VIDEO- GAME SYMPHONY TAKES ON NEW MATERIAL.
Video Games Live was last in Saskatchewan in April 2011, but the show’s creator says the version at TCU Place on tonight will be almost an entirely new experience, compared to last year’s edition.
“Every year we completely change the show music and games,” said Tommy Tallarico, the well-known video game composer who produces and hosts Video Games Live. “For anyone who went to that show a year and a half ago, the lineup is 90 per cent different.”
The new segments will include music from Final Fantasy, Zelda, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Pokemon, Warcraft, Diablo III, Earthworm Jim, Mass Effect and other games.
The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra is part of the music-making, too.
“You don’t have to know a single thing about video games to come to the show and appreciate the music,” said Tallarico. “It is phenomenal, amazing music. It really is art and it is a cultural experience.
Billed as “the largest and most successful video game concert in the world,” Video Games Live has been performed in front of hundreds of thousands of people on five continents, according to promotional materials.
As in previous years, the concert experience includes lots of audience interaction, with a costume contest planned, as well as a Guitar Hero contest.
The song that competitors should be prepared for is Foo Fighters’ The Pretender, Tallarico said, noting the doors will open about 90 minutes early with the winner — who will be brought up on stage — chosen in a competition in the lobby before the show begins.
He said that “it’s one of those things that has something for everybody” and “really is kind of a family show.”
It appeals to grandparents who want to introduce their grandchildren to a symphony orchestra, and to a wide range of younger generations, too, Tallarico noted.
“When people go to our show, there is a sense of nostalgia,” he continued. “It’s not just young kids who play video games. The average person who plays a video game is 34 years old. People in their 20s and 30s see Zelda and Mario and stuff on screen, and I think it brings back memories of their childhoods.”
According to the media release for the show, this year’s conductor is Grammy Award-winning video game composer Christopher Tin, who penned the well-known Baba Yetu theme from Sid Meier’s Civilization IV.
Tickets for the show range in price from $39.50 to $69.50 (plus applicable fees and service charges) and are available online at www. tcutickets.ca.