Saw/heard "Video Games Live" last weekend...

[somunny]

I ended up blathering on for quite a bit so bear with me...

I had seen a snippet or two from Video Games Live on YouTube , so I knew going in that there would be an orchestra playing selections with the appropriate accompanying video running behind them simultaneously.  It looked pretty cool, but sometimes you don't want to get your hopes up too high. However, seeing it in person, my expectations were handily met and then totally blown away!

The performance by the Mesa Symphony and full chorus lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, and essentially spanned the entire history of video games beginning (tongue in cheek) with Pong and a montage of early classics backed with Wagner's "Ride of The Valkyrie".  A great beginning...

The first act of the show then moved on to Metal Gear Solid (a fav of mine), God Of War, Tron, Medal of Honor, Civilization IV, Zelda (definitely a crowd pleaser) and ended with "One Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy.  Not one of my favs, but done very well.

Periodically, Tommy Tallarico would walk on stage and interract with the audience a bit, say a few words about the next piece and move the show along.  Tommy was a great host and really seemed to "get" his target audience.  Very personable and funny, too.

The second act began with a few selections from Kingdom Hearts.  Now, I'm not really familiar with this game but the music was enjoyable.  The major downside here is that (as Tommy informed the audience) Square will not grant the rights to VGL to use video from its properties in the show so they're stuck using stock Disney footage.  They seemed to do well with what they had to work with, though.

After that it was on to Myst, Sonic (the ONLY choice I think needs to be replaced), Warcraft (which was amazing), a piano solo comprising the history of Final Fantasy, Mario, more piano solo of Mario pieces and ended with Halo 1, 2 and 3 which was a perfect choice to finish.

I should mention that the piano solos were performed by Martin Leung who's made quite a name for himself as the blindfolded, fast-fingered Mario loving, piano playing kid.  This dude was amazing!

Right before the performaces of Halo 1, 2, and 3 Tommy came out and announced that they had a "special guest" to introduce.  Who was it, you ask?  Living legend Don Bluth!  He talked for about ten minutes, told a few stories and said he'd be doing the meet-and-greet after the show.

I would highly recommend this show to anyone who is even remotely interested in gaming.  You won't be disappointed.

Anyone else here been yet?

*edit - added link for those who haven't heard of this.

[MYX]

Just curious, but where were you sitting. I just looked at ticket prices (eek!). Was it amplified orchestra or natural sound? Just curious, but did they do Super Mario Bros?

I was worried about a cheese factor that could easily take over something like this. But it looks really cool. I don't think I would dress up in a cumbersome costume though. I think that some folks live too much of their lives in video games. Sure I am on a site all about video games, and have a 1000+ count which means I kinda live here, but I enjoy the building, art, and electronics of it, in addition to the game. Folks that do nothing but game sometimes do not live in the real world. They just interact with reality long enough to eat and pee. Then they go back to their VG world.

Veering way off course here but...(and this will border on dangerous territory with this forum) but I think that dressing up in Star Trek uniforms for to see a star Trek movie is a little wierd, but hey do what you like. I enjoy seeing them there though it does add to the experience. Sounds contradictory but I think that some of those guys believe that they actually ARE a Klingon.

[somunny]

We had second row seats, just left of center and the orchestra was au natural.  Tickets were $40 each which didn't really seem expensive for what was delivered. 

My wife and I went in standard civilian clothing.  We don't own any costumes.    I only remember a few people dressed up.  One Mario & Luigi and a kid dressed up like the red trench coat guy from Tri Gun.

[Glaine]

the red trench coat guy from Tri Gun.

Ouch. Thats like saying that car from Night Rider was there. Vash is crying. 

[somunny]

Here's a review of the Mesa show I was at on 2old2play:

VGL Review

We had better seats! 

[Samstag]

I took the wife to see the show in Dallas last night.  It really was amazing and pretty much went exactly as somunny said, although Don Bluth wasn't there.  There were a couple of other cool things he didn't mention, like putting a guy from the crowd on the stage in a t-shirt that had a big green space invaders ship on the back.  They gave him just a button so he had to play the game by running back and forth on the stage to move the base.  Later on they had a frogger competition between a geeky looking kid and a girl who didn't really look like she belonged there, but she blew his score away and she went home with an expensive gaming laptop.

The conductor was a lot of fun.  He really knows how to play the crowd.  All around it was a fun experience.  I'm not much of a symphony fan and I didn't even like most of the featured games, but it really was worth seeing.  My only complaint is they only had one MAME cabinet!

[shardian]

I'd love to go to one of these shows, but I doubt they'll ever come to my neck of the woods.

As for Kingdom Hearts, I LOVED the music in the first one. I wish Disney would have made a snowglobe with the scene from the box, along with the piano theme that plays on the menu screen. It would kick ASS to see that music played live by an orchestra.

One of these days I'll get part two, even though most fans say it sucked.

[Samstag]

They'll be in DC next weekend if that's close enough for you.

In August they'll announce a CD and DVD of one of the concerts.  It's apparently from Brazil, so I don't know if it'll all be in Portuguese.

[shardian]

They'll be in DC next weekend if that's close enough for you.

In August they'll announce a CD and DVD of one of the concerts.  It's apparently from Brazil, so I don't know if it'll all be in Portuguese.

The Louisville, KY show would be closer. Might try and organize an up and back road trip with a few buddies - we'll see. I found it interesting that the local symphonies tend to play the show. Before looking, I figured it would be a traveling act.

[somunny]

The first act of the show then moved on to Metal Gear Solid (a fav of mine), God Of War, Tron, Medal of Honor, Civilization IV, Zelda (definitely a crowd pleaser) and ended with "One Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy.  Not one of my favs, but done very well.

I wouldn't recognize a single one of those songs except the one from Zelda.  :-P

Does that mean you wouldn't be entertained?  I can't recommend this show enough to people that are interested in video games.  Now I'm waiting for the next AZ show to be scheduled.