Video Games Live, Totally Worth It
January 26, 2009 1:03 am Gaming
Video Games Live was awesome. If you haven’t heard of VGL, a live choir and orchestra plays live music from tons of video games, old and new. Up behind the orchestra is a huge screen where videos and images are projected throughout the performance.
A little history. VGL started in LA with the first performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005, played to a crowd of 11,000. However, the guys running the show had some problems and were canceled. The second show was to go on and was to be played in Seattle. The Seattle show in 2005 rocked and proved VGL could be successful at smaller venues. VGL bounced back and every year since they’ve put on more and more shows. The guys running VGL have a special place in their heart for Seattle and it shows.
VGL took place in the Paramount theater, which was packed. We ended up getting really good seats near the front were totally worth it at about $65 a pop. The show started out with a costume judging contest (the WoW guy should have won, not the half baked Final Fantasy costume, but whatever) then went into a little musical game history. The orchestra played Pong, which transitioned into Asteroids, which transitioned into Space Invaders, and so on. As the games being showed on the screen behind the orchestra progressed, the music changed along with it. Eventually it got up in the 8-bit era and beyond It was really inspiring to see how far games have come after all this time.
After the intro, the conductor, Jack Wall introduces the host, Tommy Tallarico. They’ve both created and have run the show since it’s inception. They also have worked on games in the past and their passion for games really shows. Later in the show, Tommy ends up busting out an electric guitar and playing Castlevania while the orchestra plays on… so awesome. These guys are legit.
Some really great scores were played at VGL, including the main theme from Civilization IV, Baba Yetu, one of the all time best songs in any game, ever. For some reason listening to that song makes me emotional listening to it, I think because it fits so perfectly with the plight of humanity and works so well as a Civ IV theme. I couldn’t believe how awesome it was hearing it live with a full orchestra and choir. The Halo 3 stuff ruled as well. There was an eight or so year old kid two rows up from us and watching him jump around and get so excited when the “dun dun dun DUN, dun dun dun DUUUN” part of the Halo theme started playing made my night. There was also a fully dressed up Master Chief that came out onto stage after the Halo music played and the kid went nuts.
Many other pieces were played from other games as well, including Final Fantasy (I could have done without the FF, but the kids love it), Metroid (the first time Metroid had ever been played), Kingdom Hearts, Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid 4, Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, God of War and more.
The show was pretty interactive as well. Two contest winners came up on stage for prizes. One guy had to beat a score on some song in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. An older lady had to play a version of Space Invaders where she was the firing platform and had to move around on stage to avoid getting hit. There were some other solos and guest appearances too, such as Martin O’Donnel and Michael Salvatori introducing the Halo music in person and a guy known as the Video Game Pianist, (whose fame comes from over 40 million YouTube downloads) who was simply amazing. Even Gabe Newell from Valve was in the crowd the night we went.
This isn’t your typical orchestral experiences. Tommy encourages people to yell and scream when they see or hear stuff they like. What an amazing experience! VGL really makes you appreciate how creative and unique game music really is and how far it has come. If you love games and especially game music, you should definitely go see this show if it’s in your town. You won’t be disappointed.