is holy, I actually will be going to.

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