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slightly off-topic: Saw "Video Games Live" on 27th in NJPAC

Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-01-05 22:02

For those who aren't familiar with it, it was the idea of two video game composers. The schedule concerts wherever the request is great enough, and they enlist local professional musicians and choirs to play arrangements of video game music through the ages. The idea is to basically excite the gamers (me!) by presenting recognizeable and famous video game music in a professional setting along with some interactive bits and timed video. It also shows the non-gamers (my girlfriend!), how video game music has progressed from the beeps and bonks of the earliest game systems to much more sophisticated music developed to truly draw the gamer, or any audience, into the experience. It was conducted by one video game composer of 12 years (if I remember correctly) and hosted by a video game composer of 18 years.

In this case it was in New Jersey Pacific Arts Center (NJPAC) featuring the NJSO, and a choir (hehehe . . . that's the clarinetist in me that chose not to remember which one . . . sorry singers!)

It was very good. They played selections from Halo, World of Warcraft, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, and others. I'll write a little bit of the interesting segments here.

There were two interactive segments in our show. A person was chosen to stand on stage and wear a shirt that had a picture of a spaceship on the back. He then was "tracked" by some sort of imagery (or perhaps some guy in the back) which moved the spaceship from "space invaders" left on right on the screen while he ran left and right on stage trying to avoid enemy fire and kill aliens. If he killed them in the time allotted, he would have won a prize (he lost). And the NJSO was playing the theme to space invaders in the background, including the spaceship sounds when one would cross the screen.

Second interactive segment was a person playing "Guitar Hero" (pre-selected as a winner of a competition held earlier before the show). They played Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotions" with the screen while the video game composer who was hosting played along on an electric guitar, the NJSO played, and a member of the choir sang the song. If he scored above 180,000 points on "hard" he won a prize. He said he wanted to challenge himself and asked to play it on expert. And after some good-natured ribbing from the host, proceeded to crush the 180,000 mark by 40,000 points.

It was a great concert, with video game footage and lights played in time to the orchestra, a little bit of acting, and a lot of hardcore video game fans (some in costume just for the fun of it!) shouting and clapping and watching/listening in eagerness. Lots of "I can't believe they got that in there" and "I remember that part!" and "Wow! That's awesome" being heard in the background (ahem . . . well, maybe others heard ME saying it anyway . . . )

There were two pieces that stuck most in my mind. One was the theme to Metroid. They led up to it by stating that it was the single most requested song by fans of the show last year so they made an arrangement for this year. And it began very simply with the original nintendo sound and theme (remember those 8bit days?!), and suddenly swelling into the full sound that now is featured on it's latest iterations.

The other was a simple theme to "Mario". Not because it is probably one of the most recognizeable themes in video game history (probably right behind tetris!), but because they brought a young man on stage to play it on the piano. Blindfolded. Turns out that a young man named Martin Leung had caught a lot of youngsters by surprise by having a video aired on youtube and ebaumsworld of himself playing the mario brothers theme blindfolded. After looking him up (hehehe) I find he's a classically trained pianist who was a prizewinner in the Oberlin International Piano Competition, has soloed in carnegie hall at the age of 16 with the New York Youth Orchestra Festival, and has performed on NPRs "From the Top" accompanied by the Pittsburgh Symphony. And here I was thinking he just could play "Mario Brothers". He did a few piano solos throughout the night and was very well received. And I'm sure he's happy combining two things he loves (video games and music, not necessarily in the order I'm sure) and performing around the world.

Well, all in all it was a great night. From the light hearted classics such as Pac-Man and Frogger, to the intensive sounds of Gears of War and Final Fantasy, there was something there everyone (even my girlfriend!), could enjoy. As a matter of fact, she enjoyed it so much she said she would not object to going again in a year or two.

Definitely something to keep an eye out. Not your normal everyday concert. They stressed it was to be a fun, interactive, family experience. None of the "be quiet, they're still playing! Dont clap until they're done!" that might be expected at a more formal event. You liked what the orchestra was doing? Clap. Shout. Hoot and holler. Something funny come up on the screen? Laugh. It's ok.

Check it out! Might be fun and a good way to connect with the Generation Y.

Alexi

US Army Japan Band

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