ON a Wednesday outside the tiny, sign-less Hyperion Tavern in Silver Lake, you can hear the strains of Guns N' Roses' classic "Sweet Child O' Mine."
Onstage inside, a coed duo of shredders go at the song, destroying and perfectly aping the licks made famous by Slash two decades ago, roaring through the bridge, and echoing the reverb-drenched licks of the song's "Where do we go now" breakdown. They finish, and the 20-or-so twentysomething drinkers surrounding the beer-only bar roar with applause.
Funny thing: There's not a real guitar in sight.
That's because the duo onstage -- wanna-be shredders Justin Carlton and Angela Berghoefer -- are at Guitar Hero night, a weekly ode to the PlayStation 2 game that allows players with no musical talent whatsoever to be, well, guitar heroes, aping songs from not just Guns N' Roses, but rock bands such as Nirvana, Heart and the Allman Brothers. Lynyrd Skynyrd's lengthy noodle-jam "Freebird"? It's on the menu as well.
The game's concept is simple: As a song plays, notes move up the screen to a bar that signifies when you should accurately hit the notes -- accomplished with five buttons on the neck of a plastic guitar controller and a lever on the body of the faux-ax. But becoming an expert is nearly as difficult as mastering a real guitar, although the Hyperion is the only place where becoming a Guitar Hero champ could lead to recognition for your button-pushing talents.
