Video Games Live: Part 1

A little while ago, myself and a few friends attended a concert just thirty minutes away. This wasn't just any standard old concert, however...this was an event called Video Games Live. If you haven't heard of it, VGL is a show in which an orchestra plays various pieces of video game music. Some of these pieces are from very popular games, while others are lesser-known compositions. Either way, each movement is very well done and professionally performed, but with much less seriousness than you would expect from a usual orchestra. The audience is encouraged to cheer and clap whenever they hear or see something that they appreciate, and overall it's a very lighthearted show that's just fun to watch. I bought tickets for myself and my friends a good while ago, and it was awesome to finally get to go to the concert in April.

I'll give a quick breakdown of the layout of the show as we experienced it. I think some of my recollection might be out of order, but to my knowledge I haven't outright forgotten any piece:

The very first performance was composed mainly of music from classic, old school video games. The first thing that's shown to you by way of a screen behind the orchestra is Pong, with its signature bleeping noises whenever the ball struck a wall or paddle. The orchestra eventually chimed in and began to play along with this music, and very soon it evolved into more. Pong was replaced with Space Invaders, and then other classic games such as Defender, Joust, Centipede and Sinistar...at the same time, the orchestra would alter their performance to match the music for each game on display. Many games were shown here...others include Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Contra, and Tetris, but perhaps the best part was the classic theme from Ghosts N' Goblins, played for a longer time than the other games in this compilation while clips of Arthur running around and destroying zombies in his underpants played in the background. This was the case for every game...as each music was played, so too were scenes from the game that the music was from. This made the performance not only fun to listen to, but fun to watch as well.

After a brief introduction by the creator, detailing why he created Video Games Live among other details, the show was ready to continue. What better way to get people amped up for the rest of the show than to play some high energy Megaman tunes from the classic NES games? Fucking amazing...Megaman 2 and 3's themes were played, as well as stage themes such as the first Wily's Fortress theme from MM2. Overall it was a really powerful piece that sounded amazing with the combination of not only an orchestra, but the creator himself shredding an electric guitar.

After Megaman, there was a segment based on Assassin's Creed 2. I haven't personally played AC2 yet, as I found the first one underwhelming and didn't continue playing the series afterward. However, this part of the show was pretty cool. The screen behind the orchestra displayed a cutscene from AC2 where an assassination occurs at some form of night-time masquerade. The orchestra themselves played the music that originally accompanies the cutscene in real time, as the scene happens. Although not my favourite part of the show, it was definitely a really neat idea that turned out well.

A good example of what the stage setup looks like.

More newer-age games followed, with performances of musical pieces from God of War 3 and Civilization 4. The GoW 3 piece seemed like a compilation of many of the themes from the game, but again, this is a series that I really haven't put much time into. That being said, hearing the music really made me want to play through the games, if only to hear the themes that had been presented to me at VGL. Civilization 4's piece was a rendition of the Grammy-winning musical composition from the game, which was really cool to hear. I'd heard mention of it before, but to hear it in its entirety was a nice experience, especially to see why it was chosen to win a Grammy award. The melody was very diverse, and featured vocals in a few different languages which was a very cool thing to hear...it certainly sounded like something from a movie soundtrack.

Next up was an "interactive" performance of Frogger. In this part of the show, two audience members were called up on stage to play 1 minute and 30 seconds of Frogger each. During each player's game, the orchestra altered its music depending on what happened on the screen. It started off with the standard Frogger theme, and each time a Frogger had gotten across the river and into a goal, the orchestra would play the same theme but with more elements to it, making it sound more and more epic as a playthrough continued. If a Frogger was killed, they played the death and game over themes as well. The player that managed to get the most points walked away with a brand spankin' new PlayStation 3, as well as some other goodies. It just so happened that the guy that lost had his birthday that day, so he still got a bag with some stuff in it...not a PS3 though. This part of the show was cool, and I imagine the timing for the orchestra would be tricky when it came to playing the death noises spontaneously whenever a player was killed. Also a really fun portion to get the audience cheering and laughing with the players!

Have you ever seen that video on YouTube where a guy plays music from various Super Mario Bros. games with a blindfold on? Well, that's who they brought out next...apparently after becoming a well-liked YouTube success, Video Games Live scooped this guy up and incorporated him into their show. However, it wasn't Mario Bros. tunes that he was playing in this case...but rather a Final Fantasy medley with parts incorporated from 11 different pieces of music over the span of the series. I recognized tunes from Final Fantasy 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, and they were all very beautifully done. This man's skill on the piano is friggin' ridiculous, and seeing his hands travel from one side of the piano to the other in mere seconds without missing a SINGLE note was a sight to behold. Snatching him up was probably one of the best moves that VGL could have done, and everybody loved his performance. Later in the show he came back out, but I'll cover that later on!

Metal Gear Solid...of COURSE it had to have some part in this show! After all, the MGS games have a nearly unparalleled video and audio presentation, so finding good tracks to play along with an epic song should be a cinch. In this case, the choice was Snake Eater from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I'm not the biggest fan of this particular track in the series, but to see it performed live by an orchestra and with an extremely talented vocalist singing the lyrics changed my whole perspective on it. The musical composition itself draws heavily from classic Bond themes from the days of Sean Connery and Roger Moore's portrayals of the spy, and overall it was a top-notch rendition of the theme of MGS3. I couldn't believe how cool it sounded, and it just made me want to go back and play the series again.

Sorry! I flauted!

The Legend of Zelda is another series that just had to have some form of representation in such a performance as this, and rather than the orchestra itself performing this section, a flautist (flute-player) emerged that was dressed in Link's garb and had a fake Navi attached to her head. She "battled" with Navi in some sort of a dueling flute competition, where the flute lines performed by Navi were actually recordings of the girl herself that had been replayed. In between these, she would play popular Zelda themes live herself in response to the fake Navi playing them. Standout tunes included the standard Legend of Zelda Overworld theme, Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time, and Tal Tal Heights from Link's Awakening...among others. At the end, the performer did what many, many gamers have longed to do...ripped Navi out of the air and booted her across the ground after defeating her in flute battle. I found that this was one of the most enjoyable parts of the show...not only was the source material dear to the hearts of almost every gamer in the auditorium, but it was also presented in an incredibly impressive and fun way that really made the audience react. Plus flutes are awesome, and if you don't think so, then Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull will come and kick your ass into next Tuesday.

Intermission...the show was only half over, and my ass hurt from leaning forward on my seat for 75% of the performance. During intermission, you could go out into the lobby and play Guitar Hero or Marvel vs. Capcom 3...I didn't do either, as the lobby was crammed full of people by the time I got there, but I bought an album of VGL's previous performance list and went back in to wait for the show to start. While the orchestra prepared, the screen behind them was playing quick clips of TONS of video games...popular ones, obscure ones, weird ones. It was cool to see all of these and say "Ohhh! I remember that! OH AND THAT ONE!" It was a fun way to split the two halves of the show up.

That's only the half of it, keep in mind! I'll have the rest of my recollection of Video Games Live up within the next few days, as well as some information on small skits in between the music pieces and my overall thoughts on the show as a whole!