Video Games Live
 

Hey everyone!

A friend of mine just turned me on to this board which seems to have a lot of cool video game music threads to read!

Also wanted to let everyone know about my Video Games Live concert series which is currently touring around the world in 2006.

Our next show is in Philadelphia on June 3rd at the Merriam Theatre during the Wizard World comic book & pop culture convention (over 35,000+ attendees!). It will be the first time a video game concert has ever been performed in Philly.

I just finished putting together a new trailer which you can check out here:
Hi-Res: http://www.videogameslive.com/traile...anjose2006.wmv
Lo-Res: http://www.videogameslive.com/traile...anjose2006.mov

Hollywood Bowl Trailer:
http://videogameslive.com/video/vglpromo2.wmv
http://videogameslive.com/video/vglpromo2.mov

You can view all of our tour dates here:
http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=dates

Were the first game concert to play Toronto, Montreal, Houston, Indianapolis and others! We've teamed up with all the cool comic book, anime and gaming conventions all around the world like Wizard World Chicago where over 65,000+ people will be in attendance.

We're also playing the Hollywood Bowl again this year on Sept. 21st. The Hollywood Bowl show is the biggest video game concert in the world. Check out our meet & greet from last year (including Hideo Kojima, Yuji Naka, Stan Lee, Nolan Bushnell, Marty O'Donnell, etc., etc...
http://videogameslive.com/index.php?s=losangeles

Here's the last meet & greet we did at San Jose during the Game Developers Conference:
http://videogameslive.com/index.php?s=sanjose

Unlike other concerts out there we do NOT charge extra for the meet & greets. ALL ticket holders can attend as well as our pre-show festival which includes things like a costume contest, interactive game demos, Guitar Hero competitions, etc.

In fact, our goal has always been to get as many people as possible to attend our events so we keep the ticket prices as low as possible. You could buy a ticket for $1 last year at our Hollywood Bowl show! We are more than half the price than most concerts out there.

Here's some more info on the event. If anyone has any questions, comments or suggestions please let me know and I'll answer them the best I can.

Thanks!


Tommy Tallarico



=====================================


Video Games Live is an immersive concert event featuring music from the biggest video games of all time. Top orchestras and choirs across the country perform along with exclusive video footage and music arrangements, lasers, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive one-of-a-kind entertainment experience.

Special events surround the show, including a pre-show festival and post-show events. Guests will enjoy interactive game demos, a costume contest, and the very popular meet-and-greet with top game composers and designers.

Currently featuree music and video from popular franchises such as:

Mario™, Zelda®, Halo®, Metal Gear Solid®, Warcraft®, Myst®, Final Fantasy®, Castlevania®, Kingdom Hearts, Medal of Honor™, Sonic™, Tron, God of War™, Tomb Raider®, Advent Rising, Headhunter, Beyond Good & Evil™, Splinter Cell®, Ghost Recon™, Rainbow Six®, EverQuest® II and a special retro Classic Arcade Medley featuring over 20+ games from Pong® to Donkey Kong® including such classics as Dragon's Lair, Tetris, Frogger, Gauntlet, Space Invaders & Outrun!

The Video Games Live debut performance took place on July 6th, 2005 at the Hollywood Bowl featuring the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. Over 11,000 audience members participated in the biggest video game concert in history.

This really is Tommy Tallarico, as I'm familiar with his writing style. Just incase anyone was actually skeptical he'd come here, of all places, and inform us about this. Anyway Tommy, this is great to hear about this whole Video Games Live thing and it's definitely a good idea. I'm sure alot of time and money went into all of this to make it happen, so best of luck to you and everyone involved. I think I've seen a topic once with some people bashing you at one point. I'm neither a hater or fan of yours, Tommy. I'm just a guy who will listen to you when you speak, check out your work, and respect what you've accomplished in the business.

Off-topic, I find it odd you'd come here to GamingForce. I'm registered at your messageboard, but I never post and just read what is posted from time to time. I don't think there is any point in hiding it as you could find it very easily, but over here we're doing all kinds of illegal things. One of which would interest you is the distribution of videogame soundtracks freely on this messageboard. Some of which I know are actually done by you, Tommy. However, most of the stuff by you I've seen are unofficial of what's called "gamerips". Meaning, a fan recorded the tunes themselves and distributes it as no soundtrack exists. Do you feel comfortable with the distribution of videogame soundtracks for free? Many of us purchase soundtracks we like, but we're not all rich and we can't always afford it. I'm sure you know how Japanese imports for example, like soundtracks, just how costly they are and sometimes it's not always worth it.

Wow, this is one of the most unexpected things that I have ever come across. I posted at your message board, too, quite a bit last year actually.

...*awkward pause*

Anyway, I came to the Seattle show last year, and fully intend to come again as it was a great experience. Will you be including new stuff from the past year?

I went to the show in Vancouver (I was the one who asked you about your work "with" Retro). Kudos for bringing it to Canada, Tommy. It was an amazing experience to hear all that music live. It's too bad we can't hear any SquareEnix music, so I guess you'll have to pester them to bring "Dear Friends" up here. So, please remove Final Fantasy from your featured music list as it is not performed at your Concerts. Do you have any plans of bringing VGL back to Vancouver? I would love to go again. I'm sure you would have had a bigger turn out if you had done some more advertising; I only heard about it online.

Also, if you really are Tommy Tallarico, answer me this: What was signifigant about the costume of the 1st place cosplay winner in Vancouver?

Ahem:

Earthworm Jim forever.

Hey, Tommy, I'm going to be attending the Hollywood Bowl concert, but I still need to buy tickets. ;)

And by the way, Tommy has posted over at OC ReMix before to get people involed in his Earthworm Jim project, so I'm not too surprised to see him here.

Let me know if you need anything, Tommy.


If anyone cares, we had an old thread about VGL here:
http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/ge...e-returns.html


EDIT: By the way, that really is Tommy. His e-mail address confirms it.

Thanks for the comments.

As far as music ripping goes...
I'm just glad to see all of the love for video game music. I of course can't condone it when there are albums out there for sale and people steal those... but if there is music that is NOT available for sale then I feel it's okay for it to be distributed. A lot of the earlier video game music may never have soundtrack albums... but that doesn't mean people shouldn't still listen and enjoy it.

thanks,


Tommy






Double Post:

Thanks!

Glad ya liked the Seattle show!! Each show we do is a little bit different and whenever we return to a city we make the show as unique to the last one as possible.

For example... our show this year at the Hollywood Bowl will be about 50% different than last years show... we also take some of the standard classics and completely update the video. For example, this year at E3 we got a TON of new stuff from game franchises like Zelda, Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Medal of Honor, EverQuest II, Sonic, Mario & Halo! I'm trying to incorporate as much of it in the Philly show next week as possible.

Since Seattle we have completely redone our lights and fx which are now even better! We added towers on the sides and other special fx.


Hope to see you in Seattle again!


Tommy






Double Post:

Actually, we absolutely have the rights and licenses to use Final Fantasy and we have over 10 different songs in our set. As I mentioned above... we try to keep each show a little different. Sorry ya missed out on Final Fantasy last time. I'll make sure to add it to our set list when we come back.

The Final Fantasy performance in San Jose a few months back got a huge standing ovation.

Our turn-out in Vancouver was great... Sometimes we have to "kill" a bunch of seating in the upper areas because our screens and lighting areas are so big and we want everyone to have a great view.


Tommy






Double Post:

Whoops... forgot to answer your question.

I called the dude who won the costume contest a "fan boy".

:)

Pics here: http://videogameslive.com/index.php?s=costume


Tommy

Double Post:


Word!

:)


T.T.

Double Post:



Yo! Thanks!

Can't wait for you to see the Bowl show!! It's always the one with the biggest production.

Yeah... I LOVE OC-REMIX!!! In fact I'm right about to announce a new Earthworm Jim album and I even have some re-mixes from people over at OC-REMIX!

Whoops... I guess I just announced it.

:D


T.T.

That's weird.. I asked Victor and he said you didn't have any licenses becuase Square was busy with their own tour...

Haha, awesome. I guess it's really you then.

It's also nice to see someone in the Video Game Music industry who actually makes an attempt to get active with it's respective community. Congrats Tommy, and thanks.

Meh! What the hell does that Victor Lucas know anyway!!

:D


The only thing we didn't have permission for was to play some of the video from their games. At the time, they wanted the Dear Friends concert to be unique.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm a huge gamer and game music lover myself so I always try to make every attempt at getting involved with the community as much as possible.


Tommy

Whatsup Tommy. Good seeing ya at E3 again. We'll be getting our interview with you up eventually. Our servers were so hammered suring E3, and we shot so much more video than anticipated that its all getting spread out and finally posted.

Get VGL back to San Jose ASAP! :)

Have you gotten much response from our videos from the SJ performance at all from others? I'm really happy with how it turned out besides a couple things.

Catch ya later.

Would be impossible wish for me to watch you guys in concert. I will just pray and cheer you for the best.:)

Oh yeah, how do you take care the license right? it seems bit different in japan where there are lot of people publish doujin vgm without thinking about the copyright (with the label of fan-based).

Tommy,

I know this has nothing to do with the VGL tour (and this may sound stupid), but... I have a thread here at Gamingforce forums. I have been arranging music ever since I was 13 years old, and about three years ago I started a Kingdom Hearts Piano Collection. As far as I know, I'm the only one on the net with such a project. I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind stopping at my thread, and taking a listen to what I've got (if you have the time :)). I bet you are quite busy with other matters, but if you could just stop by and let me know what you think, that would be AWESOME!

The link to my thread is here:

http://www.gamingforce.com/forums/co...ollection.html

I definitely recommend tommy to listen Josh's arrangement. He's skilled arranger.:edgarrock:

Holy crap! Tallarico in the house.

A couple of DC Anime Club members are trying to arrange a Philadelphia road trip for your show next week. Who knows? It could become a Mid-Atlantic GFF Get Together, too.

We'll see how the pimping goes. And we'll see you in concert!

Yeah!! People really loved the videos from San Jose! We sent them out to our mailing list and have been getting TONS of e-mails and letters. I spoke to Ray earlier and he's sending down some people for our Philly show this Saturday too!

thanks!


Tommy





Double Post:
Yo!

Nothing is impossible!! Where do you live?

No one had ever tried to get all of the licenses and rights for all of these video games before. So when we played the Hollywood Bowl last year it was the first time that games like Metal Gear, Halo, Castlevania, God of War, Beyond Good & Evil, Medal of Honor, EverQuest II, Tron, Kingdom Hearts, Myst, Sonic, Warcraft, Tomb Raider, etc... had EVER been performed live.

It took us over 3 1/2 years to get all the rights for music, video, advertising, etc. It's great to see that all of the hard work we did has paved the way for other concerts.


Tommy

I'm living in Indonesia. I dont have visa or passport as well. Sorry to say, but I have slim chance to go abroad this year.:)

also, the existance of VGM lover like me in my country is close to void.

Hmm, do they demand the performer to pay license fee each time you perform their music? And also, do they give limit of performance with the license?

Yo Josh!,

Thanks for sharing your wonderful work!! I think you're super talented and did a lot of great stuff there. I've been mentoring Martin Leung (aka The VideoGame Pianist/The Blindfolded Pianist). He's touring with us all this year with Video Games Live. We did an amazing 10 song piano arrangement of Final Fantasy together which he plays live at our shows.

You would probably have fun speaking with him. You can check out his website and reach him at www.videogamepianist.com


Good Luck! Keep me posted.

BTW... If anyone is interested in being my friend on MySpace, the address is:
www.myspace.com/tommytallarico

Video Games Live has one as well...
www.myspace.com/videogameslive

thanks,


Tommy

Double Post:

Cool!! So glad you guys are going to make it down!!!

It's going to be an AMAZING show. We're doing a big press release tomorrow announcing some really cool things for the Philly show!

Some GREAT U.S. composers are flying into Philly.

Make sure to sign-up on our mailing list so you'll recieve all the latest news before anyone.

thanks!


Tommy

Even though anybody who was there would've known what he said (and sometimes people forget what they said themselves)? His writing style, though...there's no mistaking it. :)

Also, Anji cosplay ftw.

I liked your work on the Tales of Destiny opening. Sorry that that's about the only thing I know you for.

Hey Tommy, is there any chance of getting some Japanese composers out for the concerts? In Vancouver you had Koji Kondo on the screen, but It's not the same as seeing him in person. I understand that that is expenseive, but It would be worth it in the end :)

Yeah, I thought about that, but I figure that he's gone to so much work that I highly doubt it isn't him.

Tommy,

Wow :D! I'm glad you liked my work! It means so much more coming from a professional composer, such as yourself. Thank you so much for listening! And if you need an arranger, my e-mail is composer_joshbarron@hotmail.com ;). I didn't get a chance to say this before, but I absolutely love Advent Rising! Muse and Bounty Hunter are so rich in orchestration, and the melodies in them just sing out to me. Anyways, thanks a lot bringing such great music to gamers :)!

Howdy Tommy!

A big surprise came to me when I read on the Videogames Live! web site that you're gonna stop in Montreal! Wow! I know A LOT of people who would be ready to do unimagineable things to a bed-post just to attend one of the shows! Me first. o_O

I was wondering, do you guys know when you'll stop by in Montreal for the tour and do you have any idea where it could be held? Molson Centre perhaps?

Thanks in advance!

Sorry to say, "Tommy", but I think your music isn't very good.

That's cool. Everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion.

Music is very subjective and no two people ever have the exact same tastes.

I feel fortunate that there are people out there who have a different opinion than you do.

http://www.tallarico.com/index.php?s=mediaquotes

http://www.tallarico.com/index.php?s=adventrising

http://www.tallarico.com/index.php?s=awards


Tommy





Double Post:


Look for us in the late fall. Venue being confirmed shortly.

Best thing is to sign up for our mailing list on the front page of www.videogameslive.com You'll get the info before anyone else.

Look forward to seeing you and meeting you in Montreal!!


Tommy

I havent had chance to listen any of your arrangement. Do you have samples?