Video Games Live

Your flyers were everywhere. I would have been hard-pressed to avoid them if I tried, heh. They were put on every seat before at least one of the keynotes, in piles on a lot of tables, in the tote bags they gave us, and probably a few others places I'm forgetting. I tried making a paper airplane out of one, but sadly it didn't work out too well.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by lord-of-shadow

Your flyers were everywhere. I would have been hard-pressed to avoid them if I tried, heh. They were put on every seat before at least one of the keynotes, in piles on a lot of tables, in the tote bags they gave us, and probably a few others places I'm forgetting. I tried making a paper airplane out of one, but sadly it didn't work out too well.

Hehehehehe... well, good to know the marketing train is chugging along!

Hope to meet ya in Montreal!

Any other suggestions on where we should be getting the word out in Montreal? We're hitting all the game stores and Future Shop is our partners and as I'm sure you're aware... they are HUGE (the Best Buy of Canada!) I'm getting the word out to all my friends at UbiSoft Montreal and the promoter will be doing local TV, radio, online and newspaper advertising. The first show is almost sold out just from mailing lists so they are talking about adding a second show the night before.

Any suggestions?


Tommy

How ya doing, buddy?

Future Shop is indeed the biggest electronic store in Québec. There's also Best Buy and EBGames on a smaller scale. As for advertising, make sure that your promoter also take advantage of public transport, especially the subway. That's where I come in contact with a large part of my daily dose of overwhelming publicity.

Aside these, I don't really know how you could make the ticket sales increase further, yet since you mentioned they are already selling well, that's no real problem. I mentioned the coming of VGL to Montréal on my website, but while I live in the area, most people visiting the site come from other parts of the world. Might still inform a few more people though.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Rimo

make sure that your promoter also take advantage of public transport, especially the subway. That's where I come in contact with a large part of my daily dose of overwhelming publicity.

That's an absolutely fantastic idea! I'll pass it along to the promoter immediately! Thanks for the info.

If you see an ad in the subway take a pic for me (and know that the reason it's there is because of you!)



Tommy

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'm two hours south of Montreal, at Champlain College in Burlington, so... close enough to easily get there, but too far to really be familiar with it's ins and outs.

I could probably get you connected to Champlain's Burlington campus though, if you were interested. Nothing but game design and art students there, so they'd be interested. Not too many people there though, so it might not be worth your time.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Mr. Tallarico, you may have already addressed this elsewhere, but in an interview you gave to enthusiast site n-sider (apparently after a VGL event?), you answered as follows to a question:

Quote:

Max: What was the first CD-ROM game you did the music for?

Tommy: That was the Terminator, on the Sega CD. And that was actually the very first video game to ever use a live guitar, in… 1993.

Did you ever clarify exactly what you meant by that final statement?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Dais

Mr. Tallarico, you may have already addressed this elsewhere, but in an interview you gave to enthusiast site n-sider (apparently after a VGL event?), you answered as follows to a question:



Did you ever clarify exactly what you meant by that final statement?

Not sure exactly what you're asking. Could you please clarify.

In regards to my statement, to my knowledge The Terminator on the Sega-CD was the very first video game to ever record a live guitar (not midi samples). It came out in 1993. It was also the first game to ever use 3-D audio (Q-Sound). If you are aware of another game that did this before 1993 please let me know.

Thanks,


Tommy

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Dais

Mr. Tallarico, you may have already addressed this elsewhere, but in an interview you gave to enthusiast site n-sider (apparently after a VGL event?), you answered as follows to a question:

Did you ever clarify exactly what you meant by that final statement?

Wow, somebody outside of the immediate community actually read the interview I conducted. You just made my day, Dais.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by José

It's been a while since I've run through this thread, and I thought to myself that I don't recall giving thanks for everything that went on at the DC shows during our OCReMix meetup that weekend. So...
Thanks to you guys for the great performance and the great musicians we got to meet, thanks to Tommy and Mike for graciously providing us with a little backstage and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and personal thanks from me to you, Tommy, for putting up with all my crap about having to wait so long for a New York show. The page says, "Coming Soon..." I can't wait. I'm wanna organize a big, honking OCR meetup soon as we get a definite date!

Yo Jose....

As promised...

VGL Hits NYC!

Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com

Tommy

Originally Posted by lord-of-shadow

Wow, somebody outside of the immediate community actually read the interview I conducted. You just made my day, Dais.

You did a great job too! Glad to hear you had so much fun.

For anyone interested, here is the review and interview: N-Sider.com: Video Games Live

The highlight for me was the following paragraph:

"And thus ended the best show I have ever seen. I’ve been to my fair share of concerts and plays, and everything in between, but none can even begin to compare to the fantastic experience that was Video Games Live. If you only visit one live performance in your lifetime, make it this one, because it is, to put it simply, a damn good show. Tallarico, I salute you: your show has made yet another life-long fan, and I can’t wait to see it again. And if any of you get a chance to do the same… You know what to do."


It's one of the quotes we use in our sales sheets to promoters.




Tommy

I was speaking idiomatically.

Just picked up two tickets for the montreal show. I can't wait. All I can say is, have a good set ready, and its about time

Most amazing jew boots

Hey, Tommy!

Just this morning, I bought tickets for the Edmonton show in February with 3 of my friends. Needless to say, we're pretty excited.

Anyway, I have a question for you: What are the chances of hearing a piece from Chrono Cross during the Edmonton concert? Are you guys able to play a full-fledged arrangement from the game at all, or is it piano-only?

Chrono Cross was actually the first soundtrack that got me interested in gaming music, so it's kind of special for me. When I went to VGL.com and saw that the game was added to your playlist, I nearly had a heart attack. I don't want to say that hearing it performed live would be like fulfilling a lifelong dream or anything, but it would definitely be something to the same effect.

Anyway, congratulations on all of your recent success, and I can't wait to see the show again in February!

-Ron

FELIPE NO

Hi Ron!,

We're just putting the set-lists together for all of our Jan., Feb. & March shows. I'll make sure we put the Chrono Cross segment in there for you. We currently only have a unique piano arrangement that the Video Game Pianist Martin Leung put together. Eventually we'll do an orchestrated version as well... but we're currently working on the Metroid arrangement and probably won't get a Chrono Cross one done by Feb.

Thanks! Can't wait for you to see the show!!


Tommy

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Don't live in Vegas anymore, otherwise I'd have a show to look forward to.

I'll have to keep an eye on that Boise spot. Though honestly, I don't see much compensation for playing in Idaho.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Zephyrin

Don't live in Vegas anymore, otherwise I'd have a show to look forward to.

I'll have to keep an eye on that Boise spot. Though honestly, I don't see much compensation for playing in Idaho.

Hi Zephyrin,

For us, it's not about the compensation, it's about bringing game music to the mainstream masses. Our number one goal for doing this was to show the world how significant, cultural and artistic video games have become to our culture. And not just the music... but the entire industry. This is one of the reasons why we care a lot about the visuals, presentation and fun factor in the show. By doing this we're reaching a wider variety of non-gamers.

Where do you live exactly? We're looking into a lot of places that aren't listed on our site. Let me know what the biggest city around you is and I'll let ya know if we're planning anything.

thanks,


Tommy

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Great performance at the Spike TV VGAs. The classic games medley was very well done.
It was a shame they only featured Video Games Live once during the actual show, besides the segues to commercials.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

Hi Zephyrin,

For us, it's not about the compensation, it's about bringing game music to the mainstream masses. Our number one goal for doing this was to show the world how significant, cultural and artistic video games have become to our culture. And not just the music... but the entire industry. This is one of the reasons why we care a lot about the visuals, presentation and fun factor in the show. By doing this we're reaching a wider variety of non-gamers.

Where do you live exactly? We're looking into a lot of places that aren't listed on our site. Let me know what the biggest city around you is and I'll let ya know if we're planning anything.

thanks,


Tommy

You can say that, but without the funding, there's not going to be a show. Of course, I have no idea what money is like in this kind of business/situation, but yeah.
I'm just saying, bands like Tool which sell out in 10 minutes in Vegas, don't even sell out here. Rough comparison, but still.

I live in Nampa, Idaho. That'd be about 25-30 minutes West of Boise, ID.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Someone from GFF showed me this, and I'll be more than likely attending your February show in Toronto . This might be a bit late, but were you guys considering putting the Gears of War theme in there somewhere ( Gears of War: Train Ride To Hell )? For some reason I was a bit surprised not to see it on the list of games you cover on the website.

Ah, for your February show in Toronto, could you please add in the Rainbow Six theme for one of the songs you'll be playing? That'd be great!!!
I would suggest playing the StarCraft 2 theme as well, it seems like the Greater Toronto Area is filled with A LOT of Starcraft fans (myself included), so that'd probably go over well haha.

PS: Back when you gave Smash Bros a low score a long time ago on Electric Playground, my hardcore SB friends were outraged, got some very amusing reactions from them, thanks for that haha .

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

Hi Ron!,

We're just putting the set-lists together for all of our Jan., Feb. & March shows. I'll make sure we put the Chrono Cross segment in there for you. We currently only have a unique piano arrangement that the Video Game Pianist Martin Leung put together. Eventually we'll do an orchestrated version as well... but we're currently working on the Metroid arrangement and probably won't get a Chrono Cross one done by Feb.

Thanks! Can't wait for you to see the show!!


Tommy

omg

No, seriously, thank you so much for that! Make sure you let us know once Chrono Cross gets the full-on orchestrated treatment - I could easily see myself making a special trip to check that out.

How ya doing, buddy?

Tickets have been obtained for the show in Montreal. I will see you then!

FELIPE NO

Quote:

We're just putting the set-lists together for all of our Jan., Feb. & March shows. I'll make sure we put the Chrono Cross segment in there for you. We currently only have a unique piano arrangement that the Video Game Pianist Martin Leung put together. Eventually we'll do an orchestrated version as well... but we're currently working on the Metroid arrangement and probably won't get a Chrono Cross one done by Feb.

From your latest post, I understand that your target goal is to reach out to the non-gamer community. However, does this limit you from performing excellent music coming from games such as Vagrant Story, Legacy of Kain, Shadow of the Colossus, Beyond Good & Evil...in other words, cult classics/old-gen games, or even popular games not known for their music (Xenogears, Soul Calibur..)? I'd love to see some themes from Vagrant Story come to life personally, considering it was Sakimoto's hardest work...but I understand why since it's a dead game anyway.

PS: Calgary for 2008! We loved you, as evident by the fact that VGL was on the front page of the entertainment section of the news.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I just read on Machinae Supremacy's website that they performed live with the orchestra in Europe. Oh man I would've loved to have seen that show.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Neat sites and music. I love listening to these kinds of things. Please keep up the good work.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Hey Tommy, read yesterday the announcement for VGL as opening concert for 2008's Games Convention in Leipzig. 7000 seats, could be a great thing!

My question is if it's planned to do an usual show or something special. I would miss some surprises made by the composers themselves like Michiru Yamane's organ pipe solo this year. Can you a little bit talk about it?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by trackjacket

Great performance at the Spike TV VGAs. The classic games medley was very well done.
It was a shame they only featured Video Games Live once during the actual show, besides the segues to commercials.

Thanks! I must say... it was pretty cool hearing Samuel L. Jackson thank us and say our names at the end of the show. He was a cool guy! Hanging with the Foo Fighters all day during soundcheck was also cool. Very nice guys.

We received a lot of e-mails asking us why we couldn't have played longer. As I'm sure you can imagine... wasn't up to us at all.

We actually had 2 music segments in the show (Classic Arcade & the Game of the Year) and then took the show back and forth from commericial. You could look at it this way... we got more airtime than Kid Rock.



Overall it was an awesome and fun experience that really raised the bar for us in terms of awareness. Over 6 million people tuned in and our 2008 ticket sales went crazy.



Tommy





Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Zephyrin

You can say that, but without the funding, there's not going to be a show. Of course, I have no idea what money is like in this kind of business/situation, but yeah.
I'm just saying, bands like Tool which sell out in 10 minutes in Vegas, don't even sell out here. Rough comparison, but still.

I live in Nampa, Idaho. That'd be about 25-30 minutes West of Boise, ID.

Nampa, Idaho!?!?!? Holy crap!! This is weird! We've actually just been working on a promoter offer to play in Nampa, Idaho!! I'm NOT EVEN JOKING!!!!!!!! They contacted us about a month ago!

On on TOUR DATES page (Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com) you'll notice Boise, ID on the TBA for 2008. We just put Boise because it was the closest big city to Nampa... but we'll actually be playing in Nampa!!

Man! That's just weird!! Out of all the places and cities in the world!

Crazy.

See ya in Nampa in 2008!


Tommy




Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Greykin

Someone from GFF showed me this, and I'll be more than likely attending your February show in Toronto . This might be a bit late, but were you guys considering putting the Gears of War theme in there somewhere ( Gears of War: Train Ride To Hell )? For some reason I was a bit surprised not to see it on the list of games you cover on the website.

Ah, for your February show in Toronto, could you please add in the Rainbow Six theme for one of the songs you'll be playing? That'd be great!!!
I would suggest playing the StarCraft 2 theme as well, it seems like the Greater Toronto Area is filled with A LOT of Starcraft fans (myself included), so that'd probably go over well haha.

PS: Back when you gave Smash Bros a low score a long time ago on Electric Playground, my hardcore SB friends were outraged, got some very amusing reactions from them, thanks for that haha .

Gears of Wars isn't currently on our list of songs that we play. I'll check out the link you sent. I finished Gears but recall the sound design more than the music. Cliffy B. & Mark R. are good friends of mine... so getting the license and visuals would be no problem. That game got SO intense at times that I probably competely overlooked the score!

For Toronto we won't be playing Rainbow 6 unfortunately... but we WILL be playing StarCraft II! Because we've already played Toronto we're doing a bunch of stuff we didn't do there the first time around (in 2006).

In terms of SSB... I find that most people either love or hate those kinds of games. The same could be said about turn-based Japanese role-playing games as well (and ANY genre really). I just never got into the whole 2-D fighting thing. I never was into Street Fighter either. I was always more of the Tekken kind of guy and have always preferred by fighters in 3-D. Just my own opinion. I respect that SSB is a very loved game and we're even speaking to Nintendo about getting some of the new music into our show!


Tommy




Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by RonaldG

omg

No, seriously, thank you so much for that! Make sure you let us know once Chrono Cross gets the full-on orchestrated treatment - I could easily see myself making a special trip to check that out.

Will do!


T.T.




Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by horseman85

Tickets have been obtained for the show in Montreal. I will see you then!

Awesome!!

The first show sold so well that the promoter has already added a second show.

Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com


Tommy




Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Pokey

From your latest post, I understand that your target goal is to reach out to the non-gamer community. However, does this limit you from performing excellent music coming from games such as Vagrant Story, Legacy of Kain, Shadow of the Colossus, Beyond Good & Evil...in other words, cult classics/old-gen games, or even popular games not known for their music (Xenogears, Soul Calibur..)? I'd love to see some themes from Vagrant Story come to life personally, considering it was Sakimoto's hardest work...but I understand why since it's a dead game anyway.

PS: Calgary for 2008! We loved you, as evident by the fact that VGL was on the front page of the entertainment section of the news.

Absolutely!! In fact I believe we're the only game concert that has ever played Beyond Good & Evil (one of my personal favorite games of all time!) One of my own scores (Advent Rising) is also commonly placed in the "game didn't sell but the soundtrack was good" category.

We always try to get one or two of these into each performance. We also do the music from Headhunter which in my opinion is some of the best ever written. Definitely looking into Shadow of the Colossus! Another one of my favorite games of all time (and ICO as well!).

Could someone point me to some of their favorite SotC tunes? I need to order the soundtrack... going to do that now... what are some of the more popular tunes?

That was a cool piece in the Calgary paper!! We spend LOTS of money on PR & Marketing when we go into a market (especially a new one). Luckily we have some great exclusive partners and sponsors like Future Shop up in Canada. It was one of the big lessons we learned when we tried launching Video Games Live big in 2005. Just having game publisher e-mail lists and some flyers in stores isn't enough. We spend tens of thousands of dollars in marketing, advertising & PR in every location we visit. It's things like that that we feel is money well spent in continuing to help raise awareness for game music around the world! An e-mail from a game company is one thing... but a front page of a newspaper or a 7 minute segment on BBC 1, or a feature in Wired or Spike TV really gets the non-gamers and mainstream public to recognize and be aware of the wonderful music we all love.


Tommy

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by klonopin

Neat sites and music. I love listening to these kinds of things. Please keep up the good work.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement! Will do!!


Tommy




Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Hamu-Sumo

Hey Tommy, read yesterday the announcement for VGL as opening concert for 2008's Games Convention in Leipzig. 7000 seats, could be a great thing!

My question is if it's planned to do an usual show or something special. I would miss some surprises made by the composers themselves like Michiru Yamane's organ pipe solo this year. Can you a little bit talk about it?

Yeah! We're really proud that the Games Convention has asked us to be a part of their event! I guess they saw our show in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year and wanted us to start playing their convention as well.

Here is the announcement from our site: Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com

And it also looks like our good friend Chris Huelsbeck is also doing a symphonic show in Cologne a few days after ours! I'm totally going to stick around for that!! Can't wait to check it out. Looks like it's going to be a GREAT week for game music in Germany!!

We're also currently planning 4 other major cities in Germany.

We haven't thought about our the setlist for our Leipzig show just yet because throughout the year we'll be adding to our setlist and don't want to sell ourselves short by deciding on the exact show right now. However!! I can tell you that this will be a VERY special show for us considering the convention and the venue/promotor and we'll be "pulling out all the stops" (as they say) to ensure that the material and special guests involved will be unique and special. Just like we did with Miyamoto & Koji Kondo in San Fran earlier this year or with Akira (Silent Hill), Yuichi Asami (DDR) and IGA (Castlevania) at the EForAll game convention in LA.

Check out some of the special guests we had at some of our game convention shows this year:

San Fran (GDC 2007): Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com

LA (EForAll 2007): Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com

London (London Games Festival 2007): Video Games Live | www.videogameslive.com

Playing at an actual game convention gives us the unique opportunity to have many more special guests and special performances. Leipzig will be no different!

Also important to note... as big and prestigious as all of our meet & greets have always been... we have never once (and never will) charge extra or a premium for people to take part in meeting our special guests. If you attend the show... you can certainly attend the meet & greet afterwards.


Tommy

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'll be around at Symphonic Shades in Cologne, because it's right around the corner, however I'm not sure yet if I'll find the time to visit VGL in Leipzig.
I was actually hoping for a traditional concert in the Gewandhaus rather than a big show with laser lights at the Arena Leipzig. The biggest problem is (and has been for the past 4 years) that the concert always takes place on Wednesdays, which usually are in the middle of a working week.

Gladly there's still 8 months ahead, so I can wait for the guest- and setlist, before 7,000 seat Arena Leipzig is sold out (especially with prices equal to last year's concert) - and I'd be sure to take the most expensive seats

I was speaking idiomatically.