Final Fantasy Distant Worlds
Mar. 2nd, 2008 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isaBoy, what a couple of days indeed. I'll skip over working, going up to see my parents, sammiches, getting a hold of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kmegumi2 for the concert, borrowing I-passes, meeting friends from ffxi, salmon at a steakhouse, chocomog bordellos, and midnight construction, among other things.
Because this was an awesome thing.
Everyone met up around 5:00 or so for dinner and then a little bit of relaxing in Mel and Kys's hotel room until about 6:30-7:00. Then we headed to the Rosemont Theatre for the concert.
We arrived shortly before 7:00, and were told to wait under the canopy until the doors opened. A few people had already gathered by the time we arrived, including a group of people in cosplay. Tifa and Reno were definitely there, and I believe Tseng as well. When the doors opened, everyone rushed to get in, and some scared looking theater workers scanned the tickets of all the scary fanboys and girls. Over the course of the night we also saw a Red and White Mage together and Edea.
Then came the long line for merchandise. Suckers that Muu and I were, we bought the program, a glossy book with artwork and little overviews of each game in the main series, as well as the concert CD recorded in Stockholm. They also had T-shirts with the Distant Worlds logo available. An announcement, that those with VIP tickets would get their CDs and programs after the show.
No, sadly, we were not VIPs. No chance to meet Uematasu.
Anyway, our seats were up in the balcony, though they weren't horrible. We were third row back, and our seats were pretty close to the center of the auditorium. I believe besides Uematsu, who was part of the audience that night, and Arnie Roth who conducted, the performers were all local, the Chicago Pops Orchestra, the chorus, and all of the solo performers. When Uematsu came out and took his seat in the audience, everyone there gave him a standing ovation.
The lights went down at eight, and the first piece of the night was Liberi Fatali set to footage of the FFVIII introduction. There were three screens on stage that for each piece would show footage of the game involved.
Arnie Roth came out on stage and introduced the concert and the next two pieces.
To Zanarkand was the big surprise of the night. It's also one of the few tracks not on the concert CD. I must say it was gorgeous, and the footage was mostly of Tidus and Yuna with a particular emphasis on Yuna dancing.
Don't Be Afraid, the battle theme from FFVIII was next, and the non-FMV footage got a chuckle from everyone, especially because the sound of footsteps and a dog barking really added to things. It was mostly the scene from the SEED tests only with Rinoa in the battle sequences instead of Selphie.
At this point, the conductors microphone came unplugged or lost a battery, something like that. So he had to introduce the next piece, "Aerith's Theme" without the help of the mike, which he had no problem doing. The footage for this one was the scene of Cloud and Aerith meeting at the chapel and then sitting on the playground before the whole events at Wall-Market. It closed with the FMV sequence of Aerith's death minus Sephiroth actually stabbing her.
The piece ended and a stage hand came out on stage, plugged in the microphone and recieved a huge round of applause from the audience. The next piece was a Medley from Final Fantasies I, II, and III. The scenes include the original 8-bit graphics from I and II and the new FMV sequences from FF III. The original Chocobo theme was included as part of this Medley, you'd have to ask someone else what the rest of the themes were.
"Dear Friends" was next, set to FFV footage and Amano Art, followed by "Vamo Alla Flamenco" from FFIX. Both of these had a solo from a Flamenco Guitarist.
The last piece before intermission was the "Final Fantasy Main Theme", and the footage from this one showed all the Final Fantasies from I-XII in sequence, without any of the new FMVs from DS versions of games.
After intermssion, everything started up again with the "Bombing Mission" from FFVII, set to the opening footage from the original FFVII. Then Fisherman's Horizon from FFVIII set to footage of Balamb Garden causing environmental damage wherever it went.
Probably my favorite piece of the evening, and probably because I'm such an FFXI geek was the "Distant Worlds" piece. The soloist who sang for Ulmia was wonderful, better than the one on the concert CD IMHO, and according to Mel and Kys who've finished the CoP storyline, better than the original soloist. Overall it was long and gorgeous, set to actual footage from the Chains of Promathia cutscenes as well as Amano art work.
The new FFIV footage and FMVs accompanied the "Theme of Love", and while it was gorgeous to look at, the parts with the non FMV characters seemed a little humorous and out of place compared to the music that was playing. The conductor told us that this Theme of Love was one of Uematsu's personal favorites.
Oh yeah, speaking of humorous, the next piece was "Swing de Chocobo", commemorating Chocobos. It started with the camera focused on an 8-bit chocobo running back and forth with the message "You caught a chocobo" and then showed various chocobo scenes from all the games.
After that, the orchestra played "Love Grows" from FFVIII (notice a lot of FFVIII and FFVII music being played) with the help of piano soloist. This time, the footage was of Squall and Rinoa as well as Laguna and Raine.
The big 'finale' piece, although the conductor only told us after the fact was the "Maria and Draco" opera scene from FFVI, including, of course, three soloists playing each part. I wish I'd have played through FFVI so I could tell you who sang what part, but it was all very lovely. Do I even need to mention what footage was played during the whole thing?
Like I said, after that, the conductor told us that was the last piece. The three opera singers came out to take their bows as well as Roth (the conductor) and Uematsu.
Of course there are encores.
Roth comes back out, and tells everyone there's an encore, and someone in the audience shouts out "One Winged Angel!" Roth gets this pseudo-indignant, "Why do you think it's going to be 'One-Winged Angel?' It doesn't have to be." And Terra's theme starts up to footage of FFVI Amano art, and then credits for the concert and footage put together with the opening sequence from FFVI where Terra, Biggs and Wedge are marching across the plain in the robot things. Everyone applauds.
The theme ends, and Roth leaves the stage again. The choir stays. Roth comes back out, says there's one more encore and that he doesn't even have to say it. Oh yes, and it's "One-Winged Angel" set to FFVII footage of Sephiroth combined with scenes from Advent Children. And when that ends, the concert is over.
Overall, I loved being there. I wish we had been able to get the VIP tickets, since they actually seem like a really good bargain, good seats, merchandise included, and backstage after the concert with Uematsu. Ah well, I'll remember that the next time an opportunity like this comes up.
kmegumi2 for the concert, borrowing I-passes, meeting friends from ffxi, salmon at a steakhouse, chocomog bordellos, and midnight construction, among other things.Because this was an awesome thing.
Everyone met up around 5:00 or so for dinner and then a little bit of relaxing in Mel and Kys's hotel room until about 6:30-7:00. Then we headed to the Rosemont Theatre for the concert.
We arrived shortly before 7:00, and were told to wait under the canopy until the doors opened. A few people had already gathered by the time we arrived, including a group of people in cosplay. Tifa and Reno were definitely there, and I believe Tseng as well. When the doors opened, everyone rushed to get in, and some scared looking theater workers scanned the tickets of all the scary fanboys and girls. Over the course of the night we also saw a Red and White Mage together and Edea.
Then came the long line for merchandise. Suckers that Muu and I were, we bought the program, a glossy book with artwork and little overviews of each game in the main series, as well as the concert CD recorded in Stockholm. They also had T-shirts with the Distant Worlds logo available. An announcement, that those with VIP tickets would get their CDs and programs after the show.
No, sadly, we were not VIPs. No chance to meet Uematasu.
Anyway, our seats were up in the balcony, though they weren't horrible. We were third row back, and our seats were pretty close to the center of the auditorium. I believe besides Uematsu, who was part of the audience that night, and Arnie Roth who conducted, the performers were all local, the Chicago Pops Orchestra, the chorus, and all of the solo performers. When Uematsu came out and took his seat in the audience, everyone there gave him a standing ovation.
The lights went down at eight, and the first piece of the night was Liberi Fatali set to footage of the FFVIII introduction. There were three screens on stage that for each piece would show footage of the game involved.
Arnie Roth came out on stage and introduced the concert and the next two pieces.
To Zanarkand was the big surprise of the night. It's also one of the few tracks not on the concert CD. I must say it was gorgeous, and the footage was mostly of Tidus and Yuna with a particular emphasis on Yuna dancing.
Don't Be Afraid, the battle theme from FFVIII was next, and the non-FMV footage got a chuckle from everyone, especially because the sound of footsteps and a dog barking really added to things. It was mostly the scene from the SEED tests only with Rinoa in the battle sequences instead of Selphie.
At this point, the conductors microphone came unplugged or lost a battery, something like that. So he had to introduce the next piece, "Aerith's Theme" without the help of the mike, which he had no problem doing. The footage for this one was the scene of Cloud and Aerith meeting at the chapel and then sitting on the playground before the whole events at Wall-Market. It closed with the FMV sequence of Aerith's death minus Sephiroth actually stabbing her.
The piece ended and a stage hand came out on stage, plugged in the microphone and recieved a huge round of applause from the audience. The next piece was a Medley from Final Fantasies I, II, and III. The scenes include the original 8-bit graphics from I and II and the new FMV sequences from FF III. The original Chocobo theme was included as part of this Medley, you'd have to ask someone else what the rest of the themes were.
"Dear Friends" was next, set to FFV footage and Amano Art, followed by "Vamo Alla Flamenco" from FFIX. Both of these had a solo from a Flamenco Guitarist.
The last piece before intermission was the "Final Fantasy Main Theme", and the footage from this one showed all the Final Fantasies from I-XII in sequence, without any of the new FMVs from DS versions of games.
After intermssion, everything started up again with the "Bombing Mission" from FFVII, set to the opening footage from the original FFVII. Then Fisherman's Horizon from FFVIII set to footage of Balamb Garden causing environmental damage wherever it went.
Probably my favorite piece of the evening, and probably because I'm such an FFXI geek was the "Distant Worlds" piece. The soloist who sang for Ulmia was wonderful, better than the one on the concert CD IMHO, and according to Mel and Kys who've finished the CoP storyline, better than the original soloist. Overall it was long and gorgeous, set to actual footage from the Chains of Promathia cutscenes as well as Amano art work.
The new FFIV footage and FMVs accompanied the "Theme of Love", and while it was gorgeous to look at, the parts with the non FMV characters seemed a little humorous and out of place compared to the music that was playing. The conductor told us that this Theme of Love was one of Uematsu's personal favorites.
Oh yeah, speaking of humorous, the next piece was "Swing de Chocobo", commemorating Chocobos. It started with the camera focused on an 8-bit chocobo running back and forth with the message "You caught a chocobo" and then showed various chocobo scenes from all the games.
After that, the orchestra played "Love Grows" from FFVIII (notice a lot of FFVIII and FFVII music being played) with the help of piano soloist. This time, the footage was of Squall and Rinoa as well as Laguna and Raine.
The big 'finale' piece, although the conductor only told us after the fact was the "Maria and Draco" opera scene from FFVI, including, of course, three soloists playing each part. I wish I'd have played through FFVI so I could tell you who sang what part, but it was all very lovely. Do I even need to mention what footage was played during the whole thing?
Like I said, after that, the conductor told us that was the last piece. The three opera singers came out to take their bows as well as Roth (the conductor) and Uematsu.
Of course there are encores.
Roth comes back out, and tells everyone there's an encore, and someone in the audience shouts out "One Winged Angel!" Roth gets this pseudo-indignant, "Why do you think it's going to be 'One-Winged Angel?' It doesn't have to be." And Terra's theme starts up to footage of FFVI Amano art, and then credits for the concert and footage put together with the opening sequence from FFVI where Terra, Biggs and Wedge are marching across the plain in the robot things. Everyone applauds.
The theme ends, and Roth leaves the stage again. The choir stays. Roth comes back out, says there's one more encore and that he doesn't even have to say it. Oh yes, and it's "One-Winged Angel" set to FFVII footage of Sephiroth combined with scenes from Advent Children. And when that ends, the concert is over.
Overall, I loved being there. I wish we had been able to get the VIP tickets, since they actually seem like a really good bargain, good seats, merchandise included, and backstage after the concert with Uematsu. Ah well, I'll remember that the next time an opportunity like this comes up.
