The amazing and overdue (IMO, since I’ve been wanting this
since I was in high school) concept of symphonies and orchestras performing
musical arrangements composed for video games has come to fruition via the
amazing traveling concert series known as Video Games Live!
Started by Tommy Tallarico (who also plays electric guitar
for the concerts) in 2005, Video Games Live! describes itself (on the VGL! website) as “an immersive event created by the
game industry featuring the best game music performed by top orchestras and
choirs combined with synchronized lighting, video, live action and audience
interactivity”. Boom. And on February 20th, they saw
their 350th show, right here in Richmond at the Altria Theater!
It. Was. Amazing. Even though I had been and was still sick, never regretted going for a second.
Not even a badass sinus infection could keep me from this...
They opened with Castlevania – strong start. And got to all the big names, like Sonic,
Zelda, Mario, Street Fighter and even Halo.
Apparently they decide the line-up for each show based on
what the fans request (i.e. the fans choose the line up!), so it was a good mix
of favorites, and then maybe lesser known games that were still amazing and
deserve recognition (like Shadow of the Colossus for example, which I had never
heard of prior to the show).
For most of the games, the symphony simply played a montage
of all the popular songs from the franchise, while a screen above the stage
played a montage of scenes from all the installments of the game in the order
that they were released. That was SO
cool – I just remember thinking, “Sonic’s been up to a LOT since I last saw him.” Honestly, I would’ve been happy with just
that.
But no! For some
games, they did special things. For Kingdom
Hearts (which, if you don’t know, is basically Disney and Final Fantasy
combined), while the symphony played music from the game, the screen showed
popular Disney characters in their debut feature films. This was so nostalgic for me, as I’m sure it
was for many others in the audience.
This show is very good about satisfying the wants of the youngin’s AND the seasoned vets in their 40’s and 50’s (and beyond would be cool! I’m sure
there’s someone), as well as bridging the gap/age divide between the two. And this is the best example of that in my
mind. While Kingdom Hearts isn’t the
most popular game, it’s still relevant with the third installment slated to
come out at the end of this year or early 2017, and kids may not even know the
relevance/significance of the characters they’re looking at. By showing these old Disney cartoon movies,
it allowed parents to take a walk down memory lane (and oh, what a “tug at the
heart strings” walk it was) while telling their kids about these characters
they grew up with. Then the kids get to
see just how long some of these characters have been around (50+ years in some
cases- still blows my mind).
For Legend of Zelda, while the symphony played, the screen
showed only artwork submitted by fans.
Do I even need to go into why this is cool? Otherwise, why would Deviant Art even
exist? They had some really
extraordinary pieces in that “slideshow”.
Between some of the performances and during intermission,
they showed little movies and shorts (that possibly started as internet videos
that went viral). They showed Ms. Pacman
being chased by ghosts in the streets (did I mention it was live-action and it
was just people wearing giant suits? I want to do this so badly….).
Or they showed a few ‘this video game versus
this video game’ shorts. For example,
Donkey Kong versus Mortal Kombat (SPOILER:
Scorpion killed Donkey Kong AND Pauline in less than 5 seconds). They also showed lists, like worst video game
names and top 10 worst voice acting performances.
As the night went on, I started to get more and more
anxious. I realized not long after
taking my seat that I was there for mainly one reason, and it was a big
assumption on my part (not really, but could’ve been had they not played
it). I wanted to see Final Fantasy
songs. One of my ex’s introduced me to
Nobuo Uematsu’s songs outside of the games.
And by that I mean he had downloaded just the songs and put them onto CD
mixes and eventually our iPods (ya know, when technology caught up), and we
listened to them aaaaaaaaaaall the time.
They’re just wonderful. Uematsu
is just great at what he does, and just because he happened to start out in
commercials and then video games, it doesn’t change anything about his talent
or ability to compose beautiful melodies that can provoke any emotional
response he wants.
But as the night went on and they had gotten through Halo
and other big names the audience had clearly been waiting for, I was starting
to get worked up. Then they tried to say
goodnight like the show was over (like they do in concerts when they’re looking
for the audience to cheer them back on stage for an encore) but the symphony
stayed seated soooooo it was like “C’mon guys, cut the shit, get back out here.” It was kinda cool though because the screen
put up a “Continue?” screen with a countdown J
Of course Final Fantasy was the very last song of the
night. And not only was it Final
Fantasy, it was Final Fantasy 7 (in honor the upcoming remake). And not only was it FF7, it was ONLY…..”One
Winged Angel”. If you know what that
means, I like you a little more than other people.
Basically this song is the theme song for a villain name
Sephiroth, and I had three versions of this song on my iPod and it was what we
listened to most (out of any other FF song).
I died. You guys….I
died. It was gorgeous. It was perfect.
So if you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of this concert and
think you should definitely check it out lol.
If you’re in Richmond, you’ll have to wait awhile for them to come back.
But anyone else, check out their website here to see if they’re coming to a
city near you soon.
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