(no subject)
A very cool thing happened on Tuesday. The Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert came to my town. My town! Everyone thinks of us as being in the middle of nowhere, but I guess we were /just/ big enough to catch their attention. I didn't think I'd ever actually get to go to one! 0-0
Where do I begin? Let's see...I went with my mom, who likes the music almost as much as I do. I'm the one who got her interested in it by playing it around the house so much, and she paid my ticket, so it was all good :D
We got there a bit early, and milled about the hall before it started. There were so many people...it felt like half the city had turned up - I even saw someone from my school. My mom had brought her camera (she's a newspaper reporter and never goes without it), so I snagged it and started taking pictures.
Some fellow concert goers. There was something about these guys that intrigued me, so I stopped and chatted for a bit. I asked them what games they'd played and they said "everything except the Wii games and Crisis Core". This intrigued me, because the guy on the left had a hairstyle that reminded me of reminded me of Genesis, including the layering in the back. I had thought at first he had planned it that way, but guess it was just a coincidence..o-o
Here's a Rinoa. Turns out, several other people had asked for her picture too...
My mom took this one, without the slightest clue who this woman was dressed as (Edea). She just thought the costume looked dramatic. I wish I had the confidence to pull this sort of thing off...
Here's a Yuna in Songstress form. You can't see it from this angle, but she had the long braid in back too.
The concert was beginning shortly, but I couldn't help stopping to examine merchandise..
I got a shirt! They only had guys shirts, though...I thought about buying the CD instead, but this was easier to show off (and I figured I probably own a lot of the songs on the CD anyway X )
Finally, we went in and found our seats. The place was packed - there was hardly any empty spots. We got relegated to the balcony; it might have been aways from the stage, but at least I didn't have to worry about tall peope sitting in front of me ; )
The orchestra and choirs filed in, the conductor, Arnie Roth, took the stage, and it began.
They started off with the dramatic opening of FFVIII. Despite having only a passing familiarity with the song, I found it really exciting and moving. On the screen flashed images of the opening cutscene.
And so it continued. I wish I could remember all the songs that were played; there were 15-20 in total. Aerith's Theme, Fisherman's Horizon, a jazzy Chocobo Medley (complete with dancing Chocobos onscreen), a suite of themes from the first three games (there was a murmur of amusement and nostalgia over the oldschool graphics) the Final Fantasy Main Theme. There was a theme from VIII that had in-game battle screens, and continued with the party running from some big mechanical spider. One from IX, featuring Zidane and Garnet and the ending cutscene...Is it a bad sign that I'm describing the pictures so much? XD
There were a couple songs that featured a guitar soloist. They did the opera scene from FFVI - I had forgotten how long that is. It was fun contrasting the big dramatic sound with the little sprites onscreen. There's a part in the opera scene where the player's party has to rush from their seats to the stage. Onscreen, the party got up, ran to the right side and through the down, down some stairs - which you'll realize, if you've played this part, is the wrong way. Sure enough, the group stopped, turned, went back up to the balcony, and then through the left door to the stage. If this had been the actual game, the timer probably would have run out....-.-
The "Distant Worlds" theme was based off something from FFXI, so I didn't recognize it, but it was really nice. A soloist joined the choir in a song that was both grandiose and haunting, while images on the screen displayed scenes from a terrible war. It was sad, but beautiful too.
As the concert was ending, who should come onto the stage but Nobuo-san himself!
I must admit, I was expecting someone a little taller...
Just kidding! ^^; Anyway, he gave a brief speech, and his whole manner was very humble and low-key - you'd never know he was so famous!
As it turned out, it had been his birthday a couple weeks before, so...
...we all sang to him.
Then, there was one last song - Terra's Theme. You know how in th beginning of FFVI, there's a looping animation of magitek armors moving through the snow while the credits scroll. Well, that was what was onscreen, only the game credits were replaced with the concert credits.
So, then it was over - only, not really. Because the choir came back on and the true last song started - a song that was the favorite of the conductor, me, my mom, and appearantly most of the audience. That's right, they played...
...One-Winged Angel. Even after hearing about them doing the same trick at another concert, there was still a faint nervousness that maybe they really were skipping it this time. But then it started, and the first chords were drowned by the applause. I really liked the video that went with it - it started with the original game Nibelheim cutscenes. Then, the part where the camera zooms in on Jenova in her case, it seamlessly switched to the AC version, and continued from there, mixing up lots of different AC scenes as it went. It ended with the AC version of Sephiroth walking into the flames, which then faded into the FFVII version, so the whole thing had a strange nostalgia to it.
Fun fact. The singer on the far right of the bottom row is Nobuo :)
I wore my shirt to school the next day, and got a couple comments from people who had been to the show and recognized it. One guy who had been on the side balcony had ended up sitting only a few seats behind Nobuo, and was only just able to supress the urge to jump up and hug him..
Now, if only they'd start adding songs from things like Advent Children...I want to hear the Promise Land live!