Video Games LIVE! Concert

[platinum_pinoy]

http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home

Anyone going to this? I just found out about this, but it conflicts with my schedule, so I am uber pissed.

For those who don't know, it is a symphony that does all video game music. Most famous songs come from the Final Fantasy franchise. I believe the last tour they had, Angela Aki was there and she sang FFXII song.

[Fuzzy_Snugs]

They came here to Columbia, Missouri. It was a great show, and my cousin won the Guitar Hero contest, and he hates Guitar Hero.

[Shin-Mech-Brian]

I went in early 2007. It was pretty cool hearing them play the HALO theme with a full orchestra. But I wish I had a glass bottle to thrown at Tommy Titorro or whatever the fuck his name is' head.

They had some really bad cosplayer up on stage too. Had I known I would have beat them down with my DMC3 Virgil.

[ben]

I'm going to this next week:

http://www.play-symphony.com/

Its pretty much the same concept as the Video Games Live tour, but without the cosplay contest and video game competition. I'd still rather see the official Square Enix touring concert series, Distant Worlds (http://www.ffdistantworlds.com/main.php) because I haven't even heard music from at least half of the games featured for the Play concert, but it should be fun nonetheless.

[TheSix]

I went to the very first tour in the beginning of 2006. Back when the GDC was in San Jose.

Excellent show if I do recall.

I'll be going to the one in San Fran since I'll actually be attending GDC this year(YAY!).

[valaris]

Going to this in february here in montreal.

And Ben, Im also going to see Distant World in Chicago the month after.

[ben]

Going to this in february here in montreal.

And Ben, Im also going to see Distant World in Chicago the month after.

lucky. the last squarenix tour a few years ago, Dear Friends, had a seattle date listed on ticketmaster, but it was ultimately cancelled and never came up here. Distnat Worlds seems like such an awesome concert. I picked up the CD, and its probably even a better song selection that Dear Friends was.

[sonicspear64]

Unfortunately, not until they're in Ohio again (which is never). I missed the first one a year ago that was in C-bus :sad:.

[Difoj]

Yea I am going to the Distant Worlds one on March 1st, I went to the first concert they did in Chicago, Dear Friends, the music of Final Fantasy, and that shit rocked out, I was in the 2nd row back then, it got crazy when Nobuo Uematsu walked in and when he went on stage to direct...I think it was One Winged Angel everyone was standing, it was awesome :rock:

[DeathReaper47]

Mario™
Zelda®
Halo®
Final Fantasy®
Warcraft®
StarCraft® II
Sonic™
Metal Gear Solid®
Kingdom Hearts
Chrono Cross™
Myst®
Tron
Castlevania®
Metroid®
Medal of Honor™
God of War™
BioShock™
Civilization IV
Tomb Raider®
Beyond Good & Evil™
Advent Rising
EverQuest® II
Monkey Island
Earthworm Jim
Pac-Man
Conan
Guitar Hero™
Headhunter
Splinter Cell®
Ghost Recon™
Rainbow Six®
Jade Empire
Contra
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix™

Whoa.

[Septimus Prime]

I went in 2006. The audience ruins the show.

[valaris]

I went in 2006. The audience ruins the show.

How so?

[Septimus Prime]

It's an orchestral concert, but the audience is full of young, drunken, loud, mostly casual gamers. Half the time, they were louder than the music.

[Vegett0]

It's an orchestral concert, but the audience is full of young, drunken, loud, mostly casual gamers. Half the time, they were louder than the music.

That is why I've wondered if any of these groups ever released a CD of their versions of the songs. It would be nice to hear these songs as clean as they can make them.

I see Distant Worlds has one but what about VGL and Play Symphony?

[Gasaraki]

It's an orchestral concert, but the audience is full of young, drunken, loud, mostly casual gamers. Half the time, they were louder than the music.

Damn that really sucks because I can imagine how awesome this would be with a crowd that actually went to LISTEN.

[ezekial45]

I went to the very first tour in the beginning of 2006. Back when the GDC was in San Jose.

Excellent show if I do recall.

I'll be going to the one in San Fran since I'll actually be attending GDC this year(YAY!).

I'll be there too. GDC is a lot of fun.

Is anyone else going?

[Septimus Prime]

Oh yeah. I was able to tell the crowd was mostly casual because they whooped their lungs out and then quieted down during the Halo theme but continued to be obnoxious, rude assholes for every other song.

[SkyeElemental]

As tight as the concert sounds, I refuse to support anything that has to do with Tommy Tallarico.

Seriously, that dude is that big of a douche.

[TheSix]

What's so bad about Tommy?

I never understood people's problems with him. They definitely aren't personal. He seemed pretty cool whenever we talked.

Was it his game reviews?

[platinum_pinoy]

What's so bad about Tommy?

I never understood people's problems with him. They definitely aren't personal. He seemed pretty cool whenever we talked.

Was it his game reviews?

I think its because the exposure I had of him made him look like a fucking tool. When I watched all those G4 episodes that he hosted, I thought, "Man, this guy is a douchebag". Who knows what he's really like. I thought Adam Sessler was a poseur, but then I listened to him outside of scripts and found him to be quite a hardcore gamer with a good opinion.

[TheSix]

Hmm. Well during my time on the G4 forums(ugh), no one ever could pinpoint why they think he is a douchebag outside of his opinions on the show. Which is retarded.

When I met him, he seemed very sensible and passionate about the industry.

[BunnyHead]

hmmm maybe if they played some mega man or street fighter songs I'd go

I like those games bg listed
...but I think I will sleep through the concert

[ytwojay]

I went a couple years ago, it was pretty rad.

[Vegett0]

It seems that there will be a VGL Greatest Hits CD coming out in March. They are also working on a DVD that is planned to release in the summer.

[Scissorman]

Saw it in detroit, wasn't that special.

[BEWD]

Probably won't be able to attend either one of these this year, though from the sounds of it, I might just get the VG Live CD instead of going to the concert, as the idiocy is something I can do without. I might try to make it to the FF one in Chicago though.

[woof]

could have sworn you were talking about this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZMsv5SoDyo

[mr. newbie]

snip

Whoa.


i wish they'd play some older arcade and console stuff. i'm talkin thunder force 4, batrider, street fighter, strider or something.

conan, PAC MAN!? gtfo

then again, i'll go if richard jacques is gonna be there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOLTL7Gvq3U&feature=related

[DragonSama]

The concert in Houston was on my birthday and I didn't even know about it. That is until my wife surprised me with tickets for it when I got home from work that day.

Hearing music from Kingdom hearts, Final Fantasy, the Legend of Zelda, Halo, Metal Gear and Jade Empire live with a full orchestra was un fucking believable. it was a great concert and I plan on going again when/if they come back here.

Also Square is starting a US tour again called distant worlds.

http://www.ffdistantworlds.com/main.php

I saw the Dear friends concert and it was great so this is another one to check out if it rolls by you.

[Nokato]

If Cynthia Harrell was there...I think I'm like the only person who liked the Snake Eater song, the fact that she performed the song wit the engrish lyrics was awesome to me, lol. Although not as good--she did an end theme for Castlevania game, Symphony of the Night (I'm The Wind) that was pretty good too.

[BEWD]

The concert in Houston was on my birthday and I didn't even know about it. That is until my wife surprised me with tickets for it when I got home from work that day.

Hearing music from Kingdom hearts, Final Fantasy, the Legend of Zelda, Halo, Metal Gear and Jade Empire live with a full orchestra was un fucking believable. it was a great concert and I plan on going again when/if they come back here.

Also Square is starting a US tour again called distant worlds.

http://www.ffdistantworlds.com/main.php

I saw the Dear friends concert and it was great so this is another one to check out if it rolls by you.

DragonSama, how was the audience? Silent? manageable?

[AzN_Skater]

Has anyone seen this show? I had the pleasure of attending it this past weekend, and all I have to say is that is was amazing. Definitely check it out if you have the chance, it's a pretty high energy show. And if you've already seen it in past years, you should still go, there plenty of surprises. I don't want to spoil anything though because there were a couple surprise games that made it on the set list.

CHECK IT OUT IF YOU GET THE CHANCE, YOU WON'T REGRET IT! *caps for emphasis, heh*.

I'll definitely be going back next year.

[ElderGOD]

Got any links or something.

Never heard of it.

I don't have a TV and I'm ignorant though.


I hope Marvel is on the show.

[AzN_Skater]

Got any links or something.

Never heard of it.

I don't have a TV and I'm ignorant though.


I hope Marvel is on the show.

http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home

The premise is a live orchestra plays the music from various gaming franchises. There's an added light show as well as clips of whatever game is being played on a big screen.

I'm not really into orchestral music, but this is something I can relate to, so it was really cool. I didn't know what to expect and I was really surprised at how awesome it was.

[ben]

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=147654&

[AzN_Skater]

Holy crap, here comes my neg bomb.

My bad.

[TheSix]

Nah, it's all good.

I was gonna go to the one this weekend. But I just don't want to spend the money.

I went in 2006. Sure it's changed since then.

Maybe later in the year.

[bokchoy]

Has anyone seen this show? I had the pleasure of attending it this past weekend, and all I have to say is that is was amazing. Definitely check it out if you have the chance, it's a pretty high energy show. And if you've already seen it in past years, you should still go, there plenty of surprises. I don't want to spoil anything though because there were a couple surprise games that made it on the set list.

CHECK IT OUT IF YOU GET THE CHANCE, YOU WON'T REGRET IT! *caps for emphasis, heh*.

I'll definitely be going back next year.

YSomeone did not use the search function. I've reported this post. The moderators will not be pleased.

[BEWD]

^Eat a dick and jump off a cliff, guy made an honest mistake.

AZN, How was the crowd? That was listed as one of the Cons in the old thread, where they obnoxious?

[f_man]

going to the one in SF this Friday.

for those of you going to the masonic auditorium as well, from past experience hear me out.

that place is SMALL for an auditorium and carries really good acoustics. definitely look forward to it. unfortunately i got my tickets too late so instead of a good floor seat i have a balcony seat.

http://www.masonicauditorium.com/images/auditorium3.jpg

anyone that went, how was the preshow stuff? debating on whether or not its worth it to come super early to play guitar hero.

[ben]

wasn't trying to get anyone in trouble, just wanted to point out that there was already a couple pages of discussion on the topic... sorry!

anyway, I wrote this on another forum about the Play! (http://www.play-symphony.com/) concert I went to last month.

concert was last night and it was all kinds of win. they didn't play songs from every game on the list, which was something of a mixed blessing. it turned out that only a few games I didn't care too much about came up and the majority of the concert was stuff I loved hearing... but there were still some games I would have loved to hear music from, Castlevania in particular. standard orchaestra setup on stage with conductor in front with a podium and microphone to acknowledge the audience and a choir behind the orchaestra. there was a large screen above the stage that showed either clips from the games or close-ups of the symphony or choir.

the concert went like this:

- a short original piece composed by Nobuo Uematsu to start the show.
- a medley from various mario games: awesome!
- Liberi Fatali from FFVIII: a neat song, but I always likened it to a lesser One-Winged Angel, which they were playing later anyway.
- a medley from Shenmue: never played the series, but the music seemed nice.
- Battlefield 1942 medley: it was ok, but the game footage on the big screen was a good distraction I guess.
- a medley from Sonic the Hedgehog: could have been so much better. they played the title theme, first stage and second stage themes from 1, then some stuff I didn't know from later games. they should have played casino zone!
- FFVII - Aeris's theme: the one thing I don't hate about FFVII is the music. I kind of got my hopes up when this song started because most of Uematsu's love themes from FF games have reoccurring motifs and can be easily confused for others within the first few bars. I thought it was FFIV's "theme of love" but I digress... this song was still really nice to hear was a high point of the night.
- Metal Gear Solid Theme: this was awesome. it wasn't quite the MGS2 patriotic version I wanted to hear, but it was still moving to hear live. accompanied by footage from MGS2/3/4
- Kingdom Hearts - Simple and Clean/Hikari + Sanctuary/Passion medley: this was really well done. I was confused when the program listed Hikaru Utada as the composer for simply "Kingdom Hearts," but it made much more sense when the song started.

intermission: bathroom line was long. I picked up the needlessly expensive More Friends CD in the lobby.

it turns out that the composer for the music in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is in attendence so the first song back is...
- Oblvion medley: neat visuals I guess? couldn't get into it.
- CHRONO TRIGGER/CROSS MEDLEY: the definite high point of the night with my friends and I. they played the chrono trigger theme, then into "scars of time" from chrono cross... oh man, this is one of my favorite songs ever (video game or not). in fact... listen to it! then they weren't even done yet and played frog's theme and one other track I can't remember right now. this was too epic.
- World of Warcraft medley: I was too hyped about the last song I don't remember this at all. they should have played "live to win" by paul stanley.
- Swing de Chocobo! this was a fun little bit. one of the shorter songs of the night. one of my favorite chocobo songs.
- Halo medley: I guess the Halo composer is a Seattle local as he was in attendance. the main theme with choir is pretty neat.
- Guild Wars medley: didn't care for it. neat visuals.
- Zelda medley: mostly from legend of zelda, link to the past and ocarina. really well done, but like many things, could have been so much more.
- unknown Silent Hill 2 song: never played it, but it was the only song of the night featuring an electric guitar.
- FFVII - One-Winged Angel: its been done to death, but it was still great to hear live. not as good as the Black Mages version (which is the definitive version of this song IMHO).

no encore.

overall awesome concert. I still want to go Distant Worlds if the tour comes up my way.

[valaris]

Went to the Montreal one a few weeks ago, we were commented for having the best choir/vocals.

[AzN_Skater]

Well, looks like everyone is giving recaps of the show, so I might as well do that too.

I got there at about 7:30 pm and the show started at 8 pm, so we sat around for a bit taking in the atmosphere. A lot of casual gamers, so you can imagine what it's like. Since I'm from Edmonton, a large portion of the crowd was made up of BioWare employees (me included =D). We were in the center section about 19 rows back (Row S). It was a really good spot, not too close so we had to stress our necks to see anything, but close enough that we didn't have to squint.

The night started off with a music video that used some live action pacman (can't remember the song or band name though haha). After than, Jack Wall came out and the show got underway.

1) Classic Medley - Played a whole ton of music from classic like Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Elevator action. Pretty neat, though I thought it was just okay.

2) Metal Gear Solid - Really good start, everybody knows and loves the MGS music, so it was an instant hit. During the show, they had a guy dressed up as a terrorist come on stage and he mimic'd the motions that would happen in game. He even had an attachment to his back where he pulled on something and a light up ! would appear above his head, it was pretty cool. Also, following behind the terrorist was a moving cardboard box, which was hilarious. The box ended up sitting on stage for the next set.

2a) Tommy Tallarico comes out next to have a little blurb about VGL and what the vision was and also to introduce the next set.

3) Sonic - Personally, I didn't think too much about this set since Sonic isn't particularly known for the music. Enjoyable, but not memorable.

3a) Tommy comes out again and talks a bit more, and than he unveils who is under the box from the MGS set: It was Martin Leung, the guy that did the SMB3 theme blindfolded and put the vid on youtube.

4) Final Fantasy - Martin put together and plays a 10 song medley for the entire series of games. Really cool, tons of classics in the set list. Really enjoyable even for non FF fans.

I sorta lose track of the order from here till the end, so I'll just write down what I remember:

Jade Empire - Didn't care too much for it since I hadn't finished the game.

Zelda - Awesome set, Link games always have amazing music. They did everything from the first

Legend of Zelda up to Twilight Princess. Definitely enjoyed the Ocarina of time bit the most.
Mario Brothers - Martin comes out again and plays the SMB3 theme blindfolded. That guy is amazing. He than takes off the blindfold and finishes his set of Mario Bros Medley that he put together. Very sweet.

Mass Effect - I loved this set, so much. The debuted the ME music at this show, so everyone was totally stoked. They had a short interview with Casey Hudson, the project manager for ME and they explained where the inspiration for the music comes from. The also got a local group (I think they were called The Fonts) to play the end credit music, which was awesome.

Metroid (!) - I had no idea they would be doing a Metroid set and when I heard it, I was so stoked for sure. Metroid is by far my fav, so this was such a treat.

Halo - This was near the end of the night and everyone was cheering when the choir broke out into the intro of this. The energy was just awesome, and some of the best choir work I've ever heard. Definitely sent chills down my spine, so great. The broke the set up into Halo 1+2, and than when you though it was over, they busted down Halo 3. The crowd was so pumped up.

There were other things like Outrun, but I didn't care much for these ones so I don't really have a comment on them.

After Halo, they came back out and did an encore and it was One Winged Angel. Pretty good, but not very surprising. What WAS surprising is that after OWA, they went into a Castlevania Medley and that just rocked. My second favorite set of the night, second on to Metroid.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing show and I would definitely go again given the chance.

[Difoj]

Just got back from the Distant Worlds concert, pretty good, but way too much VIII music, I think there was a total of 12 songs played and 4 were from VIII :shake: Good to hear 2 songs from part VI, the Opera, which rocked the hall and Terra's theme, which also rocked the hall.

[valaris]

Just got back from the Distant Worlds concert, pretty good, but way too much VIII music, I think there was a total of 12 songs played and 4 were from VIII :shake: Good to hear 2 songs from part VI, the Opera, which rocked the hall and Terra's theme, which also rocked the hall.

I agree. The Opera was simply amazing and Terra's theme was a really nice surprise. I didn't give a shit abotu One Winged Angel if Terra's theme was there.