Video Games Live

I've got my ticket for the Indianpolis showing on August 12; I'll be seated in the first Mezzanine. It looks like it should be an interesting show, with a mixture of Japanese and Western VGM.

If anyone else from here will be there for the same show, we could probably meet up.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

This weekend, I was at the Saturday (Gen-Con) showing of VGL in Indianapolis. Warning: wall of text. This will appear in my journal as well, along with a write-up covering the rest of the weekend......

Video Games Live

Performers: Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir

MC: Tommy Tallarico, producer for VGL and composer for a ton of US games. (Of course, the one that's most familiar to me is the Unreal expansion pack.) He was also born 8 days after me. =p

Conductor: Jack Wall, who scored Myst IV.

Setup: The concert was divided into sections, roughly for each game or series. The music for the older games tended to be medleys, while some of the newer ones concentrated on the main theme. Above the orchestra, there was a big screen, where they showed video clips of each game. Some of the music had vocals, so there was also a choir, but I couldn't see them from where I was sitting, since they were blocked by the screen. Finally, there was a laser/light show, which added to the experience.

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First Act
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Arcade Medley: After the costume contest, the show opened with ... Pong. But wait, Pong had no music. Well, the orchestra played tones, choreographed to the ball hitting a paddle or the walls. Next, were some fan favorites ... Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Xevious, slowly moving onto some of the early games that had what we consider music. We even got to hear some music from the VCD games Dragon Lair, and its ilk. Oh, and Tetris too.

Metal Gear Solid: A pretty good selection of music. I never played the game, but recognize it from the Best Song contest. I think we got the first choral work here, too.

Castlevania: This one was awesome, a medley containing many pieces that I love from the series.

Beyond Good and Evil: This got quite a cheer when Tommy announced it. I see why so many liked the music from this game. The beginning of the medley especially intrigued me.

Legend of Zelda: Before this next section, they played a segment recorded by Koji Kondo, where he introduced the game and its music. The Zelda series had some great music, and a nice selection of familiar tunes were represented in this medley. Most would tell you that this was their favorite in the first half.

God of War: Of everything in the concert, this is the only one I flat out didn't know. I checked it out after I got back, and I'm pretty sure The Vengeful Spartan was part of the medley.

Audience Participation 1 - Space Invaders: Tommy selected a member of the audience to come play Space Invaders on the stage, except there was no joystick - he controlled the turret's position by walking along the stage. The orchestra played music in real-time, and got faster when he invariably left a couple of ships on the ends. He didn't win the big prize.

TRON: This was my favorite section of the first half, and a complete surprise -- orchestral music from the movie TRON. (That might sound blasphemous, coming from me, but remember that there was also a TRON video game released at the same time as the movie. Also, the music used in the motion picture was mostly electronic, and shares some similarity with game music.)

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Intermission
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During the intermission, I watched some people play in a Space Invaders tournament, and I'm convinced that no one knows how to play it anymore. You have to take them out by columns or they'll pounce you.

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Second Act
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Audience Participation 1 - Frogger: Two audience members were selected for this one - a game of Frogger on the big screen with real-time orchestral accompianment. A girl from Wisconsin beat an older gentleman to win a Ferrari ... AMD64 Laptop. (I bet you thought it was a car.)

Medal of Honor Series: This was one of the most moving segments of the evening, with some of composer Michael Giacchino's music set to scenes from the second world war. Tommy also shared that during production of the game, Steven Speilburg was so impressed with Giacchino's talent, that he shopped him around in Hollywood, which is how this game music composer ended up writing the scores to popular shows like Lost and Alias.

EverQuest 2: Ah, music from an MMORPG. Pretty good. Maybe someday they'll feature Maple Story. Strangely, some of the in-game scenes made it look like EQ has a plot.

Kingdom Hearts: This was an orchestration of Hikari, but instead of KH scenes, we were treated to scenes from various Disney movies. You know, Peter Pan looks an awful lot like one of the incarnations of Zelda.

The Myst Series: The conductor spoke a little before this set, which is fitting because he composed the music for one of the Myst games. Heh, they showed some scenes from Myst I, which reminded me of the half-day I spent on that game before giving up and returning the CD to my roommate.

Advent Rising: The music from this game is one of Tommy Tallarico's own compositions. It was good, even though the game admitedly didn't sell well.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ah, hearing an orchestration of Green Hill Zone brought pleasure to my ears. I can't remember if there's ever been any symphonic Sonic music. This was also a medley.

World of Warcraft: By their reaction, I think most of the audience is addicted to this game, so it was fitting. Socks tells me that some of the scenes they showed were from Warcraft 3, as well.

Special Guest - Martin Leung: This was a total shock; I had no idea this was coming. Martin Leung is the infamous Blindfolded Mario Pianist, who made a video and posted it online last year. He performed a piano medley of Final Fantasy music (even a bit of one-winged angel in there). The performance was impressive as always, and the arrangement was solid and a bit unusual. Without a doubt, this was the audience's favorite part of the concert, and the young man got the first Standing Ovation.

Mario: The concert was concluded with a nice medley containing music from Mario. There are so many Mario games, I didn't recognize half of the scenes they showed.

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Encore
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Halo: Tommy had one more surprise for us - a special guest appearance by Halo composer Marty O'Donnell, who introduced music from Halo, mostly the track called Halo. An interesting tidbit - the chanting is done by 5 jingle artists from Chicago.

Encore Encore: Martin Leung came out one more time, to the delight of the audience, and played a medley of Mario music.

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Summary
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The whole evening was quite an experience, and while the main emphasis was on game music, the overall theme of the show was the fun of gaming. Don't miss the opportunity to see it, if the show comes to a venue near you.

My only regret was that I missed the meet-and-greet because I had something else to attend afterwards. Hopefully next time.

There's nowhere I can't reach.