Video Games Live: The Concert

Oy gevalt! Where to begin?

I'll try to take it chronologically, just to stay sane. But first, have some bare bones context.

Video Games Live is a concert of video game music. The performance I attended was Friday, March 9th, 2007. It was held at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco. And it followed directly on the heels of the Game Developers Conference. And, it being San Francisco, I got somewhat lost on the way. But that's also partly because Google mistook Nob Hill Masonic Center for Masonic Avenue, and I didn't double check it's work.

Regardless, I arrived on time. Actually, I arrived really early. The web site said there would be a pre-show meet and greet from 7-8, but there wasn't. On the plus side, I got to thank Robert Khoo for all the hard work he puts in on PAX, which I hope to attend again this year.

The show proper kicked off with a montage of arcade game history. From the stacatto clarinet hits of pong through the symphonic arrangement of Donkey Kong, they covered games from 1970 through 1988. There were a couple games I didn't recognize, but by and large it was a great trip down memory lane.

I don't remember all the games and all the songs we heard, so I'll just tell you the parts that stood out.

Tommy introduced Hideo Kojima. The fans were breathless. Were we going to see Kojima and Kondo on the same night!? No. Kojima was pre-recorded. They played the theme to MGS2 while scenes from all the MGS games played on the screen and a guy dressed up as a guard wandered around. He had a rig on his back to pop an exclamation point up over his head. The crowd enjoyed it. Also we had "Snake" in a cardboard box sneaking around. The box stayed on stage through the whole next number, after which Tommy Tallarico popped out. Props to the man in the box. :)

And serious props to the orchestra. I downloaded an mp3 of that song back in the day and listened to it on a loop at work. Their performance sounded exactly the same. I had to remind myself to keep looking at the orchestra just to let the feeling of live performance settle in. In some ways I would have preferred not having the video screen to look at.

Speaking of the video screen, Square Enix sucks. They have the most rabid fanbase going by cosplay accounting. But they won't let VGL use any of their footage. In most cases VGL was only using footage from the attract mode of these games anyway. It's not like it would be any work on Sqeenix's part. I mean Disney coughed up scads of footage for the Kingdom Hearts song. Is Sqeenix more worried about its IP than Disney? Not bloody likely.

At one point Tommy introduced Koji Kondo. The crowd went nuts, but then Koji came up on the screen. Fear. Disbelief. But luckily they stopped the clip and brought Koji out. He announced the Zelda montage and walked off. That was pretty disappointing, but we hadn't seen the last of him yet.

Also in the first half of the show we had a costume contest (The guy with the acrobatics won, though I would have liked to have been able to vote for Serious Sam and was happy to see Kain and his Soul Reaver onstage.) and a game of space invaders where Kain moved back and forth while somebody in the booth kinda sorta moved the ship in response to his movements.

At some point (I think it was in the first act), Vertexguy (Chris Kline) came out and played the jungle theme from Contra while an NES Contra montage played in the background. It was fun. There was much throwing up of horns, even by the characters onscreen at one point. There was also a good deal of yelling. I think that's partly because Vertexguy had friends in the audience and partly because gamers are an... interactive bunch. I enjoy that about us, but I'm not sure it sends the right impression to the straights. Oh well.

Another segment who's location in the show I'm not sure of was a song from Medal of Honor. It was accompanied by newsreel footage from WWII. After Zelda and Donkey Kong, it seemed a little too real.

The intermission is awesome. There's a loading screen to let you know how long it will be. :)

Just before the second act, a small dream of mine came true. Shigeru Miyamoto and a small group who I can only assume were Nintendo folk came in and sat across the aisle. It was fabulous to be able to look over once in a while and see him laughing and smiling. I knew I wouldn't have a chance to speak to him afterwards. He wouldn't want to take the spotlight from Koji. And that's exactly how it went down. Class. Act. :)

We saw a clip of Yuji Naka and heard the end credit medly from Sonic 1, while scenes from most of the Sonic games were displayed. Yes, even Sonic Spinball.

We got to have a nice focus on the choir with a performance of the Civ IV theme song. I think the male lead fell off the pace a bit during his solo, but it was still great to hear.

The World of Warcraft theme also gave the choir some work and was accompanied by Blizzard's immaculate cinematics.

We had a number from Tallarico's own Advent Rising. I'll have to check that game out. It looks like one of those where the gameplay doesn't match the production values, but the production values (story, music, and acting) are super nifty.

Martin Leung dazzled us throughout the second half. I hope he gets some money for the ridiculous amount of time he puts into his work. I mean, the guy freaking played the death sound from Pac-Man... ON A PIANO! And I got to shake that hand. How cool is that?

Koji played some piano too. He's not a virtuoso like Martin, but it was heartwarming to watch him play, and his downtempo jazz versions of the Mario tunes were nice.

For the encore the orchestra played some Halo music. I loved the opening choir section and watching the cellists dig into to the main theme.

For the finale we heard One-Winged Angel for the second time. (Martin Leung also played it as part of a Final Fantasy montage.) The volume was way too low, especially on the guitars. I was ten rows back and I could hear Tallarico's string noise, but not his actual notes.

Tech glitch aside, it was a fabulous concert, and I felt priveleged to attend it. I'm a cheap bastard (and a CAG), but I felt the ticket was worth every nickel.