Video Games Live

[The Damned]

Since the previous thread died with the old board, I guess it's time to make a new one.

In case no one knows, Video Games Live (http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home) is a series of concerts held in various cities that feature symphonic orchestra performing video game music. They feature mostly the major franchises, like Zelda, Mario and Final Fantasy, but also showcase games like Jade Empire, Advent Rising and more.

There are up-coming shows in cities across North America, so check the site above for a location near you.

I personally went to the Edmonton, Alberta show tonight. In fact, I just got back from it. Excellent performance. The only thing that I wish was different were two things: first, that they didn't have so much Final Fantasy music (especially One Winged Angel, which was done twice; once in a medley and once as the final song) and two, they had played the Slider song from Mario 64. That would have made it better.

The concert tonight had some special changes to it, supposedly. First, they had a guy from the audience come up on stage and put on a black shirt with a green shape on the back. It turns out that he was going to play Space Invaders for money, and the green shape was the player's ship. He played the game by running left and right to move the ship on the screen. If he completed the game within two minutes, he would have won his score in dollars. Too bad he died so many times... But he still got to walk away with the shirt and a bag of stuff.

And the they had two kids play Frogger, and whomever got the highest score won prizes. The two were an 11-year old girl at 1180 points, and the winner, a 12-year old boy at 3200 points. Never played Frogger before, my ass...

They also played a little bit of the Halo 3 theme, and showed some footage. I think some of it was new, I'm not sure.

Bioware, Edmonton's local video game company (you may have heard of them) got tickets to the entire front center section. They also came up on stage and talked about Mass Effect, and then they played the theme from Jade Empire, which is supposed to be the very first live performance of it ever. Nice stuff.

And for anyone that was at the concert, when Tommy Tallarico said "some people think video games are for kids,", I was the guy that yelled "boooooo!" loudly right after. Yes, that was me.

I also saw an OCR member there, as he had an OCR shirt on. He didn't tell me his name, though... I couldn't even guess which of the other Alberta members here is could have been. Xelebes?

Enough about my fun. Anyone from previous showings care to share what everyone else is missing out on?

[OverCoat]

I went to the one in Seattle, back when that was apparently the last one they were ever going to do. Glad to hear it's still around. I think I told Mr. Tallarico to not use the Paramount next time [too small!], I wonder if he read my message :3

[atmuh]

The concert tonight had some special changes to it, supposedly. First, they had a guy from the audience come up on stage and put on a black shirt with a green shape on the back. It turns out that he was going to play Space Invaders for money, and the green shape was the player's ship. He played the game by running left and right to move the ship on the screen. If he completed the game within two minutes, he would have won his score in dollars. Too bad he died so many times... But he still got to walk away with the shirt and a bag of stuff.

How come I didn't get a bag of stuff when I did that?

[watkinzez]

I'd go to one of these, but Play! beat them to Sydney. Can't wait till June.

[vaxne]

I also saw an OCR member there, as he had an OCR shirt on. He didn't tell me his name, though... I couldn't even guess which of the other Alberta members here is could have been. Xelebes?


LOL, that was me with the OC shirt. Hey were u the guy that I bumped into in the lobby that was talking to me?
-cool looking at ur profile Damned, i see your birthday is also april 30th. funny stuff

anywhay awsome concert, got a lot of stuff autographed. Got two Video games live shirts one autographed one to wear a cool sonic shirt, an autographed playbook, and the earthworm jim album compilation that actually contains two Earthworm Jim OCremixes, and also two earthworm jim remixes from mazedude's "American Album". (although silly me forgot to get the CD autographed!)

The best part was shaking Talarico's hand and getting my friend to take a picture of it. Best night of my life so far.

[watkinzez]

and the earthworm jim album compilation that actually contains two Earthworm Jim OCremixes, and also two earthworm jim remixes from mazedude's "American Album". (although silly me forgot to get the CD autographed!)

The Anthology?
It finally got released! 'Bout bloody time.

[hamburglar]

I saw the one at the Hollywood Bowl this past fall. It was pretty freaking sweet. I loved hearing God of War, but I thought it was a little bizarre to have cosplayers come on stage during One Winged Angel (Sephiroth's theme for those who don't know). My favorite part by far was hearing the music from both Halo 2 and 3. They had Steve Vai on guitar...fucking sick.

[The Damned]

LOL, that was me with the OC shirt. Hey were u the guy that I bumped into in the lobby that was talking to me?
-cool looking at ur profile Damned, i see your birthday is also april 30th. funny stuff

anywhay awsome concert, got a lot of stuff autographed. Got two Video games live shirts one autographed one to wear a cool sonic shirt, an autographed playbook, and the earthworm jim album compilation that actually contains two Earthworm Jim OCremixes, and also two earthworm jim remixes from mazedude's "American Album". (although silly me forgot to get the CD autographed!)

The best part was shaking Talarico's hand and getting my friend to take a picture of it. Best night of my life so far.

Yeah, that was me.

I didn't bother trying to meet up with any of the people there. But we did meet up with a few of the Bioware guys. I've met them before (cousin is married to one of the writers, I did an interview with the founders as part of a pre-enrollment for a course a few years ago, and my friend goes to class with some of the family and friends of the staff, so I run into them quite a bit) and we had a little chat with some of them. I had to suppress the need to shout "DO SHATTERED STEEL 2 ALREADY!" whenever I saw them, though... come on, just do it already.

Overall, a good night. Did you get a chance to check out the girl in the white gown? Fuck yeah, that's some good cosplay. And the other one, with the ample cleavage and next to nothing to hold it in? Totally hittable. Like the hammer of god, I would.

[Souliarc]

Haha, Ft. Wayne, IN? Sweetwater's CEO Chuck Surack must've convinced them because from what I hear, there is NOTHING up there.

Anyway, if I can, I'll probably go to that one so I can visit Sweetwater at the same time. That, or I'll go to the one in Columbus, OH.

[vaxne]

Overall, a good night. Did you get a chance to check out the girl in the white gown? Fuck yeah, that's some good cosplay. And the other one, with the ample cleavage and next to nothing to hold it in? Totally hittable. Like the hammer of god, I would.

The one with the massive cleavage was Eva from Metal Gear Solid 3 if im not mistaken. LOL in the edmonton sun today there was a picture of her in there.

I thought the girl in the COS-MOS cosplay was pretty cool, and the guy who dressed up as dan from street fighter was pretty funny.

[Guy In Rubber Suit]

I went to the one in Phoenix, or Mesa to be specific and I had a blast. I enjoyed the song choices and loved how they did the classic arcade games, the ones that didn't have music, just sound effects. The only problem was the choir and I don't know if it was because they had two different ones, a local one and one from Salt Lake City there and they weren't able to practice together properly or just plain suck, either way they were a bit of a let down. Another downer was Tommy Tallerico playing guitar in the end. I was expecting shredding, especially on the awesome headless guitar he had. Instead, he just played basic chords and you could barely hear him. Booo.

Either way it was fun, great fun. But I do think the Final Fantasy concert I went to a few years ago was much better.

[Souliarc]

I know this is an old thread but I just checked the tour dates again and:

THEY'RE COMING TO FRIGGIN LOUISVILLE!!!

They'll be playing at the Kentucky Center for the Arts which is attached to the garage I park in for work! Hell yes.

k im dun

[atmuh]

I still want them to release the video of me
I DEMAND IT!

[wormguy]

Steve Vai was there? Holy shit, how did I miss that?

[Bigfoot]

:)

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3158481

[i <3 robots]

^
YES That was so sweet. I would go to an entire organ concert of Castlevania tunes. really.

[Bahamut]

:)

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3158481

Fuck...makes me wish I went to school close to home, I would've so went to that :sad: .

[The Coop]

I know I'll get flamed and insulted for this, but...

I was pretty disappointed by that Castlevania medley. The guy has some skill to be sure, but the slipped notes, timing issues, odd pauses as he seemed to be looking for keys/foot pedals... it just wrecked the performance. Either he needed more time to learn the medley, or they should have hired someone with more skill to play it. Couple that with the lack of emotion in his playing, and it was just a let down.

I'm sorry, but the concept of playing the famous Castlevania tunes on a huge, century old pipe organ deserves a better outcome.

Edit: It may be that it was the way the medley was written that was the cause of issues I had with the piece. It may not have been written as cleanly as it could have been for an actual pipe organ performance, resulting in the problems I heard and saw. If that's the case, then kudos to the guy for trying to make it work. But even so, I still think that medley could have been played better.

[Bahamut]

Actually, just watching a portion of that video, I definitely agree - it seemed much worse than much of the stuff on OCR. Likely the piece was a bit difficult for that person to perform, or maybe he was a bit nervous about playing on such a famous organ? I was a bit disappointed at Dear Friends for similar reasons, although the mistakes weren't nearly as noteworthy as in that video.

[Valhalla Knight]

Haha, Ft. Wayne, IN? Sweetwater's CEO Chuck Surack must've convinced them because from what I hear, there is NOTHING up there.

Anyway, if I can, I'll probably go to that one so I can visit Sweetwater at the same time. That, or I'll go to the one in Columbus, OH.

Yeah, I'm seriously considering going to the Columbus one. Only thing holding me back is all the mixed opinions I've been hearing about the concert in general, like how they play a lot of songs from less memorable games, don't play the songs in their entirety, how the show can come off a bit cheesy, etc. I've been waiting to see this ever since I saw the Hollywood Bowl footage, but now I'm not so sure if it's worth the money, at least not for the $60 seats I planned on getting. Does anyone know if these concerts differ greatly from city to city? Basically I just need someone to tell me that I'll get chills at some point, me being a longtime fan of the music from Zelda, Final Fantasy, Mario and the like, as I know many of you are. So, can I have some candid opinions from people who have been to one of the shows?

[atmuh]

Yeah, I'm seriously considering going to the Columbus one. Only thing holding me back is all the mixed opinions I've been hearing about the concert in general, like how they play a lot of songs from less memorable games, don't play the songs in their entirety, how the show can come off a bit cheesy, etc. I've been waiting to see this ever since I saw the Hollywood Bowl footage, but now I'm not so sure if it's worth the money, at least not for the $60 seats I planned on getting. Does anyone know if these concerts differ greatly from city to city? Basically I just need someone to tell me that I'll get chills at some point, me being a longtime fan of the music from Zelda, Final Fantasy, Mario and the like, as I know many of you are. So, can I have some candid opinions from people who have been to one of the shows?

Ok well I was at the Philly show, and I paid like $70 to sit in the third row, and I would TOTALLY do that again.

They played music from a ton of games, and they made sure to mix it up between popular/not so popular games. Let's see if I can remember, they played Sonic, Mario, Metal Gear Solid, Beyond Good and Evil, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Tron, Advent Rising, and Halo. I think there was more but I don't remember.
Just go you won't be disappointed.

[Valhalla Knight]

Ok well I was at the Philly show, and I paid like $70 to sit in the third row, and I would TOTALLY do that again.

They played music from a ton of games, and they made sure to mix it up between popular/not so popular games. Let's see if I can remember, they played Sonic, Mario, Metal Gear Solid, Beyond Good and Evil, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Tron, Advent Rising, and Halo. I think there was more but I don't remember.
Just go you won't be disappointed.

Sooo, what did you think of the actual quality of the orchestra? I mean were you just mildly impressed or actually blown away? And the choir? I guess my best question would be, if someone attending this concert was a non-gamer, would they be totally surprised by the quality and class of the event, or simply brush it off as amateurish? The reason I ask this is because I want my non-gamer girlfriend to come, and don't want this event to deter her from being more open-minded about video games in general. Yeah I know, kinda lame, but it's not the only reason - I want to know if I'll be disappointed myself, as a gamer. So, what do you people who have been to this before have to say?

[Xelebes]

I also saw an OCR member there, as he had an OCR shirt on. He didn't tell me his name, though... I couldn't even guess which of the other Alberta members here is could have been. Xelebes?


I didn't go. A lot of my friends did but I didn't go to anything between New Years Eve and the first weekend of March.

Plus, I don't have an OCR shirt or anything like that.

[atmuh]

Sooo, what did you think of the actual quality of the orchestra? I mean were you just mildly impressed or actually blown away? And the choir? I guess my best question would be, if someone attending this concert was a non-gamer, would they be totally surprised by the quality and class of the event, or simply brush it off as amateurish? The reason I ask this is because I want my non-gamer girlfriend to come, and don't want this event to deter her from being more open-minded about video games in general. Yeah I know, kinda lame, but it's not the only reason - I want to know if I'll be disappointed myself, as a gamer. So, what do you people who have been to this before have to say?

the orchestra was pro
the choir was pro
the concert was pro

trust me you'll like it and so will your girlfriend

[Valhalla Knight]

Well, sounds like I can't go wrong if I decide to go - does anyone have anything negative to say about the show?

[Merk]

How come I didn't get a bag of stuff when I [played space invaders]?

Well you got to hang out with the composers and have pizza afterwards, so you really can't complain.

Well, sounds like I can't go wrong if I decide to go - does anyone have anything negative to say about the show?

I just remember the guy sitting to my left was a complete jerk. Acting all high and mighty because he ran some website.

Serious though, I remember them messing up the Castlevania medley.

[zircon]

Yeah, the orchestra got out off time (with eachother) during the CV medley, and I think the overall level of tightness and accuracy could have been higher. I think the orchestra got like one practice session tops, which is not enough for this kind of material, but it may also be that the Philly orchestra was weak. I haven't heard similar reports from other cities.

[big giant circles]

June 29th, 2007 Washington, DC Kennedy Center National Symphony
June 30th, 2007 Washington, DC Kennedy Center National Symphony

Liontamer brought this date to my attention. I am considering making the trek to this, and I'd love to see many of the people I just saw this past weekend. Anyone else considering this? If so, we should coordinate details early so we can get good seats, preferably in the same section, and make sure we all go on the correct/same day. Tickets go on sale April 11th. Thoughts?

(if nothing else, I can always make the shorter trek to Louisville and see it with Souliarc)

[Souliarc]

(if nothing else, I can always make the shorter trek to Louisville and see it with Souliarc)

Hell yes!

_________