Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the
Distant Worlds performance (a Final Fantasy concert touring the world) on its inaugural Australia appearance at the Sydney Opera House.
I'm a big fan of attending video game concerts - a regular stalker of
Eminence, and lucky enough to catch Play! back in Sydney a few years ago and Press Start! in Japan one summer. These inevitably feature at least one or two tracks from Final Fantasy - with 14 games with music, not even counting the spin-offs, it has amassed a truly impressive array of themes, and its popularity is large enough that it's usually guaranteed a spot on the setlist. But a dedicated Final Fantasy performance was something rather special, and something I never imagined would ever make it over to Australia.
And at the Sydney Opera House too! Play! was held here a few years ago, but there's still something rather exciting about seeing a poster for a video game concert amidst advertisements for famous musicals and operas and ballets.
One and only shot from the inside. Technically you're not supposed to take pictures, but the rule seems very poorly enforced. I am always surprised by how small the Concert Hall in the Opera House is. Had a fantastic seat, worth paying the premium price.
The vibe of excitement at this concert was unbelievable. There was an absolute crush of people at the merchandise stall the minute the doors opened! They were selling the CDs of past performance recordings, as well as a DVD, T-shirt, posters, the usual paraphernalia.
Nobuo Uematsu came out and sat in with the audience, the clapping and cheering when he turned up was amazing. He played up the crowd very well, no doubt experienced at concerts by now (seems like every single concert on the Distant Worlds tour has him there as a guest, wonder when on earth he gets the time to write FFXIV's soundtrack).
The big screen set up played relevant footage for each piece of music, which was a nice touch, and occasionally hilarious when they turned back to old-school graphics. The symphony was being performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by the choir 'Cantillation'. And sponsored by BigPond, which was vaguely baffling but whatever it takes.
They opened with FFVII: Prelude - which is a darn good choice of a rendition for the classic main Final Fantasy melody. It's always a very emotional experience hearing such familiar music orchestrated and performance.
FFVIII: Liberi Fatali was amazing to hear live, and surely a track that would have been worth holding on to until later in the concert. Though I will break away here with my one small complaint from the concert - everyone would get super-excited when they recognised the piece (Despite the set list in the program, a lot of people apparently don't know the track names and so were somehow surprised) and would start cheering and clapping, and while I can't blame them because I kind of wanted to cheer and clap too, guys, you're drowning out the music. It's not a rock concert!
This was especially prevalent in the following Victory Theme, which was so short as to barely warrant a place on the program and the entire thing got drowned out by excited applause.
Fortunately somewhere halfway through the first set everybody mostly got their giddy impulses under control. If nothing else, it must have been novel for the Sydney Symphony.
Next was FFX: To Zanarkand. This is a beautiful piece, and the extra texture rendered by a live performance makes it nearly heartbreaking.
FFVIII: Don't Be Afraid (better known as the FFVIII battle theme) was awesome, but that surprises nobody.
FFV: Dear Friends slowed things up a bit. This piece has a very Greensleeves sort of feel, but it's very pretty and the symphony made me like it a lot more than I used to.
FFIX: Vamo' alla Flemenco: This one was the big surprise of the night for me. I recalled the music quite clearly from the game, and while I liked it, didn't expect much from the orchestration. I was sorely mistaken. This track fairly exploded with energy, the original version is now forever trash. This is a lesson in adaptation.
FFVIII: Aerith's Theme. Dammit, even Nobuo Uematsu is spelling it Aerith now. There's never any words to do this one justice. You just say 'Aerith's theme' and everyone understands.
FFVIII: Fisherman's Horizon: A fun, more light-hearted piece. Brilliantly done, but not my favourite. Sort of an odd choice, really.
Especially when it's immediately overshadowed by FFV: Clash on the Big Bridge! FFV's music was largely forgettable for me, but this track is far and away my favourite, and they did a fantastic job with it. It was so bombastic! Sydney Symphony were absolutely perfect in their execution and dynamics.
Chocobo Medley 2010 was kind of hilarious, mostly because the video guy clearly had waaaaaay too much fun mixing his rather selected clips of chocobo footage together in interesting ways. Had both the traditional chocobo theme and samba-de-chocobo!
Then to close out the first set - FFVII: J-E-N-O-V-A.
Second set opened with perennial classic FFVII: Opening - Bombing Mission. This piece never fails to send shivers down my spine.
...They sure had a lot of FFVII pieces. Not that I'm complaining. But we missed out on
anything from FFI-IV.... Fans are greedy.
(Next on the wishlist is The Price of Freedom.)
Then - Surprise guest! Japanese pop idol
Kanon turned up to sing
Suteki da ne and FFXI's
Memoro de la Stono. She did a
fantastic job, I'm always surprised whenever I hear a pop idol sing so beautifully live!
Don't know why, must be all the lip-syncing scandals we normally get.
They took a brief break from Uematsu to play some of Masashi Hamauzu's work - specifically
FFXIII: Fabula Nova Crystallis (which truth be told was a fairly non-descript and very short piece - normally associated with Serah). Would have preferred to hear the
Oerba Village theme, really. Next was
FFXIII: Blinded By Light (much more
awesome piece better known as Lightning's theme, or the main battle music of FFXIII.) This was perhaps the only piece where they may have dropped the ball slightly with the arrangement - the dynamics didn't feel quite as punchy live as on CD, and percussion kept crowding out the main melody. But then, they've likely had far less time to perfect this arrangement compared to the rest. Still very enjoyable.
They also called it a preview, which is kind of hilarious for a game that's been out in Australia for over a year now.
Then FFXIV: Navigator's Glory - The Theme of Limsa Lominsa! Great piece. A real tragedy that I will never play FFXI or FFXIV. Fortunately that doesn't stop you from enjoying the music.
Also FFXIV: Primal Judgement. Equally cool. Seeing the nice hi-def trailer footage was neat.
Followed by a real treat...
FFVI: Opera 'Maria and Draco'! Complete with opera soloists!
This one just blew me out of the water. It gave me chills. This is the thing I like best about game concerts - when they take older games with less sophisticated soundtracks but still beautiful melodies, and give them the big budget orchestration they deserve.
It was also a little eerily fourth-wall breaking. As though you're attending the opera scene yourself, one of the many NPCs in the audience.
They closed out the program with FFVI: Terra's Theme. They also ran a credits sequence for the performance during this, which was a fun idea and a good way to give appreciation to the performers and everyone who worked behind the scenes.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the encore was FFVII: One Winged Angel. I just don't get sick of hearing this one live. (Though it is reaching the point where they should seriously consider shelving it for a few years to give some other pieces a slice of the limelight).
Only the one encore, unfortunately, despite some very insistent clapping and whistling and even a standing ovation. That is the difference between Sydney Symphonic Orchestra and Eminence - Eminence are in it for the love of that particular music and will keep coming back until they run out of encores/get too tired/get kicked out of the venue. (*Never misses a chance to plug Eminence*). But I cannot fault them. It was a nigh flawless performance.
Another one crossed off the bucket list. Attended a Final Fantasy concert. \o/
