And tis' done!

What, wait. I thought you heard me mention that I wasn't planning on going Video Games Live, I hear you from the other side of the keyboard.

That was true, until 3pm Friday, when I suddenly, magically, had a wave of good karma and FREE TICKETS fell on my lap because said former ticket owner got it free but didn't think he had the time or would appreciate video game BGM  because he's not a gamer. I'm not sure if he thought it's because he knew I would appreciate it, or he figured I'd be one of those people without a Friday night life  and so would be available for minute plans, of which he'd be right on both counts, which is mildly unsettling, but ppft, one man's trash is another lady's Friday night spontaenous alternative, and I am certainly NOT complaining! :D :D  And I was able to snag two, so I jioed Lee to join me, thus saving her from the certain death that is bringing work home to work on Friday night.

Also, I can totally make a comparison call now between VGL and Final Fantasy: Distant World Concert. For the record, FFDW won my money and was the reason why I initially chose not to go for this one, yo. Sorry dude, but the FF bishes are prettier & esplanade is spiffier than Indoor.  What can I say.  

#1 Location:
FFDW @ esplanade wins out because of ease of train & taxi. Indoor Stadium, I haven't been to kallang since the last STOMP concert a few years ago... and that wasn't even at the indoor stadium. Since I have no serious band/singer I would pay good money to come down to Indoor to catch, I haven't set foot on that area for ... well... I dare say more than 5-7 years, likely?

#2: Price:
N/A: As in, I had no idea how much I would have paid for the tickets at VGL, but I got damn good seats. Like pretty centre, and pretty close though not front row you can touch the artist front fronts, but comfortable enough. I'm guessing these seats may have cost more than those I spent at the esplanade though.

#3 Pre-show entertainment
VGL. Because FFDW... well, really had none?  haha! Not just that, you know the screens they have up before the start of the actual concert itself? VGL bothered to fill it with entertaining game related youtube videos that most gamers would have either already seen or would appreciate. I myself have watched Yuri the only one for me, by the l33tstreet boys b4, so it was a bit, been there, seen that but okay, neat....  but this vid, THIS. VID. I haven't seen and I lolled pretty hard, (note to self: I need icon of this vid to go with my running squid.) 


p.s: BTW, Anne, I thought fondly of you as I watched this vid. XD (I think you might get a bigger grin out of this simply because you'd recognise the locations)
 
#4 Timeliness of concert:
 FFDW. I was justifyably annoyed by VGL's lack of timeliness. The ticket clearly stated 8pm. The concert itself only got into proper swing at 8:30pm. This blows because we made an effort to rush through dinner so we wouldn't be late. They should be like esplanade. Doors close promptly, show starts promptly, Late comers can suck gas and wait for intermission. That should be the way things are done, fashionably late people who actually  paid for their tickets be damned!

#5: Sound System & Visuals:
Sound is actually a little biased toughie, but I'd probably have to side with esplanade's FFDW. Not that Indoor is as bad as I had been given the impression of by some of my other friends. They're just... well, quite different. More on that later. Visuals are also a tie, but I'd side with VGL for its variation of footages. Seriously, FFDW has a LOT of repeated footages. Unfair advantage to VGL because of sheer number of games compared to FF? Perhaps, but not quite so. I actually thought VGL's footages had more thought gone into it, because I had observed on a couple of occassions that the scenes where there were explosions, water splashes etc, actually coincided with the music's clashing notes and stuff. Yeaaah. There were only two meh exceptions for Visuals for VGL, more on that later too.

#6 Photography
VGL. We all know esplanade's rules on photo no nos and the strict ushers who enforce them, haha. By comparison VGL allows everything.  Everybody was taking pictures like it's their job.  I love my camera phone.
 
Which of course means you get more than a pic of program booklet interlude!  Heh.  Another reason why a good camera phone is survival essential  for those times you'd never think you'd need a camera!  (ironically, no, you will not get pic of program booklet becasue I did not buy one and it is not free.) 

Comparison interrupted to bring you report: 

Even after the show started late, the music started even later becasue of the 'pre-entertainment' includng youtube showcases mentioned above, and some cosplay judging by audience ... segment? Patapon won (that werid symbol 3rd from left) , for standing out, naturally.  And yes, you can tell my seat ain't too shabby!


And thus concert. Since it's going to be mostly shots similiar to this, I thought it'd be best I highlight the best bit ones and meh the not so great ones. I will not dive into what music were played specifically because I have no program booklet, but definitely a few  early arcade games like Donkey Kong, Tetris, Mario, SONIC, WOW, Kingdom Hearts and even, yes, Final Fantasy. How could it be a game concert without scores from FF?





And now, the best part about the whole show:  Aka, the segment which I actually might pay to watch. 

1.

This pianist, Martin Leung has way l33t piano skills and I was very impressed!  Apparently, showing off his skills playing scores from video games (and doing it really really fast and blindfolded and posting it on youtube)  was what landed him this regular (?) gig with VGL.  He should actually branch out and do his own thing.
 
Of course, by now I'm thinking of myself, what is with VGL and youtube??? 

2.

The composer of Metal Gear Solid (whose name temporarily escaped me for the moment), on the Saxaphone, playing the theme. Always cool to have an actual creator guest onboard for the party.

3.

And of course, the music scores. While I did not recognise some (okay okay a LOT) of the pieces and not having a program booklet made it a hassle to remember the names, and some of them were SUPER OLD : like FROGGER and Sonic & Tails and Knuckles which I haven't played in forever and a day and could hardly remember the music anymore,  it was still very nostalgic to see all the incarnations of Sonic and Mario and so on so forth and the music was clear enough. I don't play the big games like Halo and WOW and  and Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid, but I like listening to scores in general, and the scores were pretty nice. Yes.  Castlevania evovled super nicely to the incarnation it is today, I have to say. :3  I especially liked that they played that theme from Chrono Cross, and they definitely did it better than the very first game recital I ever went to.


New Gen! Castlevania's "final fantasied" protagonist can give Sephhie a run for his money.  Thank you.


The okay:

Guitar Heroes showdown. Two finalists and some kickass music by Aerosmith called emotion, if I recall correcectly.  Oh yeah, there were a lot of  audience interaction in that sense, but personally, I find it a tad bit detracting away from the music, but I went in with different expectations, I suppose.

 
The meh:
I wouldn't say it's baaaaaad, but frankly, even before I went into the show,  I already had a feeling that this show would not have been able to get permission to screen Square Enix game footages because FF has their own show called Distant Worlds, remember?  So when they screened Disney movie footages for Kingdom Heart scores I was like... ??? ... OH I SEE IT MUST BE THAT , but meh, but okay I guess, music is music, right?. Then for the FF songs... (they did One Winged Angel too, but you saw that coming MILES away didn't you?) ... they screened.... um...still frame shots of FF cosplayers.


Good news:  they were pretty...

(Interestingly, I was reading up on copyrights and free use. And I believe that is the reason why they can play the scores from FF and KH, but not be able to screen game footage to go with it. )





Eh... I don't know man, I thought the cosplay shots could have been left back at the Patapon segment, and I would've rather they just not show anything and focused on the musicians and their music on both counts.

I guess if you really had to boil it down, this has to be the biggest meh factor about the whole show. There are some points where I'd feel it's  like a fan-organised convention than a professional gig. Seriously, youtube vids?  I would not pay marnies to come all the way to Indoor to see n00b like projects from the internet (even if they may be decent)? And if I wanted cosplay, I would have paid to enter a cosplay convention / Anime convention, which I have done and would have gone with different set of expectaions.  In this gig, expectations are not quite met in that aspect because I felt the musicians were sidelined for all these other bells and whistles.

The biggest iff though, was that they DID NOT PLAY ANYTHING FROM MYST. WOE. D: 

But I disgress.

If you want to really categorise it, then you should see Distant Worlds much like attending a closed door chamber recital, and Video Games Live like attending a live rock concert gig.  (this is where my verdict on the lighting and sound system stands as well, by the way. They sound the way they are supposed to sound. 

The thing is, when you compare FFDW  with other recitals, it's crazier (because of the type of  fans it attracts), and therefore feels more interesting (when compared with normal recitals you have been to. -- > used to have watch one every other Friday because it was my homework in one of my courses in Uni/ trivia)

Whereas if you compared VGL with other live rock concerts, idk, it feels slightly watered-down? Real rock concerts you tend to have larger than life idols that anchor and engage the crazy light stick waving, panty flinging, whistle blowing, head bobbing  fans, and there just wasn't enough heavyweights in the show that could do that in VGL. While the scores speak for themselves and are decently engaging, it's kind of hard to build up that kind of frevor, and with so many games spread out of so many consoles, loyalties to games varies and so does the level of audience enthusiasm,  I do believe the atmosphere can still be salvaged if they packed the audience closer, but that might mean a location relook is in order.

So end verdict,  trying to compare both is like comparing apples and oranges, Depends on the atmosphere you like.

Except for One Winged Angel. i'm sorry, guys at VGL, but gregorian chant like music always did work best in chamber surround sound, don't you know. ;) 

 Edit: It just occurred to me that maybe I should have compared VGL with Play! A video game Symphony instead. Oh well. Same verdict applies, really. Play! would be similiar to FFDW in that sense.