Video Games Live

Have a seat. Let me tell you about the single greatest thing I have ever seen or heard in my entire life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Games_Live

Video Games Live is a concert, or sorts, hosted by Tommy Tallarico (video game music composer, worked on Earthworm Jim and Metroid). In the case of the one I went to, it was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Mendelssohn choir, and some electronic percussion and synths. Guess what they played? That's right, they played music from video games, AND they had footage from the games playing on the screens, and for the most part it was synchronized with the action on the screen. Oh yeah, there were also some badass lighting effects. It was essentially a rock concert, and even though it was a symphony, we were encouraged to cheer.

So let me tell you, you NEED to go see this. All of you. It's a worldwide event, so it'll come your way eventually.

Now, I'm going to detail the entire concert that I saw. Some may consider this a spoiler, because they didn't put any information in the programs, because honestly 80% of the fun is not knowing what's coming next.

But here we go anyway.

Spoiler for:

So first, they did an arcade/atari/NES game medley. They started with pong, (which they showed a game of on the screen, and this continued for each game they played music from) and every time the ball hit a paddle, the string section would pluck out a pizz chord. Then the ball started bouncing off the sides, and a rhythm developed. And then the rest of the orchestra came in. Ever play that old missle strike game? You know how when you finish a level, if counts up your score and makes that "rat-a-tat-tat" sound? Lol, the orchestral snare made that noise, it was so awesome. Anyway, lots of games I actually DIDN'T know, here, but I definitely recognized asteroids, and centipede, and other classics that everybody should know.

Anyway, after that, Tommy comes out and introduces himself, etc, anyway, then he plays a video where Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) introduces the next piece. They start playing a medley of the music memorable pieces from Metal Gear Solid, and it's awesome. But here's the most awesome part. About half way through the piece, a guard with a plastic gun walks out, and a few second later, someone hidden in a cardboard box walks out, right on stage in the front, lol, and starts sneaking across. The guard has a light up exclamation point on his back that actually lit up (with the original MGS WHAT WAS THAT NOISE sound) and the orchestra starts playing the "Somebody noticed you" music from the game. The stage lighting makes spotlights on the orchestra, like search lights. Eventually the tense music stop and the guard gives up and walks away.

And then Tommy Tallarico gets out of the box, hahaha. And then he introduces the next piece.

GOD OF WAR!!! Oh my god, it's so epic, and they have an opera singer who is just AMAZING, and it's so powerful it doesn't NEED any gimmicks.

At this point, they take a small break. They select someone from the audience, and that person comes up, and ... PLAYS SPACE INVADERS ON THE BIG SCREEN. The coolest part, besides the orchestra playing the music and getting tenser as it goes on, is that they have her put on a black shirt with the shooter thing (what you play as in Space Invaders) and as she physically moves left and right the thing on the screen moves with her, so all she has to do is push a button to fire, lol. Anyway, she was only 15, so she failed miserably, but it was still awesome.

After that...
...hey, you guys ever see that video of the asian kid blindfolded playing mario songs on the piano? It's from like 3 years ago or something.
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHn-L6odDP4
HE WAS THERE. And he came out and played a medley of Final Fantasy songs on the piano! And the best part was THERE WERE MORE SONGS FROM 8 PLAYED THAN FROM 7. Only one song from 6, though, but hey, I was happy with all the love he gave to FF8.

Then they played Cid Meyer's Civilization IV, that piece with the African singing, and they actually had the guy come out and sing. It was so cool.

And then they did Metroid, which was great because they started out with the really heavy synth bass opening from the original and it sounded soooo badass. And as the piece went on, it evolved from synth to orchestral, and finished off with clips from the new upcoming game.

Then they did Zelda, but honestly I wasn't that impressed. It was just the main theme, no real TRUE fanboy material. Still, it was pretty cool combined with the video.

Then they had an intermission, and had songs from Parappa the Rappa playing in the background, and other funny little things, haha.

They came back and playing Kingdom Hearts, which made me sooo happy that they were giving Yoko Shimomura some love. She's absolutely my favorite composer, and I'm glad other people got a chance to hear her because she's not so well known as the other famous Japanese composers.

Then they did Warcarft, which was surprisingly fantastic. I had no idea Warcraft had such great music.

Then they did Mario, but again, like Zelda, I was a tad unimpressed. They just played the main themes, and didn't do any justice to TRUE fanboyism, like play tracks from Super Mario RPG, or stuff like that.

Then the asian kid came out again and played blindfolded, and it's TRUE he CAN do it! :O

Then, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE TOURS HISTORY, they played CHRONO TRIGGER and CHRONO CROSS! I yelled very loudly when he announced it, lol, because I had said during the intermission to my girlfriend "if they play chrono trigger, I will be incredibly happy." They opened with the tick tock thing from Chrono Trigger (with the really interesting chord progression) then went on to some random tracks like a town theme and then Frog's theme, and then finished with the opening from Chrono Cross. They had the crazy oriental flutes, too, it was gorgeous. Still, it was a tad unpolished. Some of the chords were NOT what was originally written, but that's okay. It is the newest addition, after all.

Then they had some kid come up and play Guitar Hero while the orchestra played along. He failed, though, LOL. Oh well, he was trying to play Aerosmiths' Sweet Emotion on Expert. He made it 85% of the way.

Then they played Halo, which was better than I thought it'd be. With Tommy playing guitar. They had that choir part in it, and it sounded EXACTLY like it does in the game, and the piano solo part, and the heavy guitar part. It established a newly found respect for that game's soundtrack in me.

Then they left.

BUT THEN THEY CAME BACK AND PLAYED ONE WINGED ANGEL! They started out with just the orchestra, and then DISTORTED GUITAR AND DRUMS CAME OUT. That's right, it was the Advent Children version, haha.

Then they left again.

BUT THEN THEY CAME BACK AGAIN and played music from Castlevania. Which was okay. I couldn't hear the guitar too well, and it was really important there.

So coming in at about 2 hours, that was it.


So what made me really happy is that they covered ALL the major Japanese composers!
Koji Kando, Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and even Yoko Shimomura!

The only thing I could have asked for was some Legend of Mana, but we know that will never happen. 

I might have missed something, but that was the major parts. Seriously, it's absolutely amazing, and if you have any interest or love for video games and their music AT ALL, you NEED to go see this.


But let me tell you what I thought was the most moving part of this whole concert:
We were encouraged to cheer, and for the first half we did. Legend of Zelda starts, people SCREAMED. Ocarina of Time shows on the screen, people SHOUTED again! (That's not a spoiler, of course Zelda's gonna be in there.) By the time we got to the half way point, and beyond it, the cheering had STOPPED. People were absolutely memorized... They were shocked! They were speechless! And it was amazing.

"mesmerized" ahaha

AND I WANNA SEE IT BUT I'M TOO POOR AND CAN'T DRIVE ;-;

AWUH CRAP IT'S OVER IN CANADA ALREADY

And nowhere around where I live anyways >.>;;

STILL, AWUH D8