Guitar Hero bar nights on Long Island

Guitar Hero is moving out of the basements and into the bars.

After all, what good is playing the Activision video game enough to reach Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" if you can't show off your shredding skills in front of your friends and a bar full of strangers?

"It's the new hit, especially with the younger kids, the 21-to-25 crowd," says Anthony Tartaglia, manager of The Nutty Irishman in Bay Shore. "We've been doing it a few months, and the crowd really seems to like it."

Part of the success comes from familiarity. Since it debuted in 2005, the Guitar Hero franchise has sold more than 14 million copies, with revenue already topping $1 billion. When Guitar Hero 3 went on sale in October, it netted $115 million in sales in its first week and quickly became 2007's biggest-seller, even though it was only available for the last two months of the year.

Maybe more important, though, taking their Guitar Hero moves to the bars adds another level of fantasy to the game. "We put them on the stage," Tartaglia says. "We get the smoke machine going. We get the lights going. They get to see it all on a 10-foot screen. It's a big deal."

After all that, can Guitar Hero groupies really be that far behind?

WHERE TO GO

The Crazy Donkey