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.

It looks like the Dorkbot folks are still recovering from their “Strange Things” show back in December and January, but they’re getting back into the swing of it with a full new meeting in March. The dorks will be hosting an audio-themed event this month, with three guests: Jim Owen (electronic /orchestral composer), Doug Haire (Sonarchy, KEXP), and Mike McCracken (Audible Avatar). Dorkbot is no longer about people doing strange things with electricy… it’s about people just doing strange things. And if you go, you’re always guaranteed to see something brilliant you haven’t seen before.