As someone who grew up in the early days of video games—we’re talking Pong and the Atari 2600 here—I tend to associate video game sounds with crude and primitive bleeps and bloops. (Heck, in order to get game audio from our old TRS80 Model I Level I, we’d place an AM radio next to the monitor and tune it between stations. The changes in level and intensity of static was our accompaniment. But I digress…)
Gaming has come a long way since then, of course, and I think there’s no better evidence of this than Video Games Live, the national concert tour in which symphony orchestras and choirs perform music from games such as Final Fantasy, Tron, Frogger, and Earthworm Jim. As they say on their website, “It’s the power & emotion of a symphony orchestra mixed with the excitement and energy of a rock concert and the technology and interactivity of a video game all completely synchronized to amazing cutting edge video screen visuals, state-of-the-art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments with the audience.”
It’s a long way from bleeps and bloops, is what I’m sayin’.
VGL is coming to Seattle on Saturday and will include a debut of music from Halo 3:ODST. Halo Composers Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori are slated to make an appearance, as are Gabe & Tycho from Penny Arcade. Tickets are available here and more international TOUR DATES can be found on the VGL site.
UPDATE: Thanks to Andrea for forwarding a link to this article about VGL in today’s Seattle Times.
Want to make it a whole weekend of geeky music experiences? Don’t forget that internet troubadour and podcasting hero Jonathan Coulton will perform on Friday night at the Moore Theatre.
