OMG!!!!!!

You guys should have been there!!!!!

I just came back form Cary, North Carolina. I just saw Play! and it was awesome! For those of you that don't know, Play! A Video Game Symphony is a show thats been going around for a few years. They take a symphony orchestra and play songs from VGs past and present. Pretty self explanatory. While they are playing, there is a huge screen over them that shows clips from the games the song comes from and show the orchestra as well. They also had a choir group

I went with my mom (more on that later). We drove there for a total of 764 miles round trip. A lot of different people showed up. Some were dressed in fancy clothes and clapping quietly after every song while drinking wine brought to them by servers. Looked like they just had season tickets or something and were there for no other reason or were there because of curiosity as to what kind of music it would be. We, the gamers/fans were dressed like we would normally dress. I was wearing a Raccoon Mario shirt I bought the last month, sitting next to some group of goth-lookin teens screaming our asses off at every bit awesome.

Anyways...

The concert was at the Kota Booth Amphitheater, an open air venue located in a state park. I lucked out cuz I read reviews and watched some vids on Youtube about it and was expecting a 2hr show. what we got instead was a 3 1/2hr show! It turns out that they been wanting to refresh the music selections. So they tried it out with us. BONUS!!!!

Anyways...

They played music form all genre of games. They open up with the: Play! Opening Fanfare. This is a song that was written exclusively for the concert series by none other than Nobuo Uematsu! He is the main song writer for Square and has written several Final Fantasy songs.

Next was the theme song from Super Mario Bros. (WHOOP!) and they also played the underworld and Bowser Boss battle song. It ended with the Star Power and Flagpole Level Complete song. Castlevania was next. Never got a chance to play the games or listen to the music… now I have to. Silent Hill was creepy as hell. They played “Theme of Laura” and some area music *shiver*

The next set was the Commodoro 64 Medley, various from the Sims series which was surprising at how musical that those games really are. BTW I should mention that the conductor for the night was Andy Brick. He has written several songs for Sims2, Disney, and others. We also listen to music from Battlefield 2 and Guild Wars.

Unfortunately, or not, it started to rain. At first some sprinkles, then to bucketfuls just hitting the ground causing several people to scatter and head home. Most unfortunate. Fortunately for many, these were the ones that bought expensive tickets or were season ticket holders. The funny thing was that all this happen in about 2mins time. The ones that stayed were mainly gamers/fans and moved up to the better, now vacant space. Thankfully I insisted to my mom that we get there early to get good seating. We were dead center and about 15ft from the stage, under some awning. We here dry and at an ideal audio location After that, it got epic…

The Legend of Zelda Music was awesome!!!! Everything from the original theme to Minda’s theme was just a huge bowl of awesome! Kingdom Hearts shit! Sonic the Hedgehog! The music form Sonic, I did not expect. They played from green hill zone to Boss Battle, from Sonic Riders and … and… Can you even imagine what it sounds like to hear a 20+ professional choir start sings “sonic boom, SONIC boom, SONIC BOOM!!!”

BRAWL!!!! FINAL DESTINALTION!!! OMG!!!1!

Metal Gear Solid!!!! “Snake Eater”, “Encounter” and what is without a doubt what made this concert a total Win before it was even half way through…
The crowd, us, singing along with the choir to “Call Into the Night”.

Chrono Cross/Trigger, World of Warcraft, Shadow of Colossus, Black, Elder Scrolls Actraiser, Punchout, …OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The concert ended. And for the encore… we were treated to one last, full blast song. Now I know, we either love it or hate it. I personally love it. It is hard to explain. We have all heard it and we all react to it differently to it. But you can not deny that the song is epic. From the opening violins, to the flutes, and the chanting. Its just a good song. But you’d have to be there when it is played by a full symphony orchestra supported by electric and bass guitars, and the choir as they played “One Winged Angel”

They whoop our ass!!!!

Now about my mom.
I ended taking her with me since no one else could, or wanted to, come with me. She asked me what I was listening to when she walked by my door while I was watching the concert vids one day and I explained. She asked me that if no one would go, if she could go with me instead. I said sure. The problem with that is that this is the woman who raised me and she always hated when I would play games. She always would say that it was a waste of time and that there is no skill or future in VGs. She always said that to me, my friends, and now to her nieces and nephews. So you can all under stand why I was apprehensive to take her but I already said yes. Besides, as long as she doesn’t bug me during the concert or after, she can believe what ever she likes. I also needed to spend more quality time with her so what better way than to let her see a small sample of my childhood or adulthood for that matter.

On the way home, she was really quite. She saw a lot at the concert. She looked at the folks that were nicely dressed with approval but looked at me and the other gamers with some concern. When it rained, she thought that everybody was going to leave. We (the gamers) did not. In fact we loved every second. Finally my mom asked me if that was normal for “us”. I told her yes and that we also come form a wide range of careers. I reminded her I personally was trying to be a chef. After a while… she apologized to me about what she has been saying all my life and that she was amazed at the level of quality and skill required to create the music. She finally understood that VGs were not a total waste of time. (they are but I was not about to point that out )

So yeah! Had a blast and my mom now knows. And knowing is half the battle!

There is another VG symphony concert coming up in August. Video Games Live. I’m going. The question is… are you?