Gamers in the Wild

Last night, my husband and I went to the Kennedy Center to see Video Games Live, the game music concert. As I mentioned previously, Killa was unable to attend because of a work function. His history with the event is thus: He was all set to see VGL when they were touring in 2005, but they canceled their DC show (along with others) and so he didn't get to see it then. This time around, his place of business is in the middle of their busiest week of the year, so, again, he wasn't able to see it. He will have to live it vicariously through this blog post.

I feel obligated to briefly explain what Video Games Live is, because apparently this knowledge is not ubiquitous. Perhaps fifteen minutes before leaving for the show, my husband said to me: "So, is this going to be people on the stage playing video games, live? Or what?" VGL is a symphonic performance (in this case, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Master Chorale of Washington) of music from various video games, accompanied by video clips from the featured games and some onstage live performance. During the pre-show they held a cosplay contest in which a young man dressed as Link beat out a couple dressed as Mario and Peach cart-racers to win a Nintendo Wii. I imagine he then went home and played Twilight Princess on it in the most Escheresque example of meta-gaming imaginable.

The show itself featured a medley of classic arcade music and the music from Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, World of Warcraft, Halo, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Advent Rising, Final Fantasy, Medal of Honor, Civilization IV, God of War, Tron, and possibly others I can't remember offhand. Sid Meier himself came on stage to introduce the music from Civ IV and to announce (in what host Tommy Tallarico called a "Video Games Live exclusive") that the Civilization series would be coming to handhelds and consoles, which would have been exciting if I had not read it on Kotaku last week. Oh well.

The Metal Gear Solid segment featured a hilarious live-action skit with a man (ostensibly Snake) in the infamous cardboard box giving an armed guard the slip. My husband, having just finished God of War last week, was particularly impressed with that segment. And, even though I'm picking on Sid Meier, and though I haven't played any of his games, I thought the music from Civ IV was especially beautiful and moving.

The absolute highlight of the evening (for me) was Martin Leung, the Video Game Pianist, who made a guest appearance playing a solo piano rendition of his Final Fantasy medley. SquareEnix apparently won't let them show game footage from any of its games on the monitor during the show (boo? This was also a hindrance to the Kingdom Hearts segment, which featured footage from Disney movies only). Instead, the monitor showed Leung playing his piano for the duration, which was fine with me, as he's one of the most animated players I've ever seen. I was able to pick out "Zanarkand" from X, "Aerith's Theme" from VII, "Eyes on Me" from VIII, "One-Winged Angel" from VII, and, of course, the recurring victory fanfare and the crystal theme.

All in all, I suppose I would have liked to hear more music from Final Fantasy ("Liberi Fatali" or "Eyes on Me" are highly recognizable favorites); perhaps I should have just gone to see Dear Friends. The symphony played "One-Winged Angel" as their final encore, and the entire house went nuts. We had a wonderful time and would go again if the opportunity presents itself (hopefully, next time, with Killa and Poptart). I would encourage anyone to go see this show if you have the chance.