Video Games Live: Making Game Music More Awesome
While I frequently mention how I like video games at this blog, I don't talk often talk about video game music specifically. The short version is: I like it a lot. When I first tried using P2P clients, the initial thing I searched for was music from Metroid. When I first discovered OverClocked ReMix, I went crazy downloading songs. Heck, many of their compilation albums pretty much live on my iPod. I bring this up because I just saw Video Games Live, an experience that almost totally legitimizes my obsession.
For those unfamiliar with Video Games Live, it is a concert series created by video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall to help spread and educate people about the wonders of video game music. Translation: Jack conducts an actual symphony orchestra into playing video game music, while Tommy Tallarico rocks out on his electric guitar. More on that later.
This is actually the second Video Games Live concert I've had the pleasure of seeing. The first was a couple years ago at the Kennedy Center, and while it was good, this one blew it away.
I will freely admit that this was in part due to the selection of music at this concert. The last one featured selections from Call of Duty, Myst, Advent Rising, which were all good in their own right. The problem is that the allure of seeing video game music live is directly proportional to your familiarity with the chosen video games, and I wasn't really at all familiar with those games.
This concert, was another matter entirely. This time they covered music from Chrono Trigger/Cross, the highlight of this being a cover of Time's Scar, with Jack Wall stepping off the conductor's platform to duel guitars with Tommy Tallarico. Their piano soloist, Martin Leung, did a short piece for Super Mario Bros., blindfolded! Oh, and their final encore was a giant rock tribute to Castlevania. My personal favorite though, was a when they did a segment for the Metroid series (which I'm sure comes as a surprises to no one everyone).
In addition to all the great video game music, there were also a couple other cool happenings at the show. The first is they did a little tribute to Ralph Baer, the man responsible for creating the home video game industry (he also created Simon, which means he effectively created rhythm games). Unfortunately, the skype connection they used to talk with him was pretty bad, so it was hard to actually hear him. They did show a vintage video of him demonstrating his a original Ping-Pong game, which makes Pong look like a game for sissies.
The other cool event was a Guitar Hero contest, where the winner from the pre-concert tournament came up on stage to play "Sweet Emotion" for a high-grade laptop. Now, you may be wondering why the hell should you care about some guy playing Guitar Hero at an actual concert? The reason is because the actual song was played by the orchestra, with Tommy Tallarico playing the actual guitar part. It gets even better though: the terms of the challenge was to get 200,000 points on hard. However, the guy simple shook his head at that and asked to turn it up to expert.
To his credit, the guy managed to do it, crushing the goal by racking up over 300,000 points, which included a 600 note combo and 99% of the notes by the end. There might be better scores out there in the Internet, but at least this guy can brag that he actually got something for being good at Guitar Hero. The most hilarious part of the whole thing is that as he got his monstrous combo, he actually unlocked an achievement for whose ever XBox they were actually using for the event.
All of this lead to a greater feeling of energy at this performance that I don't remember seeing last time. It might also help that this performance was in the open air of Wolf Trap, and that the night was blessedly free of Virginia humidity. I will even give them a pass on playing "One-Winged Angel," because they were so over the top about it. We're talking the main screen switching to a camera pointed at Jack Wall, which he slowly lowers his face to, while still conducting. We're talking Tommy Tallrico rocking out on a Spider-Man electric guitar, and getting into a head banging contest with a cello player. And since Square-Enix won't let them use footage of their games, they instead they used a slideshow of FF7 cosplayers (good ones too, fortunately) with a couple pics of odd fan art just to throw you off guard.
I don't think it could have gotten any more over the top without having a choreographed duel between a Cloud and Sephiroth cosplayer, and even then you'd need to replace their swords with chainsaws. Laser chainsaws even. Why hasn't someone done this already?
In any case, if you spend an almost unhealthy amount of time listening to video game music, then you should see Video Games Live.
For those unfamiliar with Video Games Live, it is a concert series created by video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall to help spread and educate people about the wonders of video game music. Translation: Jack conducts an actual symphony orchestra into playing video game music, while Tommy Tallarico rocks out on his electric guitar. More on that later.
This is actually the second Video Games Live concert I've had the pleasure of seeing. The first was a couple years ago at the Kennedy Center, and while it was good, this one blew it away.
I will freely admit that this was in part due to the selection of music at this concert. The last one featured selections from Call of Duty, Myst, Advent Rising, which were all good in their own right. The problem is that the allure of seeing video game music live is directly proportional to your familiarity with the chosen video games, and I wasn't really at all familiar with those games.
This concert, was another matter entirely. This time they covered music from Chrono Trigger/Cross, the highlight of this being a cover of Time's Scar, with Jack Wall stepping off the conductor's platform to duel guitars with Tommy Tallarico. Their piano soloist, Martin Leung, did a short piece for Super Mario Bros., blindfolded! Oh, and their final encore was a giant rock tribute to Castlevania. My personal favorite though, was a when they did a segment for the Metroid series (which I'm sure comes as a surprises to no one everyone).
In addition to all the great video game music, there were also a couple other cool happenings at the show. The first is they did a little tribute to Ralph Baer, the man responsible for creating the home video game industry (he also created Simon, which means he effectively created rhythm games). Unfortunately, the skype connection they used to talk with him was pretty bad, so it was hard to actually hear him. They did show a vintage video of him demonstrating his a original Ping-Pong game, which makes Pong look like a game for sissies.
The other cool event was a Guitar Hero contest, where the winner from the pre-concert tournament came up on stage to play "Sweet Emotion" for a high-grade laptop. Now, you may be wondering why the hell should you care about some guy playing Guitar Hero at an actual concert? The reason is because the actual song was played by the orchestra, with Tommy Tallarico playing the actual guitar part. It gets even better though: the terms of the challenge was to get 200,000 points on hard. However, the guy simple shook his head at that and asked to turn it up to expert.
To his credit, the guy managed to do it, crushing the goal by racking up over 300,000 points, which included a 600 note combo and 99% of the notes by the end. There might be better scores out there in the Internet, but at least this guy can brag that he actually got something for being good at Guitar Hero. The most hilarious part of the whole thing is that as he got his monstrous combo, he actually unlocked an achievement for whose ever XBox they were actually using for the event.
All of this lead to a greater feeling of energy at this performance that I don't remember seeing last time. It might also help that this performance was in the open air of Wolf Trap, and that the night was blessedly free of Virginia humidity. I will even give them a pass on playing "One-Winged Angel," because they were so over the top about it. We're talking the main screen switching to a camera pointed at Jack Wall, which he slowly lowers his face to, while still conducting. We're talking Tommy Tallrico rocking out on a Spider-Man electric guitar, and getting into a head banging contest with a cello player. And since Square-Enix won't let them use footage of their games, they instead they used a slideshow of FF7 cosplayers (good ones too, fortunately) with a couple pics of odd fan art just to throw you off guard.
I don't think it could have gotten any more over the top without having a choreographed duel between a Cloud and Sephiroth cosplayer, and even then you'd need to replace their swords with chainsaws. Laser chainsaws even. Why hasn't someone done this already?
In any case, if you spend an almost unhealthy amount of time listening to video game music, then you should see Video Games Live.