The music simulation mania is reaching new and weird heights. Just after Logitech and Activision Blizzard have announced their intentions to create "premium" instruments for Guitar Hero: World Tour, Harmonix and MTV reveal that, as part of the promotional campaign for their next music game, Rock Band 2, they will launch a series of events called Rock Band Live Tour.

The idea is that well known bands, such as Dashboard Confessional, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's and The Cab, will share the stage with bands made up of people that play Rock Band as part of live shows.

The bands in the second group will be selected by a variety of means, like local radio stations contests, national contests and on-site competitions. It's nice to see that someone has though of bringing some recognition to those who excel in simulating playing music on fake plastic instruments.

Brendon Urie, of Panic! At the Disco fame, said that "We're huge fans of Rock Band and feel honored to join the Rock Band 2 game disc set list with some of our favorite artists like The Who, Bob Dylan and Journey! And what better way to celebrate our involvement with the game than joining the first Rock Band tour. We're definitely excited to be a part of things". Let's see how excited he will be when someone butchers his songs on stage.

It seems that each of the bands that take part in the Rock Band Live Tour will contribute with a track for new downloadable content, helping MTV and Harmonix in their quest to have more than 500 downloadable tracks for Rock Band by the end of 2008.

For tickets to the shows, take a look at the official Rock Band Live Tour website. There are a lot of dates planned for the tour and tickets will begin selling on August 8.