Video Games Live Concert Report
Last night, my wife and I went to the Video Games Live concert in Salt Lake City. The event began on a great note, as we ran into a bunch of people I knew from previous jobs, including Kirk Baum, who is now working at Disney. My wife jokes that I couldn't even cross the lobby. It got even worse later...

To get to our seats, we had to go past an older couple on the end who were obviously season ticket holders for the Utah Symphony, and had no clue what they were in for. This was true of many couples in the orchestra seats. Once we were seated, we were treated to a little pre-show video of a Ms. Pac-Man skit performed by actors in costumes.

There was a technical glitch at the beginning of the concert, but after a couple of minutes it resolved, and the Symphony began with an extensive medley of music from older games, accompanied by a video. I say music "from" other games, but the medley began with some games for which there was no music. Like... Pong. They music was composed loosely guided by the sounds and themes from the game - from the irregular beep-boop-beep noises of Pong, to the more four-tone heartbeat rhythm of descending aliens in Space Invaders, to the heart-racing thrumming of Space Invaders, on through Missile Command (the next video shown in the medley). Then the medley switched to a variation on Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, an always-popular theme for video games in the 1980's. The video showed Defender, Tempest, Centipede, Robotron, Joust, and finally Satan's Hollow (which actually used Ride of the Valkyries as its theme music, for those few who might recall it from the arcades).

Then the medley shifted to actual theme music, and blew through segments from Commando, Donkey Kong (which got plenty of cheers), Frogger, Elevator Action, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Duck Hunt, Punch Out, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gauntlet, Rastan (my favorite of the last half), Outrun, and finally Tetris. (UPDATE: You can watch & listen the medley here.)

After the extensive medley, Tommy Tallarico came out and introduced the director, Jack Wall, and the VGL concert. He explained that the goal of VGL was to prove how culturally significant and artistic games could be. He also told everyone that unlike most symphonies, we should feel free to clap, cheer, and yell out if we feel like it. Particularly later in the event, it was clear he was really trying to feel and act like a rock star, which was amusing, but we all had a good time.

The rest of the first half had the orchestra and choir doing themes from Metal Gear Solid, Medal of Honor (done with a montage of footage from World War II, rather than game footage), Civilization IV, a Final Fantasy medley performed by Martin Leung on piano, Advent Rising, and Zelda. The Advent Rising piece was particularly interesting because Tommy Tallarico was the composer, and had decided to create music reminiscent of Italian opera, but also because the game itself was created here in Utah.

During the Metal Gear sequence, they had someone come out in black special forces gear. He had a device on his back that had an exclamation mark pop up over his head and light up. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of that. Well, almost everyone. I saw one older couple leave during the first act. Apparently, they were season ticket holders who did not approve.

Directly after the Metal Gear sequence, they had a volunteer come up from the audience and play a "Live" game of Space Invaders, with the orchestra playing some music for the game as he played. He wore a T-shirt with a ship on the back, which I guess tracked his movements. And he had a button to press to shoot the gun. While the game would have been really tricky for ANYBODY to play like that, he had apparently never played Space Invaders and had no clue how to play. Tallarico gave him the suggestion to shoot the ships on the end first, but this guy didn't get it. So he lost the game, but everyone seemed to have fun with it.

During the intermission, I once again proved I couldn't cross the lobby. As my wife and I were hunting for bathrooms, I ran into a couple of friends from work, and also ran into Mike Nielsen, who's doing the music for Frayed Knights. We ended up having a short meeting there in the lobby to work out his next versions of the music, and for me to mention a couple of things happening on the Frayed Knights front. I got back to my seat just before the second half began, but got to ask the older couple on the end how they were enjoying the concert. The man didn't reply, and the woman wiggled her hand in a "so-so"

The second act started with another "Live action" game - a competitive game of Frogger with the Orchestra playing a very souped-up version of the music from the game. Two kids were chosen to compete against each other on the big screen - with more traditional controls this time - and the younger kid nearly cleared the board.

Besides that, the second act had music from Kingdom Hearts, Warcraft (I watched another older couple leave after the footage of the Night Elf running half-naked through the forest), and the Mario themes. Then Martin Leung performed some piano solos again - this time doing his famous blindfolded Mario performance, followed by high-speed Mario music. The second half "concluded" with Tommy Tallarico on electric guitar with the orchestra and choir performing the music from Halo and Halo 3.

Tallarico and Jack Wall left the stage at that point, but the choir and orchestra hadn't moved, which made it pretty obvious we were in for a rock concert style encore. The older couple on the end of the row either didn't know this, or didn't care, because they beat a hasty exit. I guess all the sci-fi combat footage wore them out.

Jack and Tommy came back out, and Tommy asked "How about some music from Final Fantasy?" Everyone shouted their approval. "Which one?" he asked. Everyone shouted their favorite. I was shouting "Seven!" along with - I think - the majority. He said "How about Final Fantasy Seven?" Then he had everyone shout together the name of the song - it was obvious to every gamer in the audience (at least those who know the names of the musical themes from Final Fantasy). The entire concert hall shouted "ONE WINGED ANGEL!" With Tommy strutting around like a rock star adding electric guitar to the piece (hey, that was used in the variant theme from Advent Children so I rolled with it).

After that, Tommy said that it would be just too easy to end with One Winged Angel, since everyone was expecting it, so they concluded with music from Castlevania.

Afterwards, they were holding a "meet and greet" with local video game developers. I thought it would be more of an introduction with the dozens of game developers here in Utah, but mostly it was a set of tables for autographs from certain local developers, Tommy, Jack, Martin Leung, soloists from the show, the producers of Advent Rising, and a few other local developers. I noted that there were more game developers hanging out just outside the line to the "meet and greet" than actually there at the tables, so I chatted with Steve Taylor and a few other guys. And I bought a T-shirt.

Overall, the concert was awesome. We had a blast. Sure, there was plenty of cheese and silliness - but this is the video game industry, after all! We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I highly recommend going to the show if you find it playing nearby.

Labels: Biz, music

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