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The 'Dear Friends' Final Fantasy Concert First Hand
"Liberi Fatali" is the defining theme from the eighth game in the series, and began the night's musical selections. The choral accompaniment added to the raw energy of the piece, talented individuals who successfully evoked the emotion of the images that appeared on the screens up front. Portions of the full motion video from the game gave a visual contrast to the auditory experience. These images were alternated with camera-work showing the audience close-ups of the musicians at work, allowing individuals with seats too far away from the stage to get a good look at the artists at work.
After the explosive introduction we were introduced by conductor Arnie Roth to Gene Honda, the master of ceremonies for the evening. He commented on the momentousness of the evening, a theme which was touched on several times by speakers during the night. He then introduced the next trio of pieces and prompted more rock concert-like cheers from the audience.
Final Fantasy X's "Zanarkland" began the next trio of musical pieces, with images of Yuna offsetting the tempo of the music. The piece following that got a huge response when it was mentioned by the MC, and caused the entire crowd to grow hushed when it began. "Terra's Theme" is one of the most poignant musical selections in the Final Fantasy repertoire, and in many ways defines Final Fantasy VI as a cornerstone of the series. Similarly, the "Theme of Love" from Final Fantasy IV brought back many memories for the assembled concert-goers, the love between Cecil and Rosa a basis for future relationships in the series.
After another moment of commentary from Mr. Honda (who delighted the audience by proclaiming his gamerdom like a badge of honor), the title song of the evening began to be played. The story of Final Fantasy V's group of comrades reflected in some ways the idea behind the evening's entertainment. Later in the evening, with Mr. Uematsu on the stage, it was stated that the title of the show was meant to get across the appreciation he has for all of the many gamers and music fans alike who have made the music of Final Fantasy so well known. The concert series, he said, was meant to be a heartfelt thanks for the support the music and the series has received over the years.
Following "Dear Friends" was the peppy and dramatic "Vamo' Alla Flamenco". An extremely talented guitarist sat in with the orchestra on the title song and on the latin-accented theme from Final Fantasy IX. The powerful music played to beautiful images of the airship and the extraordinarily popular character of Vivi the Black Mage. The final piece in the pre-intermission set was "Love Grows", from Final Fantasy VIII. The beautiful music was played against the ballroom scenes between Rinoa and Squall, providing a compliment to the story unfolding on screen.
During intermission I received several compliments on my shirt. Old-skool is the best skool, apparently.
After the break they went right for the heartstrings, with the haunting Aeris's Theme from Final Fantasy VII and "Not Alone" from IX. Aeris' climactic moments played out on screen, and the piece ended as the on-screen animation pulled back to reveal the cityscape from the seventh game. It was easy to remember why VII is still one of the most popular games in the series. "Not Alone" was played to images of Yuna dancing on the water, more beautiful imagery from a snappy game. The last piece in the set was the theme from Ronfaure, an area in the online Final Fantasy XI. Despite the repetitious nature of the music it was really excellent to hear such a familiar theme done with orchestral force.
MC Honda came out for a final farewell and to introduce the last three themes for the evening. A medley from Final Fantasy I-III kicked off the set, recalling several of the truly classic elements of the series. The medley opened with the harp from the very beginning of Final Fantasy I, the crunchily 8-bit background that plays while we are introduced to the Crystals for the very first time. The medley also included the toe-tappingly excellent Chocobo theme, which elicited more than a little laughing and cheering when the first notes were played. The last "official" song of the evening was, simply, the Final Fantasy theme. Over a decade ago that theme first found it's way into the consciousness of American kids through the original NES title. In my case, I'm firmly convinced farming ogres in the woods outside of the elvish lands in FFI had something to do with the choices I was to make in my life to follow.
From the reactions of the audience that night, it was obvious that many felt the same way. When the original theme ended with a crash, the applause just went on and on and on. Mr. Uematsu took the stage to speak with the assembled and wildy cheering audience. A congenial translator passed on his questions. Aside from wanting to know if we'd had a good time (an ear threatening "YES!!" from the crowd), he asked us to respond to a few questions. First he wanted to know how far we'd come, and asked how many were locals, how many from Illinois, etc. When he reached the confines of the United States, the response was deafening. Just in the front row there were individuals who had driven from New York, Nevada, and Florida to hear the concert. Surprisingly, when he asked if there was anyone there from outside the U.S. there were a number of cheers from around the auditorium.
He thanked us all for our exuberance, stating that we needed to calm down "so that we could speak tomorrow". The atmosphere at the point in the evening was very much like a rock concert attended by thousands of adoring fans, and he seemed a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. His next question was to compound that issue, as he asked "If I brought the Black Mages here to the states, would you all promise to come to a concert?" Apparently there will be at least 4,400 people ready if ever rock-arranged video game music finds its way into a concert venue in the states. His last question, though, brought down the house. "Would you like to hear one more song?"
And what a song it was. They had, of course, saved the best for last. As the choir filed back onto the stage more cheering broke out. The conductor and the orchestra readied themselves and the audience grew quiet again. When the first frantic strains of "One-Winged Angel" burst into the Rosemont Theatre it was like lighting a match in the crowd. The rapt attention the audience gave to the final theme of the evening was only matched by the beauty of the skilled playing of the Pops and the enthusiasm of the choral group. One young man in particular found himself on the stage screens for some time, and the enormous grin he had on his face was a testament to the joy the group got out of the beautiful lyrics and powerful energy of the signature Final Fantasy VII piece. With one final "Sephiroth!", and with the antagonist himself looking down from the screens, the night came to an end with a flourish. When the house lights came up a lot of people looked like they were shaking themselves out of a dream, coming reluctantly back to reality.
The work of Nobuo Uematsu is challenging to listen to as a game player. It forced us to become involved in the story in a way that some of the story elements of the early games didn't. As the series progressed, as we grew older as gamers, the music developed from a supporting character into a force all its own. Game music has a wonderful familiarity to it that ensures instant appeal and enjoyment. Someone who may never set foot into a opera house would gladly hum the Mario theme on queue. The idea touched on throughout the night by the MC, the conductor, and Mr. Uematsu was the hope that this was going to be the first of many concerts to come here in the states. The experience during the evening was exciting, interesting and, I hope, a harbinger of similar events across the country.
There's another review of the concert over at Games Are Fun
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I had tickets to that concert which I'd bought as soon as they went on sale. I'd planned for every contingency...except one. My son got sick and I had to miss the concert. Akkk! So thanks for posting this first hand account of the concert! I hope that some DVD or CD releases of the concert series in the U.S. will be available in the future. Thanks again!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
amazing review :)
I'm a big retard who forgot to log out of Slashdot on Mike's computer! LOOK AT ME.
And for all those, particularly NES and SNES Final Fantasy fans, who have yet to experience the many glorious remixes which players have undertaken to make especially for the 8-bit and 16-bit era games, you are heartily encouraged to visit OC Remix's Final Fantasy game music remixes.
Personal favourites include Agony of Obscuration and The Atomizer for Final Fantasy VI, but the worthwhile remixes available are all in all, too long to list.
Anywhere to get a CD? Google didn't turn up anything that I could find.
"Read on for my impressions from the start of the first U.S. concert series composed entirely of video game music."
Not quite the first.
http://www.minibosses.com
They've been doing video game music only concert tours for a few years. In the US too.
"It'll destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself." - Henry Rollins
That test, you can't explain it to your girlfriend without becoming incredible concious of her thinking you're a loser.
There's no L in Zanarkand
As someone who attended, I must say that the concert was an amazing experience. With the exception of a few songs (specifically terra's theme, it seemed like they could have done a bit better job with the arrangement), everything else was held to a very high standard of quality. Of course, it was great to see the Nobuo there, walking around and shaking hands.
Never would I have thought that a rather official and main-stream venue would be playing some of the defining music from video games. It was quite the experience, and a rather large step in the acceptance of meaningful video games as art.
I do love final fantasy, especially the music that comes with them. So, tell me this: Why the hell aren't there any CD's out in the US with the music? They do freaking concerts in real concert halls, which sell out in minutes online, but there's no legal or professionally mixed release out there? Come on, Square, wake up already!
Beyond the Polygons : Because 50,000 polygo
According to the Dear Friends website this concert is going to go on "tour" in America.
So far it's hit Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois. Apparently is scheduled to be shown at San Francisco, California on March 7th.
And... that's it. No more dates are listed.
So - uh, is this tour ever going to actually tour? Or is it really hitting two locations (since this Chicago concert marked the "beginning" of the tour, after the success of the Los Angeles one)? I've gone searching, and so far those two concerts (Chicago and San Fransisco) are the only two I could find.
I'd love to go if they ever hit the northeast, but so far, it doesn't sound like they're going to. In fact, it sounds like this is a two-stop tour, and then that's it. There's really no information on what's coming up.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
you can tell that they always will play "one winged angel" because the choir will come back 2 songs before the last. theyre only used for the first song and the last.
Doesn't suprise me one bit that the older Final Fantasy music held up well. When you have a limited palate creative people can make amazing things happen. Classic games almost always have amazing music, and newer games neglect the music at their own peril.
Just think, how many of those old 8-bit game theme songs can you hum in your head at will, right now? Yeah, it might have to do with repetition, but it could be that the music was just that good....
It was an awesome experience. I recommend anyone who likes the music to try to attend one of these concerts. And make sure to share it with a few friends if you can.
You can be sure that if The Black Mages play a show within 500 miles of me, I'll be there.
you are right. the FF concert is by far a "pop" concert and is mostly for fans of the series. before attending the LA concert last year, in the gift shop of the disney concert hall, you can over heard the clearks talking, "what is todays event?" "Oh i dunno, its somt kind of video game music" it sounded very demeaning. Even the conductor wasn't into it, and the musicians were talking amongst each other between performances. in a philharmonic, you just dont do that; thats disrespecting on their part.
I have to say, even though I haven't played many of the FF games, I really admire Uematsu as a composer and musician. His music is so incredibly good, and I love listening to it. It makes great study music when I'm reading or writing something.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
Curious to see if there are any reviews available of the concert by a person who has never played a Final Fantasy game. Those that have played a few games of the series will be predisposed to like the concerts. I'd love to read some reviews by a reviewer who is more objective.
I got to see the show, and it was well worth it.
One thing which I really liked was watching the orchestra react to the audience. The Chicagoland Pops orchestra is pretty talented and plays a wide range of classical music, but you could guess many of these musicians weren't familiar with FF or the music before. They played well, but they were blown away by multiple standing ovations after the more popular songs (like Aeris' Theme). Most theatergoes to the Rosemont Theatre to see the Pops perform are probably enthusiastic and polite, but not jumping to their feet clapping and cheering like crazy.
It really seemed to give a boost to the musicians that the audience really connected to the music they were performing. Many of them seemed to really be enjoying the concert as much as we were. It's amazing music to seen performed somewhere other than the speaker on your TV set, and really seemed to fit well with an orchestra and an audience.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
I was there too. We drove from Minneapolis. Wow, what a great concert. I expected to hear music from the opera part of FFIII (FFVI in Japan), but alas... I suppose it would have been a little bit lame since operas have words and 16 bit FFIII had "ooo ooo ooo ooooooo"'s.
I've just been looking for reviews on the show. Not much for reviews, though there are a few previews. I've been wanting to hear a bit about what traditional symphony music types thought about this show. So far all I've got is that last year in LA a flutist called it "muzak"... still haven't googled what that is supposed to mean.
I was a little dissapointed that they had a PA system there. Other symphony halls I've been to didn't use a PA, and I think they sounded a lot better, not to mention they were getting some bass feedback.
But what a great experience! I love those games and I've always loved the music, even when it was 8-bit and maximum 30 s for a loop. It was great to hear it in the "real world"!
Here's some previews, from more or less official sources:
preview
preview
y0, sit your ass down for a tasty treat
because you can't beat meat when it's time to eat
oh yes you can
if you're a vegetarian
since tofu is abundant
then i highly recommend it
psshh....sucka with the vegan shit
just stfu and take a rump roast hit
nah n*gga you don't gotta be
playing the v-game
i was jus pointing out
that people ain't the same
if you wanna eat meat
you can do that, dawg
but nothing ever changed the fact
that pork chops is hog
yeah so what, playa
what's the point that you're makin
cuz i'm down to feast
and i'm thinkin bout bacon
cholesterol, man
what, have you not heard?
next to causing heart disease
it's a bitch of a word....to spell, hell,
i jus don't know how
but i know that healthy n*ggas don't izzeat of the cizzow
now i know you're thinking right,
cuz man, you be my brotherrrr
but without cows and bulls
we'd be feeding on each otherrrr
sick. damn, n*gga
that shit ain't cool
so just leave me alone
to be a veggie-headed fool
- Yes, just $11.95 will get you a CD full of dope-ass flows like the above and ten others. That's less than it costs for an Inglewood blowjob, and twice as satisfying. Taken straight from the Final Fantasy XIII OST, BTW, so you know the fanboys be buying my shit on the otaku downlow, for real.
Don't accept Son May boots, ya heard? My babies need formula, know whah mean?
The Tetris music is a Russian folk dance called "Korobochka" or "Korobeiniki" which is about 150 years old. Glorious fun to dance, it starts out being played slowly and speeds up as the dance continues until you are whirling around.
SELECT "Girls"
FROM "Population"
WHERE "Enjoys RPG Music" = true
Girls
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0 Result(s) found.
Damn. At least the grandpast spelled "lose" properly.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
When are they coming to the East Coast??? I'm 15 mins outside New York, but I'd gladly drive up to Boston in order to enjoy this concert.
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
funny, i listened to a different final fantasy concert recording (that i found here earlier today
I just wanted to say what a great review. Never have I read such a review that painted such a vivid picture in my mind. I felt like I was at the concert! Well done!
Lol, omg. I was one of the people who complimented on your shirt, Zonk. I think you were walking down from the middle isle and you turned to your right, and I was just like,"woah, nice shirt, man.". I was with friend. Remember me?