Video Games Live
By mesklinite 3 Comments
Yesterday I had the chance to check out this show for the first time ever! I've always had other things planned on the days the concert would be in the cities near me. But this year, I was in montreal and I got my tickets!
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What I had in mind was an orchestra playing video game music. This sounds awesome.
Tommy Tallarico was the host for the show. The conductor, Emmanuel Fratianni, directed the musicians very, especially for only having spent 3 hours with them!
Martin Leung and Laura “Flute Link” Intravia were 2 of the musicians that travel from show to show with Tommy. The orchestra and choir were from montreal (I guess traveling with a whole orchestra and choir would cost a lot of money).
The show started with a set of songs showcasing some old games (pong, centipeed, asteroids, missile command, etc...). The music was great! What I didn't expect was the fact that Tommy plays the electric guitar. There continued to medleys of various games; Castlevania, MegaMan (one of my favorites from 2 to 7 if y memory serves me right).
Every now and then they had Daneboe's short video skits like Contra VS Duck Hunt:
Another segment they had, one which was really cool, featured Laura Intravia. They took trailers (the first from Assassin's creed and then God of War 3) and had the orchestra play the music for the trailers with the sound effects still there. Laura Intravia was very good when singing the parts of God of War. Here's a clip from a different show:
The music I wanted to hear the most were Final Fantasy music and Chrono trigger music from nobuo uematsu. It didn't take too long that Tommy was talking about a guy who became an internet sensation because he could play a medley of mario songs on the piano blind folded. Calling Martin Leung to the stage he got him to play a series of Final Fantasy songs solo on the piano.
They had a frogger competition with 2 of the attendees with the symphony playing the music live. Afterwards, before the intermission they played the halo them song. Tommy did a pretty good job on the guitar. There were tons of booths to play Xbox/PlayStation/Nintento products at. Too many people to get to really see anything. So we went back to our seats. They raffled a 3ds, ps3 and kinect. And continued on with the show.
They played the award winning Civ 4 music theme with the original lead singer. It was epic, I never heard the music before.
Laura “Flute Link” Intravia had a small skit which explains her middle name, Flute Link. IT was really cool and we finally got to listen to some Zelda Music. They brought back Martin to play his mario songs blind folded. Amazing feat. His hands would be blurry if you looked at them. That's how fast he was playing. The show quickly came to an end with a final fantasy song. One Winged Angel. It was pretty damn epic. The encore was my favorite part of the show! Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross Medley. The show then wrapped up with a piece of cake, but it was a lie. Everyone was singing, it was awesome.
What annoyed me the most about the show: People cheering when they heard a song they liked. Well, you can't not cheer, but as you've seen in the videos above, it can overshadow some of the music. In montreal, we're really loud. So it was annoying, for me, though I did it too sometimes.
Definitely go see the show if you have the chance! Well worth the money!