Video Games Live (Dayton) 2019: A Review

A week ago today I attended Video Games Live in Dayton, Ohio at the beautiful Schuster Center.  This is the fourth video game music concert I've attended, and I took notes in order to blog a review of the event, as I have already with the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour, The Symphony of the Goddesses, and A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy.  There were many aspects that I was prepared for having seen a DVD of this, portions of which I typically show when teaching Video Game Music class: a costume contest and gaming out in the lobby before the show began.  Merchandise (recordings, posters, hats, and shirts) was being sold at tables before the show, during intermission, and after; beer, wine, and other drinks were allowed in the theater during the show.  The audience was pretty young, I'd guess mainly ranging from teens through 40s-50s, many seeming close to my age.  

I walked in to the theatre right at the end of the costume contest.

The lights were a much more pronounced part of this program than the other game music concerts I've been to.  While I was expecting multimedia, like game footage and perhaps interviews with composers, there were aspects, for instance, cute mid-concert videos of spoofs like Sonic vs Pac Man and Frogger vs Grand Theft Auto, a video showing the Top 10 worst Voice Acting moments in Video Games, and some humorous/risqué Worst Video Game Titles, that had not been part of a game music concert I'd attended before.  Between the lighting design and the fog machine, the concert has a stronger rock and roll feel than the other three concerts I'd attended.  Another example of this was when giant, blowup Pokeballs were tossed into the audience for people to hit around during the final number.  (And they let people who ended up with the balls keep them!).

I had just settled into my seat here right before the start of the show and snapped a picture before we had to turn off recording devices.

One of my favorite aspects of the show was the hosting by Tommy Tallarico.  What a personality!  He acted as MC and occasionally played along on his guitar during certain numbers, perhaps three or four in the night.  He had a good rapport with the audience, able to respond very well to comments and also educated us meanwhile, providing a history of the concerts and an explanation of why he created VGL.  His goal was to "usher in a new audience to enjoy music at the symphony."  The concerts started in 2005 in the Hollywood Bowl with the first ever concert having 11,000 in attendance.  Now VGL is the longest running video game symphonic show, with this concert being number 494.  I enjoyed his costume changes throughout the show and also noted his wearing an Amico shirt for some Intellivison promotion.  So many details were so well done; for instance, the screen before the encores was a continue screen from a video game with a countdown-- genius!  The orchestra and choir sounded great, although knowing that VGL uses pre-recorded music to augment the live sound, I did wonder how much of what was heard from the audience was live playing versus a pre-existing mix.  Honestly, this was one of my favorite of the game concerts I've been to.  What worked so well in some ways was that there could be Mario, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Trigger, Undertale, etc-- a huge variety of music and game styles that a one franchise concert can't encompass.  But it wouldn't be fair for me to not mention my critiques, too.

One of the main detractors for me about the show was that occasionally, the metronome track that the orchestra was playing to was audible in the audience.  Granted, I was not so many rows back from the front, and I doubt that many people were even aware of this, but it was obvious to me particularly in transitions that went from very loud to suddenly soft.  The only other thing I disliked was when TT mocked the classical concert atmosphere, of people shushing each other for making any sound, even opening a cough drop.  It's great that he presents an explanation of the expected decorum for this concert as one where audience reaction/interaction is desired, and while I think there's plenty that classical music needs to adjust about their concerts, there's simply nothing gained by putting down another genre.  Conductor Emmanuel Fratiani told personal anecdotes about Jason Hayes, to make the point of the composers being alive and relatable, which was great, but again this was held as "unlike classical composers who are all dead."  I agree totally with the sentiment and get it, but would prefer if it were presented as: "wouldn't it be great if we could call up Beethoven?-- but we can with video game composers."  A small, semantic criticism, but one that's important to me.  The only other slight criticism I have is regarding the Kingdom Hearts segment, during which original Disney footage of the characters is shown instead of footage from a Kingdom Hearts game.  For me, this just didn't make sense-- I wanted to see the video game footage!  And while Tommy explained that this was "his idea, something special that he proposed to Disney," I couldn't help but wonder how much of this brainstormed proposal was out of necessity because the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra probably has the rights to show KH gameplay footage in concert, and square won't give it to Video Games Live.  That said, I think the nostalgia factor of this kind of thing wins over the audience and most folks didn't even think about it.

As explained by Tommy Tallarico, VGL has created over 140 segments (in individual greetings after the show, he said 190 segements-- I'd be curious to know which number is more accurate) and because they use social media to allow the audience to choose some of the pieces that are played, "no two VGL concerts are the same."  He said there are about 18-19 segments per evening, and this was true for this night, which had 17 pieces including two encores.  When you consider that there's a choir and an orchestra, in this case TT said 140 musicians were onstage, that's an impressive night of music making!  This particular night is going to be featured in an upcoming Netflix documentary, so I was glad to have been at this event.  Maybe I'll have a cameo in the audience sitting there, taking notes for this review.  The program for this historic night:

Castlevania
Metroid
Mass Effect
Phoenix Wright
World of Warcraft
Overwatch
Metal Gear Solid
Earthworm Jim

Kingdom Hearts
Undertale
Super Mario Bros
Skyrim
Okami HD
Chrono Trigger
Pokemon

Encores:
Halo
Final Fantasy VII: One Winged Angel

I hung around late into the evening because my former student Andrew Lipian was working with "the Merch" and it took a while to close out the sales.  This gave me a good amount of time to meet and chat a bit with both Tommy and Emmanuel and grab a picture with them.  Awesome that they're willing to speak to so many who attend!

All in all, Video Games Live was my favorite of the video game concerts I've attended.  I think the broad nature of the concert and variety of artistic and musical styles that are possible just makes for a more diverse and interesting program.  If you can catch VGL on this year's tour, or in the future, I recommend it whole-heartedly!

Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour 2018 (Detroit): A Review

Saturday July 14, 2018, Vince and I attended the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. As I have historically done when attending game music performances, I wanted to write a review of the concert while the event is still fresh in my mind.  And while I’m tougher on these events than most fans, I’m also more fair than the reviewers who immediately disdain these performances because they aren’t Beethoven.  Before I go further, here’s my usual caveat that I’m not the normal concert goer for this kind of event.  The audience for these events seems to average even younger in age than I am, and many seem to be inexperienced with attending a concert with classical origins like this.  I’m a professor of music with a doctorate in performance.  This was the third game music concert I’ve attended, and if you’re interested, you can read my other reviews of A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy and Symphony of the Goddess, both of which I’ve attended in the last couple of years in Southeast Michigan. 

This KH Orchestra shared many of the same features as the other game music performances I’ve seen: a young and enthusiastic audience that many classical or jazz concerts would kill for (an usher told us the concert was 80% presold), attendees in costumes— though notably few compared to the other game music concerts I’ve seen— with elaborate hairstyles, tee shirts, and game memorabilia in hand, particularly keyblades. Drinks and snacks were allowed into the venue; I saw numerous beers in adult sippy cups as we watched the performance.  And, of course, there was the largest, snaking line ever to get to merchandise, "merch" to this crowd, before the show, at intermission, and after.  In fact, the show start was held for at least 10 minutes, no doubt to allow as many patrons as possible to make their purchases. 

One difference between this and the other game music concerts I’ve seen stood out immediately: the orchestra was not onstage warming up.  Instead, they walked out at 8:10, tuned, and began the concert promptly. The pianist walked out with the conductor for a solo bow, similar to how Benyamin Nuss was featured at A New World, though the piano never played a solo number at this event. But Simomura’s writing often features piano and oboe, so I was glad to see the pianist receive recognition.  I did think the pianist was quite expressive and one of the best players in the orchestra. (As a side note, considering how much piano is featured in this music, the piano could’ve been tuned much better, especially in the upper register.) Both the pianist and conductor put their earpieces in to hear the click track and the concert began.  

There was no printed program, and especially disappointing, no list of performing musicians, but pieces were announced on the projection screen as they began.  The program from the evening follows: 

Hikari Orchestral Version

Dearly Beloved KH 2 Version

Destati 

Organization XIII

Traverse Town

Treasured Memories

The World of Kingdom Hearts (medley)

-Spoken cutscene-

Fate of the Unknown

Threats of the Land: Battle Medley

(45 minutes)

Intermission (20 minutes)

Heroes and Heroines: Characters’ Medley

Lazy Afternoons... at dusk I will think of you 

Vector to the Heavens 

Wave of Darkness

Daybreak Town: The Heart of X

-Spoken cutscene-

The Other Promise

Let Darkness Assemble: Final Boss Medley

Passion - Kingdom Hearts Orchestra Version

(50 minutes)

Encores:

Toy Story Medley from Kingdom Hearts III

Fantasia Alla Marcia for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra (credits)

(10 minutes)

There were also some differences in this game music concert and the others I’ve been to. The most notable was that there was no speaking from stage, no MC to address the audience. An audience member beside us said she’d seen the concert in New York last year and that Yoko Shimomura came on stage and thanked people for attending and supporting her music. I didn’t expect that to happen in Detroit, but hoped for some spoken interaction from someone involved in the project, even a video message as Koji Kondo had in Symphony of the Goddess.  While I did appreciate the focus solely on the music, as Vince said when we were leaving, this made the event feel “cold.” It feels unusual to me for a concert these days to have no speaking to the audience, and I, too, felt the disconnect Vince referenced. Aside from two cutscenes with Japanese dialogue and English subtitles, there was no speaking at this event.  There were no lighting changes and the projection was always of scenes from the game, rather than ever focusing a live camera on the orchestra members and highlighting them on the big screen.  The micing was also very subtle and I never noticed that there were any sound effects from the game used.  

Another difference is that unlike the Video Games Live or Symphony of the Goddess model, where the creative team travels and “rents” a local orchestra to play the event, the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra is a touring group of musicians that travels playing together regularly. I thought this would lead to a better rehearsed sound and more passionate playing, but that wasn’t the case, at least not tonight. The brass was especially weak, missing notes often in the battle themes where they should’ve been the most climatic.  The choir was also very out of tune, particularly in Fate of the Unknown, and the micing of the choir was very off at the beginning of the concert, giving an unsuspecting tenor a near solo. While the conductor was commanding in his physical presence, the tempi in medleys took a while to settle from section to section, and the balance issues— drums often too loud throughout, cellos too soft at times when they had the melody— were never addressed. Of course, there’s a mixing team working live in the event, so the players onstage may be unaware of the sound in the auditorium; in this case those amplifying the sound should know better what to raise and lower. Aside from crouching down for some soft moments, since there was no addressing the audience, and only bows at the end of the first and second acts, Vince wondered why the concert had a conductor at all instead of just a click track; in essence, he was a metronome. The arrangements were either short themes or extended medleys; the former felt too abrupt and the latter dragged on at times. 

We were told by audience members beside us that the Traverse Town selection was a new addition to the concert from what they’d seen last year in New York. I knew as well to expect music from Kingdom Hearts III, and was incredibly disappointed that the footage was just edited down from the same D23 clip released a year ago.  My understanding was that one of the unique things about the Kingdom Hearts concert versus the Distant Worlds or Video Games Live! concerts is that there would be new music premiered from the upcoming game.  How disappointing then to see the same scene I’d already watched several times on social media promos in a shortened version for this “premiere” clip!

Overall, Vince and I enjoyed the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour the least of the game concerts we’ve attended. I can partially chalk this up from his viewpoint to his unfamiliarity with the music; KH is a series I’ve played extensively and he’s only watched part of my playthroughs. But honestly, the lack of dialogue with the audience was a big part of our feeling this way too. Also many of the arrangements felt simplistic and didn’t seem to have the same emotional range that the Symphony of the Goddess concert did. That said, most people don’t have the viewpoint I’m coming from and aren’t listening and expecting the same sound my critical ear is. And bringing in a new audience to an event like this is great outreach, even if only a small portion attend another concert.  If you follow any internet comments about this event, the fans loved this evening. So my bottom line is as usual: if you’re a fan of the series and its music, check out the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra when it comes to a place near you. 

The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra: Review

Last night my partner and I had front row seats for the DSO's sold out performance of The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses.  This morning while it's still fresh on my mind, I wanted to write a review of the concert.  I've mentioned before that I find reviews of these types of game audio concerts lacking.  If they are covered, reviewers either have extreme disdain for the music being performed in the first place, or else they are super game enthusiast fans who love anything that has to do with that game franchise and often don't know much about music.  I suppose I'm somewhere in between.  It was only my second time in the DSO audience; most visits, I've been onstage performing as part of the pre-concert music.  The other time I attended a concert here, I was seeing Kathleen Battle perform Previn's Honey and Rue, and that was at least a decade ago.

The first thing I was struck by even as I entered the hall was the audience; most classical concerts can only wish for the diversity of patron that this concert had.  The audience was primarily young, I'd guess many close to my age or under, though there were also some blue hairs to be seen as well.  I saw folks of so many ethnicities and races as well; being from a mixed household, that kind of feeling walking into a concert is so uplifting for me.  And of course, folks were in costumes: I saw a few Kokiri outfits, a couple Zeldas, and even a King of Hyrule.  The audience enthusiasm was visible even just entering the hall.  Once inside, crowds overwhelmed tables with various Zelda merchandise.  (I bought a piano collection for some research I'm working on.)  I don't know how the DSO usually handles drinks in the concert hall, but I saw a number of audience members with beers and mixed drinks during the concert, so the atmosphere was definitely relaxed.  When you can sit in your chair and have a drink as you listen to the orchestra, that's my kind of concert!

The program consisted of the following movements, and this was given out as a printed page:

Overture 2017
Majora's Mask Medley
Breath of the Wild
Prelude
Ocarina of Time
The Wind Waker

Intermission

Temple of Time Intermezzo
The Twilight Princess
Time of the Falling Rain
Ballad of the Windfish
Gordon City Medley

The first half was about 50 minutes, intermission around 20, and I was walking out the door of the concert hall at 9:24, so the whole event was just less than an hour.

My favorite movement by far was the Time of the Falling Rain arrangement, which was a medley from A Link to the Past.  The LttP music ended with the credit music from the game-- something I show in my Video Game Music class most semesters-- and that connection was really powerful for me.  This was one of the best arrangements in the evening and acted as a natural end piece to the concert before two printed "encores."  The Goron City Medley at the end of the program really showcased the brass sections of the orchestra and the players gave all the character that the trombone and tuba can have as they play these themes.  Really awesome and the whole orchestra sounded great at parts like this!  I also very much enjoyed the Breath of the Wild material from early in the show.  I think that arrangement may have been literally from the game.  Although BotW was too short of a movement, perhaps to avoid spoilers?, I think that going forward actually playing direct music from cutscenes in games may be a better way to go than so many of these arrangements.  The arrangements depend so much on the quality of the orchestration and the skill of the arranger in stitching together various themes or making a theme have a different feel than one might expect.  That simply doesn't always translate well.  Now that game audio can be fully orchestrated, there's no substitute for hearing the original audio in much the same way as a film concert.

The conductor was Kelly Corcoran, who is based out of Nashville.  She is a regular conductor of these Symphony of the Goddesses performances and has numerous upcoming dates around the country in the next months.  It was a cool connection to read in her bio that she studied with Leonard Slatkin, currently the conductor of the DSO.  One of my favorite moments of the concert was when she held up -- to cheers and laughter from the audience --  and then conducted with the Windwaker before The Wind Waker movement in the program (although she held it quite awkwardly high, not by the base).  That said, I did wonder exactly what the purpose of the conductor for an event like this is.  Several members of the orchestra had ear pieces, so if everyone is trying to play to the click track, what does the conductor do?  Yes, perhaps someone needs to cue the various entrances of the orchestra, certainly the choir needed babying in tonight's performance.  However, Ms. Corcoran never indicated a musical phrase or shape, always beating very precisely in time and there was never an adjustment to the balance; there were several cases, between the percussion and the wind sections, whether through the arrangement or the overdone amplification of the orchestra, where the melodic theme was buried.  Furthermore, Ms. Corcoran would often grab her earpiece during the loud climatic sections, in what struck me as an homage to Mariah Carey, as she tried to hear how the tempo of the click track was changing.  Whether the audience is aware of it or not, there's nothing less satisfying than seeing a conductor freeze and bend over slightly, pressing an earpiece into her ear during a climatic musical moment instead of standing straight and embodying the sound confidently.  I wish that these concerts were able to tie the multimedia projections to the music instead of slavishly asking the musicians to sync themselves so metronomically to the visuals.  Isn't that the point?: a concert of this type should be a celebration of the audio over the visual.  

By far, the weakest part of the concert was The Community Chorus of Detroit.  They seemed unfamiliar with the music, under rehearsed, musically uncertain, and had terrible intonation and tone.  Think about where chorus is used in game audio: an epic boss battle, an ancient legend unfolding - something that takes the moment over the top.  Now imagine that chorus to be so weak that it actually feels anti-climatic.  Not pleasant.  Vince and I broke out in laughter a few times at the chorus singing.   Disappointing.

These concerts have a lot of things going for them:

• Lighting changes - for instance, blue during Wind Waker and green during Breath of the Wild
• Multimedia projections of game footage and the orchestra members playing live 
• Short spoken statements from the creators of the games and music 
• Incorporation of prerecorded sounds and sound effects.  

Now, I don't need these things to feel engaged at a concert, but I do appreciate how game audio lends itself quite naturally to a multimedia updating of the traditional symphony concert.  I liked very much being able to see into wind and brass sections of the orchestra from the camera shots.  But for everything there is a flip side, and hearing the piccolo struggle through the Zelda good morning cue is painful enough, much less to watch the player projected on the big screen in a delay.  I do often feel though that the orchestra players aren't fully into the music and there's a lack of excitement at concerts like this.  I think part of that is the arrangements/orchestration aren't always great.  I also think part of it is the players/singers may have a slight disdain for the music.  The average audience member may not notice, but when a section is played double time (as happen with the cellos early in the concert), or a wind cue is in minor instead of major, I'm really taken aback.  I understand mistakes happen and I'm certainly not perfect myself live.  Some of that is undoubtedly unfamiliarity with the material, or perhaps misprinted parts.  Maybe a concert like Distant Worlds or Video Games Live! works better because of the variety of music possible-- after all, how many times can you see an arrangement that progresses through a quiet beginning, a goofy character theme, an epic theme, etc, until a climatic boss battle plays Ganon's theme for the finale?  The same format and music gets tiring as the night progresses.  Whatever causes it, I hate always leaving events like this feeling "something's missing" and that happen again for me with this concert.

I did enjoy myself last night and I know I'm not the typical concert-goer at any musical event, much less this sort of concert.  However, when a concert can fill a 2000 seat house on a Wednesday evening, something is really, really right.  Then again, as I scanned the orchestra, I noticed the concertmaster was away as was the principle cellist.  Several of my UM colleagues were subbing in various sections as well.  If the audience can be this into the music, what can we do to get the top orchestra members to believe in it enough to play it as well instead of taking the night off?  Or should these concerts just be sold electronically, recorded perfectly, mixed, mastered, and synced up precisely to the visuals?  Is there a reason for the "live" aspect of this show?  I can say that for me there's "something missing" and I wish I could put my finger on what it is.  Overall though, I did enjoy myself and most of all, seeing this performance bolstered my desire to organize/perform in an all game audio concert.  

Bottom line: If you love game audio and The Legend of Zelda, I suggest you see one of these concerts if it comes close to you.  The sense of community is always great at a live event and for any fans of the games, this celebration of the music will be a treat.

Review: A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy in Ann Arbor

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a former video game music student about a concert in Ann Arbor called A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy.  The email included a promo code for a discount and, without any other information, I immediately bought tickets for myself and my partner so that we could attend.  Finally-- I got to see a live video game music concert!  Before the event, I searched briefly for some information about the concert online, what to expect, reviews, and found very little, so I wanted to contribute in that regard.

First of all the venue was a good choice for a chamber music concert.  Rackham Auditorium is a really beautiful space on the UM campus and is a place I've played several times.  I snapped the above picture as the musicians were warming up and the concert was about to start.  The auditorium seats about 1000, and my thought was that there were at least 800 or more in attendance, based on how filled it got.  Many came in right at the last minute, so it looks a bit more empty in this photo than it was by the time the concert started.

There were no physical programs handed out, instead Eric Roth acted as MC, announcing the pieces and introducing the musicians from the stage, and he was also conductor for most of the numbers, unless it was a very small instrumental group like Troia, which was just cello and guitar, or for the piano solos played by Benyamin Nuss, who was exceptional and easily one of the highlights of the evening.  Several of the pieces he played were from Final Fantasy Piano Collections that I myself have played, never in a concert, but just for study or fun on my own.  His tempos were smoking and his playing was technically and expressively brilliant.  Really delightful to hear him and I hope to again.



Overall, I enjoyed the experience.  I wasn't sure at first how I felt about the concert being as intimate as it was; for a moment, I missed the big screens, projections, pyrotechnics, etc, from an event like Video Games Live.  Another question I grappled with was whether or not I wanted the instruments to be mic'd.  But that passed quickly and I enjoyed hearing these unamplified chamber performances.  When I saw my students in attendance, they related the same thoughts of being glad to focus in on the aural aspect of the music.

Of course, I took notes on the concert.  Below is the program list from the 10/28/16 concert in Ann Arbor.

FF VI- Decisive Battle
FF- Victory Theme
FF XI- Sarutabaruta
FF X- Battle (piano solo)
FF I- Town Theme
FF VIII- Fragments of Memories (string quartet)
FF XI- Selbina
FF IV- Troia  (cello, guitar)
FF V- A New World
FF IX- Final Battle (piano solo)
Chocobo Medley
***Intermission***
FF I- Chaos Shrine
FF V- Home Sweet Home
FF IV- The Red Wings
FF XII- Ivalice Landscapes
Moogle Medley
FF IX- Danger in the Forest
FF VII- Those Who Fight (piano solo)
FF II- Rebel Army
FF X- Zanarkand
FF VIII- Force Your Way
Encore: FF VII- One Winged Angel

Before the concert, I was already wondering how the loops would end.  This is one of the inherent problems of translating non-linear media into a concert setting, right?  On a game soundtrack or in gameplay, the music simply loops until it fades out and the next track plays, or in a game, the player's action triggers a new audio situation.  The ends of the pieces were sometimes handled by speeding up a bit toward a climax or by taking a small musical phrase and repeating it a few times at different dynamics to create a musical button.  A few of these endings made Vince and/or I chuckle with the predictability, but I suppose there's no way around it.

I also left the event wanting to know more about Eric Roth.  He was obviously instrumental in coordinating the concert and did a great job as MC.  However, I wondered at times why he was conducting.  For instance, he conducted the string quartet as they played Fragments of Memories, which struck me as unusual since string quartets are usually self-sufficient and led by the first violin.  I would describe Mr. Roth's conducting at this event as perfunctory.  He definitely brought the group in and set the tempo clearly (though the Chaos Shrine number had to restart because of an instrument playing at double time), but he never adjusted balance (for instance, the drums were far too over powering in the Red Wings), and never seemed to conduct phrases or expressively, merely beating time.  Seeing that made me realize that he must've had a larger behind the scenes role than what was immediately evident in the concert.  Indeed, when I check out his website, I see that he does the arranging for the group and I wonder if he also handles some of the administrative portions of the concert logistics.  I didn't really think much about it, but Vince pointed out afterward that when Mr. Roth announced the players on stage he didn't know some of them, struggling to pronounce their names as he read them.  Been there myself!  But still, less than optimum, particularly when it's a small chamber group.  Overall, though, I thought he served as a good guide through the event for folks who may not have been accustomed to attending a chamber music concert that was largely classical in format.  

The event was just under two hours with intermission and a late start.  And because it was the Friday before Halloween, ushers handed out candy on the way out!  Yay Skittles!  Vince and I both enjoyed it a lot and I'd definitely attend again if it comes through Ann Arbor in the future.  Maybe I could even bring some of my students!  For a big Final Fantasy fan like me, it was perfect, though when I consider a broader group of attendees, I'm struck by the fact that the diversity of music that plays at a concert with a wider range of genres and games would obviously attract more gamers.

Bottom line: If you love the music of Final Fantasy, you'll probably enjoy A New World if it comes close enough for you to attend!  Check it out.  And if you do so, I'd love to hear about your impression and experiences in the comments below.