More Friends

[love a riddle]

I got the honor of attending the More Friends - Music from Final fantasy concert last night at Universal Studios. It was amazing.

I'll eventually post a huge thingie here for those interested, but it was good. Really good. In fact, so good I'm broke.

[GhaleonOne]

I know Rune Lai went too, and I believe Alunissage was going. Sounds like it must have been a blast. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it. And I'll get back to your PM shortly regarding the site.

[love a riddle]

<i>This was originally posted in my LJ.</i>

Would you <a href="http://www.harrisonhospital.org/whatsnew/nursery.php?action=details&ID=6069">name your baby</a> like that?

...

Yes, I would. Provided I run out of names.

I shall now share the glorious details of my trek to More Friends. 'Cause I believe in sharing the wealth.

'Cause sharing is caring.

No, really, I do care. I'm not doing this to deliberately make a few of you really jealous. After all, would the person who shouted out "BASSISTS RULE!!!!!!" or "I LOVE YOU!!!!" to Mr. Uematsu during the dead silence of a concert just to draw attention to himself (and the fact that bassist <i>do</i> rule and that he <i>does</i> love the beer-drinking Mr. Uematsu) do that to you all?

... Yeah, I did shout out those things.

...

Onto the experience.

Me and Saechang got there a little early, so we drank jamba juice and found out from the Persson parents that Alex made it there also from his band director's connections (lucky!). My friend managed to sneak in his camera (how dare they indecently touch my magnificent body?), so he has some videos of The Black Mages and some photos. I spent muchos dolares on the bloody program, but did it willingly... sort of. We took our seats, and waited.

Waited...

Waited...

While waiting, I played "The Geek Game" with the person who sat on my right. For those of you who don't know this rarely-witnessed-by-outsiders ritual, it's a challenge from one geek to another to find out how geeky the other person is and gauging them. So, we were "quizzing" each other on Final Fantasy knowledge, and... I won.

We also saw the EB TV crew doing their stuff. They're filthy false witness-ers. Right after the "here we are at the concert" clip for their program, they did the "wow, that concert was awesome" clip... while the concert didn't start yet. They had to redo that last one because she wasn't excited enough! It wasn't believable! She didn't even stay!!!!

The concert began about twenty minutes late, but that was forgivable.

The MC of the night was James Arnold Taylor, the voice actor for Tidus. He was fun. At some points of the concert he forgot to turn off his micrphone, so when he was in the back and the orchestra wasn't playing, you could hear snippets of his conversation with whoever-that-is.

I also learned that he also voiced Obi-wan Kenobi from the Clone Wars animated series and Fred Flinstone. It's amazing to me how Tidus was basically his regular voice.

The orchestra was the <b>World Festival Symphony Orchestra</b>.

The concert started off with <i>Opening - Bombing Mission</i> (Final Fantasy VII), and splendid it was (first time it was played in the US). They had a few clips of CG from FFVII, namely the one where we first see Aeris walking in the slums of Midgar. After that, everyone got introduced.

Next up was <i>Aerith's Theme</i> (Final Fantasy VII), no named because Square-Enix can't bloody decide how to consistently spell a character's name. Honestly, Terra stays Terra despite originally being Tina, yet Aeris gets a reromanization? Pfft. Anyway, Aeris' death scene was sort of played out; they omitted Sephiroth and the stabbing. We also saw the White Materia plop about.

Can't S-E have a budget for making new scenes specifically for the concert?

Anyway, <i>Zanarkand</i> (Final Fantasy X) was <b>bloody awesome</b> Why? The arrangement was awesome! Instead of just using a piano, they used a heckuva lot more! I can honestly say that this was my favorite part of the concert at the time, because I loved how it was different, yet familiar.

<i>Don't Be Afraid</i> (Final Fantasy VIII) was nice. Saw some clips of FFVIII, but it wasn't mega-wonderful. I like the battle theme a lot, but this arrangement wasn't a highlight for me.

Next, <i>Terra's Theme</i> (Final Fantasy VI) was awesome. This is another personal favorite of mine, and we saw some scenes from the Playstation port of Final Fantasy VI's opening.

This part was awesome. Mr. Uematsu asked Mr. Roth (the conductor and arranger) to do <i>Swing de Chocobo</i>, and... it was... beautiful. Awesome. Titillating. They played chocobo scenes from all of the Final Fantasy series, from I to XI. This arrangement really stood out to me.

The main theme of <i>Final Fantasy</i> was next, and that was nice as well. I don't believe any scenes were played during this piece. I never really liked this piece, but that's between actually hearing it in concert and hearing it on a CD or playing a game with it in the background.

Finally, <b>The Black Mages</b> came on after intermission! THEY WERE SO AWESOME! It sent shivers down my spine! The bassist was rocking out! Mr. Uematsu were there, in the flesh! The guitarist was solo-ing it like there was no tomorrow! The drummer was being hip and cool!

I also just noticed then that The Black Mages logo uses a silhouette from Final Fantasy IX. Anyway, they first played <i>The Rocking Grounds</i> from Final Fantasy III, but I found out odd since Final Fantasy II hasn't been released in the US. It was good, but it was surprising; I personally would've chosen something else.

They also played <i>Maybe I'm a Lion</i> (Final Fantasy VIII), and they even had a voice say "Maybe I'm a Lion" at the beginning! Honestly, The Black Mages were <i>awesome</i>. To be able to partake in The Black Mages' US debut was... glorious...

Guest star <b>RIKKI</b> also made her US debut with <i>Suteki Da Ne</i> (Final Fantasy X). I personally don't like the song; I like the melody and the music, but it's just the vocals. RIKKI's voice is really high pitched, and while I value her as a great singer, her voice just hurts my ears with its high pitch. There was nothing mega-special about the arrangement, but it was still a nice song. RIKKI was dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono, and her singing was top notch.

Next up was <b>Emiko Shiratori's</b> US debut, singing <i>A Place to Call Home ~ Melodies of Life</i> (Final Fantasy IX). The song started off with a theme from FFIX, and then slid into Melodies of Life. Miss Shiratori was wearing a european-style dress (I guess the singers were asked to dress according to the themes of the games), and she sang beautifully. The song was mostly in Japanese, although they snuck in an English verse in there. She also rushed a few times, but managed to recover. It's such a shame that some people only came for the vocals; everything in this concert was wonderful.

The next one, the supposedly last song, was a real treat. <i>OPERA "Maria & Draco"</i> from Final Fantasy VI was fantastic. The opera singers Stephanie Woodling, Chad Berlinghieri, and Todd Robinson were singing <i>in English</i> the opera scene from Final Fantasy VI. I think this must've been the first time the song was produced in English; I know there's an Italian edition, and probably Japanese. They did a fantastic job.

The concert was great. But... Mr. Uematsu was too generous. The Black Mages, along with the World Festival Symphony Orchestra began playing <i>One Winged Angel</i> (Final Fantasy VII)!!!! The choir was the <b>CSUF University Singers</b>. I don't believe this song was on the CD (I didn't have enough money to buy it), so this was a great addition for concert-goers! It was funny how it started off, though. I think the drummer couldn't catch the cue from Mr. Roth (well, can you expect a drumsetter to be able to just follow a conductor?), so they had to restart, like, three times. Mr. Uematsu got so exasperated that he left the stage (that's when I shouted out "I LOVE YOU!!!"). But the song got played, and we're all happy!

It was great. Hopefully soon I can get some pictures, but it was fantastic. I saw an Aeris cosplayer and complimented her on her costume. The Cloud next to her didn't have the hair. A black mage in the audience... he needed to spend more time on his costume. But I loved that concert... rock, pop, classical, opera... I'm glad I got to be a part of it.

I'm considering looking into the Dear Friends tour when it stops in San Diego in July, but in any case if there's a concert next year I'll definitely be going.

[Rune Lai]

Yes, I went. It was fun, but I won't write a big long issue due to time-constraints. In a nutshell, everyone loved the Black Mages. I can't imagine going to a concert of theirs just for itself, I don't think they were that strong as performers, with the exception of the solo guitarist and the drummer, who were really good. Uematsu himself was rather underwhelming, but the keyboardist is not exactly meant to be the spotlight in a rock band.

Swing de Chocobo was probably the best part, especially with all the FF chocobo footage. I don't think there was quite enough of that head-wagging chocobo from FFV. ^_^

I have not played FFVI so I was underwhelmed by the Maria and Draco opera. I don't like opera so listening to it out of context didn't do anything for me. On the other hand, I really liked Emiko Shiratori's performance despite not having played FFIX. I assume it's the same on the soundtrack, but I was pleased that she could actually sing in English that I could understand without having to read a lyric sheet (unlike some Japanese singers).

There was also an unnervingly loud POP kept going off during the first half of the show. My overactive imagination being what it is, I kept thinking someone was getting shot roughly once every song. It probably was a microphone problem since it was gone in the second half.

[love a riddle]

I'm glad I didn't spend the money on the CD; I heard that it was just rips from the OSTs, and not a recording of what they did at the concert. That bit.

[Alunissage]

Yep, both the CDs were just the in-game music, with the exception (I think) of the Balamb Garden from last year's being the arranged track from the orchestrated FFVIII CD. What particularly sucked about this is that several pieces from this year were repeats, so people who got both CDs now have repeats of tinny Aeris's Theme, etc. Not to mention that the idiot setting off caps in the first half (that's what we figured it was, rather than a microphone thing) totally marred some of the pieces. We were hoping that the CDs were recorded from a rehearsal or something so there'd be a copy without that, but no. Would've been better to not sell them at all than have those. I suppose Square figured they could get away with it because there haven't been CDs released domestically.

I can't imagine why anyone would've been surprised by the encore piece. When you have a chorus come in *after* the concert ends then clearly there will be a choral piece (not to mention that the CSUF singers had been listed as part of the concert earlier), and there haven't been that many in FF, have there? I couldn't get why last year people were surprised by One-Winged Angel either since the chorus had been sitting there the entire second half.

The audience wasn't quite as rude during the pieces this year as last year, but still pretty appalling. My sister really wanted to kick the person in front of her. I don't understand why people think it's acceptable to talk, shout, yell during concerts.

Since this is only the second concert in the US, it's rather silly to say that such-and-such was performed for the first time here. But James Arnold Taylor had lots of rather silly things to say, to pass time, I suppose.

Overall, the three of us (four, counting my friend who was sitting some distance away) had a pretty good time. My sister isn't very familiar with FF (nor am I, but I've listened to several of the soundtracks) but enjoyed it in general, I think preferring the orchestral performances, as I did. We got our cameras and such in but didn't take any pictures, as it would've been rude.

[love a riddle]

Well, it's also important to know that videogamers aren't exactly ones who attend concerts regularly, so it's a very different audience. Besides, even if what we did appeared as "rude", they were enthusiastic. People's emotions are the strongest when faced with something they truly care about, so seeing the enthusiasm with other fans was a blessing for myself.

If it was a guy with caps, though, I would happily join others in lynching him <3

In any case, it was an experience, with a very interesting audience.