Video Games Live Concert, hosted by Tommy Tallarico, was held in Toronto on September 1, 2006 at Massey Hall. Originally the show was supposed to be held last Fall but because not enough advanced tickets were sold, they had to reschedule. I was given a free ticket by a friend to attend with him ($60 face value) and we sat on the second row, left side of the theatre. I'd just like to share this event with everyone in favor of Mr. Tallarico, simply because he's from my province ;-) (Which I hadn't known before).
It's basically a light show with a live orchestra group and a projected screen to show each respective video game while the music were being played. Most of the time, the music synched with the action on screen, which was pretty cool.
Videos of Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo and many others helped to recognize this event and gave an introduction of what's to come. Martin Leung (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vin9sapwkRU ) made a surprising guest appearance and played his famous Super Mario-while-blinded-folded using the piano. He also played 10 short Final Fantasy songs. He has quick hands! Tommy hand picked a few audiences to play Space Invaders and Frogger and they won Ghost Recon...one girl even won a "Ferarri Laptop" ($2600). At the end of the show, we were treated with "bonus" music from Halo 1 and 2. Overall, I had a very enjoyable evening and quite honestly some of the music made me more interested in some of the games (such as Myst and Advent Rising). After the show, we had the opportunity to go down to the bottom floor of the theatre to meet with staff from the Splinter Cell series but we didn't want to go.
My only complaint from the show is having to sit in a room of over 2000 "very scary" people. They were playing with their DS before the show started, jumping and clapping their hands at the site of PONG on the projector..really ridiculous stuff you wouldn't expect to see grown men doing. Worst of all, to the left of me was an overweight man that looked like he needed 2 seats (he didn't get up during the 20 minute intermission) and he had STRONG B.O. and bad breath. I cringed every time he yelled in excitement because I could smell the stench of his breath..
Anyway, the following are pics from the event:
Guys playing DS behind me, and the overweight man next to me:
Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo and Yuji Naka speaking about the show:
Then we were attacked by terrorists during the Metal Gear Solid theme:
Weirdo who was chosen to get up on stage because he had a "Pick Me Please" sign with him. He played Space Invaders...didn't "win" but he left with a video card and Ghost Recon:
Martin Leung:
This is like straight out of Dead Rising. If only I had a katana...:
Random light shows and videos on the projection:
It's basically a light show with a live orchestra group and a projected screen to show each respective video game while the music were being played. Most of the time, the music synched with the action on screen, which was pretty cool.
Videos of Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo and many others helped to recognize this event and gave an introduction of what's to come. Martin Leung (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vin9sapwkRU ) made a surprising guest appearance and played his famous Super Mario-while-blinded-folded using the piano. He also played 10 short Final Fantasy songs. He has quick hands! Tommy hand picked a few audiences to play Space Invaders and Frogger and they won Ghost Recon...one girl even won a "Ferarri Laptop" ($2600). At the end of the show, we were treated with "bonus" music from Halo 1 and 2. Overall, I had a very enjoyable evening and quite honestly some of the music made me more interested in some of the games (such as Myst and Advent Rising). After the show, we had the opportunity to go down to the bottom floor of the theatre to meet with staff from the Splinter Cell series but we didn't want to go.
My only complaint from the show is having to sit in a room of over 2000 "very scary" people. They were playing with their DS before the show started, jumping and clapping their hands at the site of PONG on the projector..really ridiculous stuff you wouldn't expect to see grown men doing. Worst of all, to the left of me was an overweight man that looked like he needed 2 seats (he didn't get up during the 20 minute intermission) and he had STRONG B.O. and bad breath. I cringed every time he yelled in excitement because I could smell the stench of his breath..
Anyway, the following are pics from the event:
Guys playing DS behind me, and the overweight man next to me:
Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo and Yuji Naka speaking about the show:
Then we were attacked by terrorists during the Metal Gear Solid theme:
Weirdo who was chosen to get up on stage because he had a "Pick Me Please" sign with him. He played Space Invaders...didn't "win" but he left with a video card and Ghost Recon:
Martin Leung:
This is like straight out of Dead Rising. If only I had a katana...:
Random light shows and videos on the projection:
