The Other Worlds Shrine

Your place for discussion about RPGs, gaming, music, movies, anime, computers, sports, and any other stuff we care to talk about... 

  • Video Games Live

  • Because playing them is not enough, we have to bitch about them daily, too. We had a Gameplay forum, but it got replaced by GameFAQs.
Because playing them is not enough, we have to bitch about them daily, too. We had a Gameplay forum, but it got replaced by GameFAQs.
 #117808  by Zeus
 Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:35 am
My bud and I checked went to see this last night in Toronto. For those of you who don't know, this is a concert that's put on by Tommy Tallarico, the co-host of Electric Playground (that's why they have guest co-hosts now). It's basically a compilation of game music from Pong to Warcrack (even had Starcrack 2) with a video display showing the game(s) in question to help you along:

www.videogameslive.com

It really was a great, very fun show to attend if you're a fan of game music. On top of playing some great songs, they actually interact with the audience and have created a loose, "fun" atmosphere around the show. It's not just a symphony playing music to some of your favourite games, although the Dear Friends Final Fantasy concert was incredible and that's all it was. This was more like a show than a straight symphonic concert even though the main attraction was the symphony (about 20-25 piece) playing the music.

Tommy hosts (his co-creator is the conductor) and they actually encourage the audience to shout out and cheer for their favourite pieces (usually frowned upon during symphonic concerts). They even had a small cosplay contest at the beginning and on two occasions brought out people onto the stage to play games. One guy had to wear a T-shirt that had a Space Invaders ship on it and in order to play, he had to run back and forth across the stage and the ship would move with him (as opposed to using a stick or pad to move the ship). That was pretty funny. The other one was a contest with two people to play Frogger for highest score. That was pretty fun, particularly with the audience trying to guide the kids along.

What really makes it is the audience is pretty into it, there was tons of cheering for songs people loved and cheering and help for those playing the games. They also brought out Michael Learn to play a few pieces. Not sure any of you saw the You Tube video with the young oriental kid who played the Mario theme on a keyboard blindfolded, but that's him. He was very, very good and got the loudest cheers of the night for his Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger/Cross, and Mario compilations. And he did the blindfold thing on stage, so if you ever thought it was faked....it's not.

They even brought out a local band that does game music. These guys were called the Runaway Five (named after the band in Earthbound) and they played a jazzy rendition of Lon Lon Ranch and Super Mario World. Quite good and fun. Apparently they do it in every town, it's pretty neat.

Although I'm disappointed that there was no Castlevania music (really, Symphony did wonders for game music in people's minds IMO), the selection was pretty good, the show was fun, and it was just a great 3 hours. It's not overly expensive and it was made by gamers for gamers, you can tell. I highly suggest you check it out if it comes into your town. Go to the Tour Dates link on the website and you can see if it's coming.

 #117816  by Blotus
 Sun Feb 10, 2008 3:35 pm
Jealous!

 #117819  by Shellie
 Sun Feb 10, 2008 10:16 pm
We never get anything like that in Kentucky....

 #117820  by Tessian
 Sun Feb 10, 2008 10:24 pm
Seraphina wrote:We never get anything like that in Kentucky....
That just proves you didn't bother checking out their website ;)

July 18th in Louisville at the Kentucky Center for Arts. Sucks they're not coming to Pennsylvania this year, I sure as hell ain't going into NYC.