By Move over, Beethoven and Mozart. Here comes Zelda and the Mario Bros.
On Sept. 21 at the Hollywood Bowl, traditional concert repertoire (not to mention traditional concertgoers) was cast aside to bring back to Southern California the biggest video game music concert in the world: Video Games Live 2006.
Video Games Live (VGL) is a multimedia presentation of the art and culture of video games, where the music of games old and new is adorned with lighting effects and played with a full orchestra or small ensembles.
Giant screens located all over the Bowl accompanied the music with clips of the games whose music was being played. Tommy Tallarico acted as host.
VGL has toured all over the world, but started its tour last year at the Hollywood Bowl to a crowd of 11,000. It has received national acclaim from newspapers and video game media such as the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Nintendo Power and Gamespot.com. This year, VGL drew a crowd of just over 8,500 fans to the Bowl, many of whom dressed up in costumes of their favorite video game characters.
Before the concert there was a classic arcade game competition, pre-release game demos and drawings for prizes. Some fans dressed up for the costume contest as characters like Frogger, Zelda, and Mario and Luigi. They posed for photos before the concert. Many video game composers were also present and signed autographs on VGL posters.
When it finally came time for the music to start, the pre-concert displays of technology didn’t end. When conductor/composer Jack Wall stood up on the podium to lead the Hollywood Bowl Symphony and Mitch Hanlon Singers into the evening, he surrounded himself with several computer screens, not to mention the scores themselves. The only thing missing seemed to be an Atari joystick and N64 controller.
The first selection by Wall and the orchestra was the “Classic Arcade Medley.” This medley tugged at the nostalgic hearts of anyone in the audience who remembered what it was like to use only a joystick with one button to battle evil Atari monsters (as opposed to the dozen-button monster controllers in gaming today).
The medley started with the video game granddaddy of them all: “Pong.” And of course, the “music” of “Pong” did not fail to disappoint those who remember the music’s (and the game’s) simplicity: a few bleeps and whistles.
Fortunately for music lovers, the rest of the “Classic Arcade Medley” music featured “real” music, including tunes from “Punch-Out!!,” “Donkey Kong,” “Frogger,” “Tetris” and existing classical music like Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” to games that did not originally have their own music.
A highlight of the evening was an elegiac piece from the first-person World War II shooter series “Medal of Honor.” But instead of showing clips from the game, real WWII footage was presented instead, serving as a fitting musical tribute of the era.
In-between song selections, a few randomly-selected members of the audience were chosen to play “Frogger” on the big screen in front of the orchestra for prizes. Two minutes were put on the clock from the Goodyear Blimp riding above the Bowl. Each contestant moved side-to-side to make the little Atari frog reach safety.
Other highlights of the night included arrangements of “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Zelda,” the themes from “Myst” (arranged by Wall), “Final Fantasy” themes on piano and a musical rendition of “Tron,” an ’80s arcade game based on a film of the same name historically known as one of the first major studio films to use computer graphics extensively.
Concluding the concert was music from “Halo 3” and, a sure-favorite among many in the crowd, the music of “Super Mario Bros.” These catchy and pop culturally famous themes from the Nintendo franchise classic reinforced the notion that the lovable Mario is, and always will be, the Mickey Mouse of the gaming world.
Because after all, who doesn’t like Mickey and Mario?
