Video Games Live

I had something on tv in the background yesterday while grinding away at my World of Warcraft daily quests (Big Bang Theory, probably) when an interesting commercial came on. It was for a music concert featuring music from Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and more and was going to be touring through Canada at some point. It had a webpage listed in the commercial so I went to check it out. It turns out they're passing through the area next week! Toronto on Thursday the 25th, Montreal on Friday, Kitchener on Sunday, Ottawa on Monday. Seems like they'll be zig-zagging all over southern Ontario which seems a little inefficient but I suspect they use local orchestras in each location so it's just the sets and such making the trip so probably not actually a big deal. (They only currently list the KW orchestra for the Kitchener event so maybe they're doing all 4?)

Now, I _really_ enjoyed the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert I went to earlier this year. Final Fantasy music is objectively the best so I imagine a concert with all kinds of video game music would have to be worse than one of just Final Fantasy music but I expect it would still be pretty good. So I decided to check out the website a bit more and see what the deal would be...

The first thing that jumped out at me is the ticket prices are a lot lower than the Distant Worlds ones were. $37.50 for the cheap seats this time which for more than 2 hours is in the same ballpark as going to a movie. I was a little leery about trying to get people to go with me to a $100 concert when they might not like it... But this seems cheap enough to take a chance on I would think! The Kitchener ones start at $35. In fact, I think the most expensive tickets to VGL are cheaper than the cheapest ones were for FF:DW.

The next thing was extra stuff. Distant Worlds had special VIP tickets where you paid a bunch extra to go meet with the performers afterwards. Now, they had Nobuo Uematsu so this was actually a pretty big deal for Final Fantasy music nerds. Video Games Live seems to run a pre and post show, for free, around every event. The webpage claims they run costume contests and sometimes have game booths and such set up beforehand. They encourage picture/video taking during the concert.

Apparently they have around 60 segments that they could play at each concert. They do about 20 each time and rotate around. Makes me wonder if there will be substantial differences between the Toronto and Kitchener events. If they're using the same orchestra in both places maybe not? It sounds like they have some core pieces (Mario/Zelda/Final Fantasy) and then sub in different things to fill up the 2.5 hours. That said, I don't know that 'filler' is going to be the right term. There's a lot of video games with awesome music out there. They may not have the flashy names, but I expect it'll still be pretty great.

I think it sounds pretty interesting. It'd be tight, but I'm pretty sure I can get downtown in time for the pre-show while leaving work at my normal time. I may even have time to pop home on the way and put on some overalls and a purple hat...

Anyone else interested in going?