Thanks so much for such a detailed comment, really appreciate it!
Glad the art and music hit, and that you picked up on what we were going for with the four-instrument mapping — that was very intentional. And yeah, you're spot on about the controls. The Beatmania comparison makes a lot of sense — arrow keys not lining up with the tracks and being awkward on one hand was just a mapping choice we didn't think through enough, especially once all four tracks go off in different rhythms. That plus the drum track being the only one we actually finished (hence the dropout you noticed) made things a bit rough. First rhythm game for us, so still very much learning!
We'd definitely love to build out the lore more too — the idea is it's the band's last ever concert together, so there's a lot of room for some bittersweet story beats between songs about why that is. Didn't get the time to bring that in this round, but it's high on the list if we come back to it.
Really appreciate the feedback, this is exactly the kind of thing we'd want to fix if we come back to it.