The Sunday Geekery: Video Games Live! with the NC Symphony

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Video Games Live! with the NC Symphony  and Concert Singers of Cary at Meymandi Concert Hall. I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this show! I occasionally attend the NC Symphony's classical performances and it was such a treat to see them with an audience that has never golf clapped and throws in a few hoots and hollers. Playing your face off at this show is met with an audience pop rather than silence and I love it.

This is the second time I've seen this show. A few years back, we caught it with the Richmond Symphony. My awful memory has erased all but the drive up there - so I'm writing it down this time. This is something I surely don't want to forget! To help keep you interested, we're going to play a little game. I've embedded some random sounds from the video games that appeared during the show in one way or another throughout the post, see how many you can name!

The Show
These folks know there audience! They certainly touch all the things we love right from the goofy 'while you wait' videos all the way though to iconic gaming screenshots. One thing that I found rather amusing is in my own behavior. They would show games being played on screen while the symphony/chorus belted out some amazing sounds. Like a gamer, I found my eyes falling on screen way too often! No worries - I corrected it whenever I caught it!

Here are sounds 1 & 2. Can you name them?
1.
2.
 
The show was a full 2.5 hours and started with the iconic pong - blip, blip, boop, blip. The creator of the show, Tommy Tallarico does a nice job of coming out and talking to the audience between some of the performances.  Some of it is a little heavy handed audience popping, but fun none the less. He definitely treats us like fans and doesn't hold our hands too much. He really looks like he's having fun with it and it's neat to watch him become part of the show in the second half.  In addition to Tommy, there's also a few nice little adds like on stage live smash brothers and guitar hero and amusing on screen game mashups.

Here are sounds 3 & 4:
3.
4.

The show was jammed packed, I can't possibly detail it all, but I can tell you a very few of my favorite moments.

The Classics: Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, Tetris
My friends, you have no lived until a full symphony plays Super Mario Brothers music for you. It's really something to behold and almost makes me feel a little disrespectful humming it at my sewing machine all the time! I know that I'm stupid nostalgically attached to some of these old games, but I was not prepared for the bon-a-fide emotional response to the Zelda soundtrack. My chest actually tightened y'all. I realized just how connected I feel to it when they showed a version this screenshot:

I was instantly annoyed and frustrated! I remember liking this game, but dang, it had it's frustrating moments! For tetris, they did a really cool operatic like version with Laura Intravia. I had long suspected that the Tetris music was far richer than the game suggested and was pleasantly surprised with the performance.

Here are sounds 5 & 6:
5.
6.

World of Warcraft
I'm sure we all have things to say about WOW and its shortcomings; however, you absolutely have to agree that the sounds aren't one of them. I'm a late bloomer for WOW, so I didnt know the particular piece as well as I do mario and zelda, but it was something to behold none the less. For this one, I closed my eyes and just listened. It was so big.The voices and the symphony mixing together and telling a story of escalation and war without having to look at a single stoopid night (or blood) elf. I was all in for this one. Kudos to Blizzard and the performers!

Sounds 7 & 8:
7.
8.


Halo
True Confession: I've not played a single second of Halo. I dont even know that I've ever seen it played. I just dont care too much for shooters so it never really appealed to me. Another true confession, somewhere in the middle of the performance of Halo music, I suddenly had a strong desire to strap on some virtual armor and blow some shit up. I absolutely appreciated and enjoyed the effect of the music even if I didnt actually know it.

Last two! Sounds 9 & 10:
9.
10.

In addition, they played music from Final Fantasy 7, Kingdom Hearts, Crono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country, Sonic, Street Fighter II, Contra, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Skyrim, and lots of key classic arcade games.

If ever anywhere near one of these performances - go! Even if you don't care so much about games. It's really a unique show with lots of audience interaction. They do a nice job of balancing the super big, sometimes heavy (warcraft, FF7) with the fun and nostalgic. It is an amazing way to experience gaming without ever touching a controller. As an added bonus, it is really cool to see 12 year old kids totally digging on the symphony and being exposed to how big some of these pieces really are. I suspect at least one kid in the audience really learned something and may have a new perspective on just how much goes into the sound of the gaming experience.

Spoiler Alert! Answers to the sound game are:
Sound1: Yoshi Mount
Sound2: Pac Man Death
Sound3: Duck Hunt Dog Laugh
Sound4: Warcraft READY!
Sound5: Donkey Kong Jump
Sound6: Zelda Secret
Sound7: Frogger
Sound8: FF5 Chocobo Mambo
Sound9: Street Fighter Hadouken
Sound10: Portal