One of the benefits of working for Orchestra Hall (aside from being able to see the symphony’s normal concerts) is the ability to see concerts I may pass over otherwise. Such was the case with last Friday’s concert: Video Games Live. Both V and I had heard of this show; in fact, one of the teachers she student taught with was on a life mission to see this production before he died. So, knowing this concert was coming up, when comp tickets became available I asked V (last Thursday) if she might be interested in going. As we both were free, we decided it might be fun to check out what this show was all about.
The basic premise of this concert is that an orchestra plays music from video games. Think the beat-boxing flute guy playing the Super Mario Brothers theme, only with an entire orchestra. There was a large video screen informing us from which games these songs came from, occasional game inspired videos, and other visual delights to cater to the crowd. Near the end someone in a Halo costume ran out wielding a flag and ran across stage. Laser lights and other amusements were omnipresent and added to the overall production ‘event’ effect of the evening.
Here are some of the highlights:
At two points during the concert they invited audience member to come on stage and play video games. The first was a head-to-head battle of Frogger with the orchestra adjusting to what happened during game-play. The second was every Guitar Hero fanatic's dream: wielding the five-colored controller on stage in front of an audience of some two-thousand cheering fans while a full symphony orchestra is your back-up band.
The guest flaut-and-vocalist was the YouTube star Laura Intravia, also know by the tag-name Flute-Link. She had a nice voice, but far out-shined herself in her Link flute-playing skit and with her flute playing in general. Quite a talented young lady.
This is she performing in 2009.
The concert was emceed by its creator, Tommy Tallarico, a video game designer, music composer, et cetera, e tcetera, who came out brandishing his guitars and changing outfits (and showing off his Tron underwear) as the evening wore on. Pander was to be expected, but he showed off his instrumental skills dueting with the aforementioned Guitar Hero, as well as other songs throughout the night.
The conductor was a composer by the name of Wataru Hokoyama who has had quite a bit of success and composed an award winning score to the (unsuccessful) video game Afrika. John Mackey – another composer – wrote about how impressive Mr. Hokoyama’s ability to get a full orchestra to record the music to Afrika here. Hokoyama did a nice job leading the orchestra and keeping the evening moving along (as well as an element of ‘class’ical to the mix).
I’ve enumerated the non-musical elements of the concert, so now comes the question of how the show came off musically. Honestly, V and I left amused but indifferent. With few exceptions, we both felt more drawn to the visuals accompanying the music than to the music itself. In fact, the best piece of the evening in both of our opinions was the Tron segment. We both were drawn to what the orchestra was playing and found the visuals distracting. However, that music was taken from the original movie – music intended to move chronologically and not be part of a video game. When it came to the actual arrangements of the video game songs, they were almost always thick, blocky, and subservient to whatever was being projected on the screens.
Full disclosure: we are most decidedly not the type of people this concert was looking to attract. Withholding the ubiquitous cultural music of Super Mario Brothers and a small cash of other original Nintendo games, we rarely knew the origins of what they were playing, and the visuals and titles did little to clue us into this console world. The best way I can describe the target is in the final two songs of the evening. The last song performed with the orchestra was announced by its title and that it was from the Final Fantasy series. Upon hearing the title the crowd roared. Hearing the music, we were still clueless. Add to that the fan-inspired costumes and art on the screen – which I can only politely describe as risqué – made it clear who the target twentysomething videogameplaying male this concert was conceived for. The final encore (again, when announced) let to the audience erupting in blissful calls of ecstasy – what can only be described as a communal gamer orgasm. They sang along with tears of joy in their eyes while V and I smiled and enjoyed our venture into their world into ours. In the end this concert was for them, not for us, and to them, this was heaven.
The final encore of Video Games Live 2010 in Minneapolis.
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