Final Fantasy Concert
Posted by: kmikeym | From: May 16, 2004
Monday, May 10, 2004
Tonight I witnessed the nerdiest event of my 27 years--"Dear Friends: The Music of Final Fantasy" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA. Despite a lack of cosplayers in attendance, the fanatacism was evident early as series composer Nobuo Uematsu entered the room and the audience burst into thunderous applause--we even decided to give him an early standing ovation. Umetasu was charming and grateful, wearing a kimono-type outfit complete with sandals on his feet, and he grinned from ear to ear as the audience showed their appreciation for over 15 years of memorable video game tunes.
The performers were the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master chorale, and we were seated in a unique position behind the musicians--with a great view of the audience and the auditorium. My predictions about the order of the setlist were immediately thrown when they launched into an intensely rich song from my least favorite FF game, FF8's "Liberi Fatali." An early highlight was a song from FFX, "Zanarkand", which was introduced by the man who voiced Tidus, the lead character of the game. James Arnold Taylor it turns out, was the emcee of the concert, stumbling through introducing the upcoming songs and doing an incredibly poor job of reading cue cards. It seemed a bit like watching Robert DeNiro on a recent episode of SNL where you know he hasn't practiced his lines at all.
It took awhile for the performers to get around to my personal favorite FF song, but when the LA Phil played an early Final Fantasy medley they brought out a rich rendition of the opening title sequence, complete with piano and harp. Then, to the delight of nearly everyone they included a chocobo song. Cabel was definitely pleased.
Throughout the concert the audience responded with a great deal of appreciation, and it was obvious that the performers were taken aback by the reception to music they must have considered was kind of (ch)easy and not very serious. Towards the end of the night they let Uematsu on stage to talk about the music, and as it turns out, series illustrator Yoshitaka Amano and creator Hironobu Sakaguchi were in attendance. It was amazing to see the reaction they received, and it truly was a special opportunity to share the joy of videogames and the effect they have had on millions of people around the world.
Full setlist for those who are interested:
"Liberi Fatali" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Zanarkand" (Final Fantasy X)
"Terra's Theme" (Final Fantasy VI)
"Theme of Love" (Final Fantasy IV)
"Dear Friends" (Final Fantasy V)
"Vamo' Alla Flamenco" (Final Fantasy IX)
"Love Grows" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Aeris's Theme" (Final Fantasy VII)
"Not Alone" (Final Fantasy IX)
"Ronfaure" (Final Fantasy XI)
"Final Fantasy I - III Medley"
"New Melody From Final Fantasy VII Advent Children"
"Final Fantasy" (Theme)
A chocobo song is played when you are riding the friendly chicken-like creature, and it is this joyous, upbeat number that gets a remix for every new title in the series.
Posted by: J_John at May 16, 2004 3:12 PM
what does chocobo song mean?
Posted by: Steve Schroeder at May 16, 2004 12:01 PM