Music to my nerdy ears!

I know there is at least one person out there (Hi, Alyxx!! /wave) who wants me to keep up with this stupid "gaming" blog, so I will oblige with a little post about Video Games Live: Bonus Level, which I went to with my boyfriend earlier this week.

Sweet & delicious ramune

Like most of our trips to Massey Hall, this one began with dinner at Guu, an awesome little Japanese izakaya with all kinds of cool, unique little dishes - kinda like Japanese tapas. I finally tried the Kabocha Korokke which is a hard-boiled egg inside of a pumpkin croquette...weird, I know, but quite tasty. Myles always gets the kimchi rice in a stone bowl, and I like to get the bbq eel on cheesy rice. YUMMM!! And, of course, we always, always, always, order a Ramune Sawa - ramune and vodka. If you've never had a ramune, do yourself a favour and pick one up next time you're at an Asian market (or you can pay double at a comic convention) and, if you can figure out how to open it, you're in for a very sweet and yummy treat!

Oh, right...this is supposed to be a gaming blog!!

So, I had no idea what Video Games Live was. It just seemed like something that both Myles and I would find entertaining and after doing a bit of research, I discovered that it's a pretty popular show. So, I scooped up tickets 5 months in advance, just to be on the safe side, and it was a good thing I did! It was a sold out show! VGL sets out to showcase video game music as a legitimate form of art, complete with symphony orchestra and choir...but it is far from a typical "symphony" performance. The music is synchronized with video clips from the games, and the show's creator/producer, Tommy Tallarico, encourages the audience to yell out and cheer for their favourites. I patiently waited for the inevitable World of Warcraft segment, and Myles was pretty happy with the opening number - a medley of music set to a montage of some iconic classics, including: Pong, Donkey Kong, Tetris, Punch-Out, and Ghosts and Goblins (which made Myles especially happy).

The show was also peppered with some pretty amusing video interludes. I was particularly fond of the video game mash-ups, like this Sonic vs. Pac-Man: 

Or, this Mortal Kombat vs Donkey Kong video that made me reminisce about the day I discovered the Mortal Kombat arcade machine in the basement of the law library. Coincidentally, that was also the day that "going to study at the library" took on a whole new meaning:



There were also some pretty cool guest performances, including Martin "The Video Game Pianist" Leung, who kept the audience captivated and amazed by his double-time performance of the already-impossibly-fast Mario theme. Not to be outdone, Laura Intravia gave an epic, operatic performance of the God of War soundtrack, and later completely switched gears with an extremely cute flute performance dressed as Link. The performance of Baba Yetu - the first-ever video game music to win a Grammy - was so moving, that it compelled me to go out and buy Civilization IV. That will probably turn out to be a mistake, since I have no idea how to play and I spent about 2500 years doing little else than building the 7 Wonders of the World in a city filled with very unhappy citizens. Not a very good winning strategy...

Overall, the show was extremely entertaining. There were a bunch of prize giveaways, generously donated by The Future Shop, and lots of audience interaction. The head-to-head Frogger competition was cute, especially since one contestant had never even played it before. But, the real highlight for me was the dude who won the Guitar Hero competition in the lobby prior to the show. He was challenged to reach a score of 220,000 playing Van Halen's Jump on Hard, accompanied by the symphony and Tommy on electric guitar. When he heard the challenge, he pointed up, indicating that it was too easy, and instead he played on Expert, and aimed for 200,000 points, which he reached with about 30 seconds to spare. It was quite impressive and the crowd was totally into it, myself included.

Oh!! I forgot about the guy who arranged with Tommy beforehand to be called on stage with his girlfriend under the guise of a "couple's competition", who then proposed to her saying, "sometimes it takes 7 years to save the princess..." or something equally sappy/nerdy as that. She said yes. /cheer

The great thing about Video Games Live is that they never tour the same show twice, so it's always evolving. They might always include WoW or Final Fantasy, but they'll choose different music or arrangements. I'm sure there were many repeat customers at this show who were not disappointed, and I'm also pretty certain that I'll be one myself the next time they come around...as long as I find out about it 5 months in advance.

Here's the only video I took at the show. It was the second encore. Myles and I don't play Portal so we had no idea what it was, but apparently it plays over the end credits to that game and is called "Still Alive". Even though we don't play, this song has been stuck in our heads for days...