So I attended PLAY! for the first time and now I have to rant

[blood_thirsty_demon]

I live in Washington(Seattle area), and after years of waiting for it to come to my neck of the woods, I got to see PLAY! performed by the Seattle Symphony. Unfortunately, the Symphony overcharges the price of admission, and it cost about 155 dollars for two tickets and a program.

But it was the best investment EVER!

My sister and I got amazing seats, not too close too the television screens and not too far the stage. The music was amazing, and I even teared up a couple times through out the show. Being able to hear my favorite songs live is a totally different experience, and I couldn't stop grinning the whole time. But that's not the best part.

During the intermission, I was sitting alone while my sister chatted with some of her friends who also came as well. A woman and her son sitting two rows ahead of me saw my grin and started up a conversation that went somewhat like this:

"Enjoying the performance?"

"Definitely. I've been waiting since 2006."

"Yes, this is amazing show. So do you know who the man sitting in front of you is?" I raised a brow, remembering a couple sitting in front of me, but nothing else came up in my mind.

"No, what about it?"

"He's Martin O'Donnell. The guy that does the Halo music" My entire body freezes up, and after five seconds of silence I nearly shout.

"MARTY?! As in the composer for the halo series Marty O'Donnell?!" She and her son start laughing at me as I kept repeating "Oh my god" over and over again.

When my sister came back and I told her the news she started pestering me to get his autograph. But I didn't want to bother him, he came to enjoy the show and I didn't want to act like a fangirl in front of him and his wife. When they returned to their seats my sister began nudging me to ask him. We broke into a quiet argument amongst ourselves, with her telling me to grow a spine and myself saying "I can't. No I can't do it.". Eventually she said if I wasn't going to ask him then she would. But she didn't have to, as some kid half my age came up and asked instead, which caused him to stand up and face me. My sister said "Ask him now!" He and his wife started laughing at us as they saw holding the program in my hand.

"So that's what you two were talking about." He said.

Okay, so we weren't as quiet as I thought we were. So blushing madly, I timidly held up my program, "I love your work...Sorry, can I have your autograph?". He just laughed again taking my program giving me his signature, as my sister and I started up a conversation with him and his wife until the show started up again. Before the show I was complaining about the price for the program, but it was the best fifteen bucks I ever spent. I'm framing the sucker and hanging it on my wall when the house is finished getting renovated.

I can't wait for Video Games Live next January. Okay, I'm done ranting now.

[Arek the Absolute]

i expected drama

this is fail

Seriously though, cool you liked the show. $15 bucks for a program? Yeesh, expensive, but cool that it was worth it in the end.

[blood_thirsty_demon]

Yeah, it is a little over the top, but this was just so cool. most of my friends aren't gamers and I can't rant to them without feeling weird and out of place.

[Dhsu]

I have to say, of the things I would spend $155 on, PLAY! is not very high on the list. Orchestral arrangements and concerts just seem cliche at this point.

But it's good you got your money's worth.

[OverCoat]

I paid $23 for my seats at the last minute.

Downside: it was row D. My neck still hurts.

Though I did meet Shnabubula [of all people. And his dad!], and was introduced to Jeremy Soule and Marty O'Donnell [soule who actually has heard and loves Shnab's crazy chiptunes].

As for the orchestra, there were a couple noticeable mistakes, and numerous attempts at "arranging the material [ocr style, like playing around with the melody or changing the chord progression]" that made me cringe, and that fake Korg Triton electric guitar during the Silent Hill segment made me want to cunt punt the pianist, though those mistakes aside I thought they did pretty well, especially the choir [they nailed One Winged Angel].

Overall, I had a great time... for $20! If I had known Sam was going to be there I may have paid the full $60 earlier. It's too bad there aren't more OCR people in the area though [fuck you, East Coast!!!] or I could've totally organized a meetup of sorts.

edit: wait, you were that young dude after the concert? I vaguely remember you getting Marty's autograph. I was right freaking there YEAH DUDE! I totally empathize with you about wanting to gush about it to everyone. The next day at work I was like...

"dude, I just saw the Seattle Symphony last night."

"oh, cool"

"And you know what they played? VIDEOGAME MUSIC!"

"you're such a nerd"

nyoro~n

[Dhsu]

I think this "dude" is a she.

...nyoro~n

[Sam Ascher-Weiss]

Norg was there and Elaine from select start

[ifirit]

When I went to the Chicago premiere back in 2006, Koji Kondo was the one who sat directly in front of me. Jeremy Soule and Martin O'Donnell were in the row behind me on my left. And Nobuo Uematsu shook my hand as he walked through the aisles at the beginning of the program. At the end of the night, I managed to get everyone's autographs and had a short conversation with Michael Salvatori.

Definitely the best $125 I've ever spent.

[The Pezman]

I went June of '06 in Philadelphia. I didn't get to meet anyone famous, but I totally and completely enjoyed the performance. At that performance they used a real guitar for Silent Hill, and it was awesome. I struck up random conversations with other attendees, about things like KH2 and such.

It encouraged me greatly to attend VGL with OCRemix, where I DID meet Tallarico, Wall, and more.

[blood_thirsty_demon]

Wow, hearing about everybody's experience kinda makes mine insignificant ; Ah well, it's always fun to swap stories and such. They didn't have a guitar for the Silent Hill segment, but the pianist had an awesome keyboard with great sounds, so it wasn't bad. They also played a Guildwars suite which was very good, Not a lot of people were expecting it to go well from what I could tell, but I liked it. Very few mistakes were made, just a couple missed notes here and there. The only thing I could complain about was that they didn't play any songs from Shadow of The Colossus.

[Calpis]

Man, they're finally having a PLAY! concert in my area but as luck would have it, I'm going to be in Japan that week. Sucks, but I'll also be having a great time in Japan as it's my first trip both in Japan (basically something I've been working toward for 8 years now) and to meet my in-laws.

Anyway, sounds like it was a good time. What songs/games did they play?

[blood_thirsty_demon]

The songs they played were from Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Shenmue, WoW, Guild Wars, Metal Gear Solid 3, Silent Hill, Halo, Sonic, Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Final Fantasy. All of them were arranged suites, save for One Winged Angel and Ultimica's Theme.

[Sam Ascher-Weiss]

Wow, hearing about everybody's experience kinda makes mine insignificant ; Ah well, it's always fun to swap stories and such. They didn't have a guitar for the Silent Hill segment, but the pianist had an awesome keyboard with great sounds, so it wasn't bad. They also played a Guildwars suite which was very good, Not a lot of people were expecting it to go well from what I could tell, but I liked it. Very few mistakes were made, just a couple missed notes here and there. The only thing I could complain about was that they didn't play any songs from Shadow of The Colossus.

The Guild Wars suite was SUPPOSED to have a choral part but unfortunately the kids got the material too late to learn it properly

[anosou]

It rocked in Sweden, both times and it was pretty cheap too. like $50 maximum

[ifirit]

Ultimica's Theme?! Sweet! I would have loved to have heard that.

The Chicago '06 concert had Angela Aki sing "Kiss Me Goodbye" from FFXII and her version of "Eyes on Me." (These videos weren't from the same show, but the performances were identical.)

Koji Kondo played a rendition of the theme from The New Super Mario Bros. Akira Yamaoka also

"Theme of Laura" from Silent Hill 2.

Just looking back on this and on other

, makes me appreciate the artistry that these pieces can take on when performed by great live talent.

Okay, that's it! I'm writing a letter to the local philharmonic to incorporate more VGM.

[anosou]

Okay, that's it! I'm writing a letter to the local philharmonic to incorporate more VGM.

THAT's how you do it. Good man.

[blood_thirsty_demon]

They started the show off with Ultimica's theme. The choir was amazing! The Symphony would have had alot more people attend if the tickets were cheaper, but there were alot of hardcore fans that attended which made up for it. I don't think the orceshtra expected the roaring response they recieved .

[Undefined]

I went to one of their performances in Stockholm last year. Certainly was worth it. Most arrangements were delightfully performed, no instruments were synthesized, and Akira Yamaoka performed live on stage.

Something I personally appreciated; They didn't play One Winged Angel (overdone as hell). Even better; They played Dancing Mad instead! Unfortunately, the performance sucked. Bummer...

Apparently Uematsu was there as well, but I never saw him.

[norg]

i just saw the show in seattle not too long ago.

absolutely fantastic. while they did play one wing angel (there seems to be no way to avoid that), it was very interesting to hear it performed while actually there to hear it vs. on CDs i've heard.

everything they performed was almost entire spot on and done really well. the pianist was off kilter the entire performance and that sorta of hurt it a bit. also, they did a song that involved a synthesized electric guitar played on the keyboard and it was horrible. but other than that, everything they did was absolutely wonderful.

if play is making its way to your area, i highly recommend it.

-= george =-

[anosou]

Wait a minute, Ultimecia's Theme? There's no such thing :/

Do you guys mean Liberi Fatali, the intro to FFVIII? That's a staple in PLAY's arsenal so I think that's what you're talking about.

Though if they did something connected to Ultimecia, like The Extreme or Maybe I'm a Lion I would be extremely impressed and demand a recording. Doubt it though ;P

[Synchronicity]

So I usually don't post much but I had to tell of my Play! adventure. It was pretty crazy.

Classical music is my favorite type of music and I like video games(fav being Final Fantasy series) so it was kind of a no-brainer to go see Play! I had first read about it in an EGM magazine and was like "hmm... that'd be cool to go to." I called up a bud(also a FF fan) to see if he wanted to go, he was game. Called up some relatives that live in chicago and told'em I was going to be dropping in on'em for a stay for a couple of days to see a symphony (not mentioning it was a video game symphony). They said "C'mon up."

We drive from Bama to Chicago for the Play! premiere. I had read on the website that all the big name composers(Kondo, akira yamaoka, O'Donnell) were going to be there so I thought that was quite cool, but when I read the Uematsu was gonna be there I was like, "Now him I'd like to meet."

I found out that there was going to be some kind of autograph signing that Arnie Roth, Angela Aki and Uematsu were going to be at there in chicago in a Tower Records... so I dropped by there. No offense to anybody who was there but you should've seen this place. Geeks of every size and shape were there. There was even a lil' geek garage band playing video game music at the start of the ginormous line from the entrance of the place spiraling all the way down on to the sidewalk into the street. They didn't sound bad but... c'mon.... lol. Well anyway, I wasn't really into hanging around in a line with a buncha goobs so me and my bud kinda just went on in to look at some magazines and CDs.

I had just begun to read into some guitar amp magazine when I hear my bud say "There he is!" I look up to see him pointing at the one and only, Uematsu. So here we are face to face with the legend. All I can really force myself to say is "We're big fans of your music and we just think your great." I had forgotten that he spoke Japanese but he seemed to understand what I said. He smiled and bowed his head and said some things in Japanese to us(still don't know what the hell he said) but we got some pictures with him and said we'd see him the next day at the concert.

So that's pretty much my story.

P.s.- The symphony was great. It really was. I really enjoyed it but I couldn't believe how much the Zelda Melody blew pretty much everything else away. Even Akira's marshall amp and the One-Winged Angel (finale & encore) was outdone by Zelda IMO.

[blood_thirsty_demon]

Right, Liberi Fatali is the correct name, but my sister and I usually refer to it as Ultimica's theme since it was easier to remember. We've been using that term for years and it just sort of stuck.

[OverCoat]

Norg was there and Elaine from select start

On Thursday night?

[chumble spuzz]

I [went to the show].

FRICK. I guess I should've known there'd be other OCR folks in attendance. I totally blew a prime opportunity to finally meet you in person.

As far as the show went, I felt they started strong, but kinda petered out towards the end. They had way more energy in Liberi Fatali than in One-Winged Angel. And that auxiliary percussionist on Scars...jeez. It's a shaker, for pete's sake. Shake it on tempo. Also could've done without the fake guitars (really? fake guitars? REALLY!?!), especially on the Silent Hill piece. *shudder*

Other than that, Shenmue was awesome, MGS was awesome, Zelda was awesome (even though I've heard that arrangement many times before), and I geeked out when they introduced Martin O'Donnell. Would've loved to hear some Star Fox, though. :]

EDIT: Or Lufia 2. It's a bit obscure, but man, the music in that game is awesome.

[norg]

On Thursday night?

no, on saturday afternoon. sam was at the saturday show too.