AOL's Robin Yang, Level Up's N'Gai Croal and Harmonix's John Drake play Rock Band

Our Twitter post of yesterday--"Playing Rock Band's Judas Priest album DLC at MTV's offices. Devil horns!"--pretty much said it all. MTV had originally planned to host journalists last Friday to play the first complete album available for download in its Rock Band videogame, Judas Priest's "Screaming For Vengeance," but it was cancelled at the last minute and moved to Monday. We arrived at 1633 Broadway shortly after 5:00 PM, at which point MTV publicist and skilled Rock Band guitarist Jeff Castaneda escorted us up to the room they call The Lab. Others in the room included MTV Games producer Marc Nesbitt and MTV flack Mariana Agathoklis, Harmonix PR guy John Drake and AOL GameDaily's Robin Yang, whose slender frame belied a zest for rock that would soon be unleashed. (MTV News' Stephen Totilo, displaying a stunning disinterest in corporate synergy, was nowhere to be found.)

Before we took the stage, we ribbed Castaneda for the absence of liquor and other stimulants. "Harmonix just went eight times platinum with the downloadable content--and we've seen the bonus schedule," we said. "So where's the Jim Beam? Where's the Cristal?" Castaneda laughed and volunteered to make a beer run. But we declined, because in truth, rock is the only sustenance we need. With Yang on lead guitar, Drake on vocals, ourselves on drums and a fourth, whose name escapes us, on bass, we kicked things of with "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." From there, we went into "Pain and Pleasure,"--a track whose deceptive simplicity concealed a drumbeat that initially caught us off guard before we recovered and settled into a stone cold groove--followed by the hand-wrecking challenge of "The Hellion" and "Electric Eye." Thankfully, our bandmates were there on two occasions to rescue us from the abyss.

 AOL's Robin Yang and Harmonix's John Drake, rocking at The Lab

Having sated our thirst for Judas Priest, we began to swap instruments and move on to some Rock Band staples. It was here that Yang convincingly channelled her inner rock star into songs like Hole's "Celebrity Skin," The Killers' "When You Were Young" and a one-two punch of Boston, consisting of "More Than A Feeling" and "Foreplay/Long Time." Had there been a million faces present, she would surely have rocked them all.

On the elevator ride back to our mundane existence, the MTV flacks explained that they wanted to do a weekly happy hour, during which journalists, their significant others and friends could come to The Lab for rock and refreshments to preview the following week's DLC. But which day of the week to do it? Friday seemed logical, but Agathoklis was concerned that with the dog days of summer fast approaching, few NYC-ers would be around to partake. We suggested Monday as a good compromise, as well as Tuesday or even Thursday ("We could all come in and watch you guys download the songs on the PS3 to show it some love," we joked, eliciting peals of laughter). Because even trying out the songs on the day of release is fun when you're using The Lab's massive projector to display the visuals. No firm decision was made, but should MTV Games go ahead with this terrific idea, Page 110 will be there to bring each and every tale of rock excess--and taunting our San Francisco and L.A.counterparts about what they're missing.