So what if it's not headline news, here is the tracklist for Play!, as posted from just prior to the concert itself.

Marvel at the lack of new FF arrangements, and i'm sure others will post reviews of their own afterwards.

- Seph

P.S. i'm here looking for you, fellow STCers! Where are you?

1. Play! A Video Game Symphony - Fanfare
2. Final Fantasy VIII - Liberi Fatali
3. Super Mario Bros. - Suite
4. Shenmue & Shenmue II - Sedge Tree
5. Battlefield 1942 & Battlefield 2 - Suite
6. Final Fantasy VII - Aerith's Theme
7. Sonic The Hedgehog - Suite
8. Metal Gear Solid - Main Theme
9. Kingdom Hearts - Suite
intermission
10.  The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Suite
11. Final Fantasy Series - Swing de Chocobo
12. Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross - Suite
13. World of Warcraft - Suite
14. Silent Hill 2 - Theme of Laura
15. Halo - Suite
16. The Legend of Zelda - Suite
17. Final Fantasy VII - One-Winged Angel

torrent plz

No Blue Dragon?

More like TICKETS PLZ! 
It's well worth seeing this in person, do it!!

(yes there was blue dragon, my impressions are in the other Play Chicago thread)

Huge letdown for Nobuo Uematsu fans. I mean, it's just the usual suspects... and nothing else!!

The show was pretty ridiculous. I was really humbled to be in the same theater with all of these people that I've grown so fond of; I had to hold back a nut when I saw Mitsuda. I almost clapped my hands to bloody stumps when they introduced Marty O'Donnel & Michael Salvatori. And Koji Kondo! He's such a cute old man.

The show itself was not a disappointment in the least, and was definitely worth the money and the 21+ hour ride from home to here. I guess there's going to be another show in DC this year, and I'm going to try to get tickets to that one as well. Even if there aren't a lot of composers there, the experience will be worth it.

Side note: they were selling some Sleigh Bells CDs at the merch booth, and I'm happy to report that by the time I left they were all sold out of Moonlit Shadow and Sailing to the World. I'm sure Mitsuda was happy.

It seems the concert experience was as good as I can guess it was.

Nice that Mitsuda were selling his own CDs! What other soundtracks were available?

We want some photos and stories about the Meet & Greet!

Hey guys,

Took a while, but here's a morning after report.

First Half
Play! A Video Game Symphony - The show began with, of course, the Play! fanfare, which seemed to have some volume problems at first, but overall was much better than the rendition on the web site. 
Liberi Fatali - After that was Liberi Fatali -- good performance, better than the Dear Friends recording I heard, but still same song. 
Super Mario Bros. Suite - Next up was the first major surprise of the evening, when Koji Kondo was introduced onto the stage to play a Mario piano solo.  It was cute, if not of the impressive caliber of the rest of the show.  Also it was from the New SMB, which according to Kirin, Kondo did not do any of the composing.  So what to make of him bouncing on stage (think Miyamoto's silliness plus Hideo Kojima demeanor) with a piano ditty, I don't know.  Afterwards, the orchestra continued with a very nice SMB arrangement I had not heard anywhere previously, including the main theme, dungeon theme, the main theme from Super Mario World as well as an level theme from Super Mario 64.  Has this been performed anywhere else?  It certainly wasn't the OGC4 version I was kind of fearing it might be. 
Shenmue & Shenmue 2 - Next was Sedge Tree from Shenmue, probably be my least favorite of the night.  Like several of the songs, this felt a bit rushed, which hurt a slow song like this more than others.  The chinese Erhu that features so importantly was substituted with an oboe that just couldn't fire the emotion quite as well.
Battlefield 1942 & Battlefield 2 - This would have been "just another song" but for the appearance of solo percussionist Ronnie Barak.  He came on stage with funky black robes and an arabic-adorned hand drum and lit up the night.  I can't say how much his solo comes from the Battlefield music, but it was amazing.  It was followed by an upbeat and well-performed (if unfamiliar to me) medley of songs, also accompanied by Ronnie Barak.
Aerith's Theme - sounded fine, you've heard it a million times and it was no worse this time.
Sonic the Hedgehog - I'll have to defer to Kirin or someone better acquainted with it, but Arnie Roth stated it was a new arrangement by Yuzo Koshiro (despite being unable to say his name properly).  The audience laughed several times as new songs came in, and I thought it was one of the more swinging numbers.
Metal Gear Solid - I'm not sure if this was the same rendition played at VGL, but it was very good, if a little fast.  I'm not used to a choral presence in the MGS theme, but it was put to good use.  If it had any negatives, it would be a bit of overuse of that base MGS melody.
Kingdom Hearts & Kingdom Hearts 2 - The final song before intermission was a "suite" from Kingdom Hearts, and by "suite" I mean the orchestral lead in to Hikari from KH1 plus the orchestral version of Passion / Sanctuary from KH2.  I thought it was the best overall performance in the first half, if a no-frill performance of material most of us have on CD already.

Second Half
Angela Aki - Not listed in the program, the show returned from intermission with Angela Aki performing both Kiss Me Goodbye (in English) and "her version" of Eyes On Me.  Now, I don't know where some people get off criticizing her after FF has seen Faye Wong and RIKKI, and I hear at the signing a couple days prior she was subpar, but tonight she was excellent.  Opinions of KMG itself aside, she knocked it out, and she brought coherent English and real passion to EOM.  Not to mention an excellent pianist and smokin' hot!
Morrowind & Oblivion - This was a downer for some, but I've always been a fan of Jeremy Soule and a recent Elder Scrolls fan.  This set of two pieces included multiple songs from each game and ranged from light and airy to the booming main themes.
Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross - Here is what many, including I, were waiting for, and for anyone curious it did not disappoint an ounce.  Ronnie Barak returned to the stage, though he sat silent most of the time, as the orchestra began with Reminiscence - Feelings Not Erased.  That segued rather abruptly into Time's Scar, which they played in its entirety (with Barak tearing things up after the tempo picks up).  That led into the main CT theme, Frog's Theme, and ended on To Far Away Times.  Some of the latter arrangements were very similar to the synth versions on the PSX OST, but it was easily the most emotional piece for any fan of the music, bringing melodramatic sap tears to several of our eyes.  Mitsuda should so make an album out of this stuff.
World of Warcraft - Pretty close to the original versions from the game, beginning with Stormwind's theme, then several outdoor themes, and ending with the Main Titles: Legends of Azeroth.  A couple people expressed consternation at the overuse of Warcraft 3 footage on the screens throughout, but the music was spot on.
Silent Hill 2 - Akira Yameoka took the stage like a rock star with his electric guitar and snakeskin jacket for Theme of Laura.  He got the crowd going with his antics, and the song was as good as a live orchestra + electric guitar combo can be.  He did have a backup guitarist out of sight whose part was extremely close to his, occasionally making it look like he was pulling a Milli Vanilli on us (although when he was playing it was definitely him).
Halo - Main Theme plus a couple.  Well done, and we've all heard the Halo theme before, but like many songs here that have already been orchestrated, the differences between tonight's performance and the note perfect recordings stand out.
Blue Dragon - The final big surprise of the evening was a suite from Blue Dragon which, obviously, none of us had heard before.  It was solid Uematsu, in a positive sense, and only lacked the emotional connection with the audience that comes from having played the game (which incidentally looked a little questionable).  That said, it did not stand out as spectacular either.
Zelda Suite - Much (and vocally) anticipated, it began with the title song to Ocarina of Time, with a very nice piccolo solo.  This segued into the main Zelda overworld theme, which was interrupted briefly with the town theme (I believe... will have to double check) from Link to the Past.  I thought this, like the MGS theme, played things pretty safe, meaning it was imminently hummable, but nothing we haven't heard before.  Hearing the overworld theme explode from an orchestra is always stirring for a fan of game music, of course.
One-Winged Angel - Reunion Tracks version, it was good.

Final Thoughts...

The lack of a prepared encore was easily the most disappointing part of the night, and the fact that Arnie Roth returned to the stage just to play One-Winged Angel AGAIN just drove it home.  It was great to hang out, drink shots, and be supreme game music nerds with people from the forum, without which it would have been a less memorable evening.

If I had come just to hear Uematsu's music, I would have come away disappointed, only because there was so little I had not heard before.  But to me, this was more a night to honor every other game composer present, and where it counted (CT, KH, SMB/Zelda), Play! absolutely delivered.

Nothing to do with the performance itself, but I'd also like to air my frustration with some of the audience at the show.  It costs the same, looks the same, and in some ways sounds the same as any formal evening at the symphony, and should be attended in the same kind of dress.  I can forgive people without jackets and slacks and even well-done cosplayers, but ripped t-shirts and jeans just look disrespectful.  That, combined with the constant stream of cat calls whenever the conductor began to speak made us, as game music fans, look like the unsophisticated juveniles we long not to be in attending these concerts.  I hate to say it, but things like that make me think maybe Video Games Live may be the more proper setting for some of these people -- a night to see videogames on stage, rather than to honor the composers of their music.

Sephiro444, I definetely agree that the audience was disrespectful and rude, which was very sad, though I have to admit that I enjoyed the Tetris shoutout.  Having never gone to a vgm concert before everything was amazing for me, and meeting Mitsuda was a dream come true....

Some observations -

Uematsu and his English are soooo cute!
The opening of the Crono Trigger/Cross suite "Reminiscence" was my favorite, and the entire piece was great, though I thought it to be a bit rushed (the transitions).  Chrono Cross deserves more than one little piece, sigh......

Did any of you get to talk to the composers? Oh god, I really want to meet Mitsuda.

And the gaming audience are frequenly unaware of concert etiquette, because they simply don't go to concerts often.

Yeeeah! Word to that, man.

A little bit, but because I was so nervous my Japanese wasn't the best

i was bored to death the first half,,,  thank god the chrono (or craano as roth pronounced it) medley and Theme of laura saved the nite... 

i went to the concert after spending 7 fricking hours moving my furniture to my new place,,,
i also think i was the only person wearing a tye-dye shirt...

shana and i were in section 106, row CC... im sure glad i didnt fork out 125$a ticket for this one...

Totally!  That and the Chrono arrangement were probably my highlights of the night.  You guys were fun to hang out with!

Man, you guys actually hung out and went drinking? Hehe, in retrospect, it's too bad the group who made it to Dear Friends in L.A. didn't coordinate an after-concert get-together...And if you guys did, you left me out of it. =P

glad to hear it wasa a success, although I too am saddened to hear about the audience's apparent lack of etiquette. I would've loved to hear an orchestrated CT piece...*sob* I hope this concert comes out on soundtrack eventually.

The best thing about the whole night for me was being able to meet, shake hands with, and get stuff signed by all the composers.  Some more of my favorite moments would be..

Takenobu Mitsuyoshi screaming "Daaaaaayooooooonaaaaa" at the meet and greet when my friend put his Daytona USA soundtrack on the table for him to sign.  Man that was priceless.  And on a similar note.. every time I put down some rare/old CD for one of them to sign, they all went "oooh" or "awww" like they were amazed I had these albums.  Koshiro was the loudest and most excited in this department when I showed him my Bare Knuckle CD.  Takenobu thought me having him sign the Street Fighter Tribute CD was funny too cause he laughed when I gave it to him and then he said something in japanese, heh.  I had Mitsuda sign CREID, Mitsuyoshi sign SF Tribute, Koshiro sign Bare Knuckle and the program, Akira Yamaoka sign the original Silent Hill OST, and everyone else just signed my program.

So we're about to cross the street to go check out the theatre a few hours before the show and I'm like.. Woah.. that's Uematsu over there with some asian girl.  After staring at them for a few seconds I realized that the "asian girl" was actually Mitsuda (our bad!) and I got a little nervous.  So they crossed, came right at us, and since neither of my friends said anything, I was just like.. "Hey what's up" or something to Uematsu.  He stopped, shook my hand and said thank you.  Mitsuda just kept walking though which was the funny part, cause I got the feeling that he thought we didn't know who he was and wouldn't have felt right shaking our hands or something.  Little did he know that I'm actually a bigger Mitsuda fan than I am a Uematsu fan.. by far.  Oh well.  That was damn cool regardless, just running into them on the street like that.

Shenmue!  Probably my favorite performance overall.  They nailed that arrangement and the scenes they were showing all fit perfectly with the music.

Angela Aki.. wow.  I liked Kiss Me Good-Bye before Saturday night, but hearing her sing it and play the piano live right in front of me like that was truly amazing.  Her voice is beautiful and she's got some real piano skills.  "Her version" of Eyes On Me ruled too, I like the twist she put on it.  Hers was one of the few performances of the night that actually gave me chills.

Akira Yamaoka's stage presence and energy were both incredible.  He knew how to get the crowd pumped and he owned on his guitar.  I so got chills when he ran out on stage with his tongue out while doing the "metal hand sign" thing.  I love that guy, haha <3

Right after the show ended, the composers all walked by one more time and some people were shaking their hands and just saying hey as they were leaving.  My one friend turned to one of them and started yelling "Hey Mitsuda!  Mitsuda over here!" or something and so I joined in.  He turned around, shook my hand, and then just kept moving.  Turns out it was Koshiro (they look MAD similar from the back and side) all along.  We could not stop laughing about that all night while drunk and even the next day while sober.

Koji Kondo's passion for his music and how he really got into it.  Sure he was moving his neck like a chicken on crack, but whatever, that just shows how much he loves his work.  I have a lot more respect for that guy now.

.. and I only have two complaints..

Two-Winged Angel?  WHY!?  That's five times now I've seen OWA performed live.  I realize it's an awesome piece of music and everybody likes it, but they make it out to be like the musical equivalent of God himself.  Me and my friend were just laughing the whole time it played the second time.  They could have done anything as an encore, why this??  Final Fantasy is good and all, but there was way too much of it in this show.  One or two pieces from the FF series would be fine, we didn't need 4-5 plus Uematsu's Blue Dragon.  Where's Castlevania?  Mega Man?  Xenogears?  Vagrant Story?  Come on guys, stop being such Uematsu whores.

You people in the audience need to stop the giggling when game footage comes on the screens and when they play chocobo music.  Showing some gameplay from the original Sonic the Hedgehog while the Sonic medley is playing is NOT meant to be funny.  This has happened at every game concert I've been to so far.  Grow up people

----

So yeah.. coming from someone who's been to four of these things now (More Friends, Dear Friends twice, and now this), I can easily say that PLAY! owned them all.  The orchestra was better, the music selection was better, seeing/meeting all those composers was GREAT, and seeing Akira Yamaoka on stage playing Theme of Laura live = HELL yeah!

For anyone who went, I was the only one there (as far as I could tell) who was wearing a black Contra t-shirt.  So if you saw me or talked to me, let me know.  Aside from Zane and Chudah that is, since I met both of them before the show and they were both awesome.  Especially Zane for hooking us up with the booze since we couldn't drive anywhere (stupid $11 hotel parking!).  Thanks man, none of it went to waste

Pictures from our trip and from the concert can be found here.

-Mike

Great photos of the concert! Nice to see Yamaoka performing

Weren't you allowed to take photos on the meet and greet?

Did you notice if any TV or radio stations where there to cover the concert?

Wow, I'm really surprised these composers were so wacky.  I think that would have been worth the money, even knowing the 2/3 of the program would be a snooze.

Okay, here's the real tragedy of this series.  I'm listening to DOC's "The Immaculate" and thinking, that program is TRASH compared to a single great tune by Hamauzu.

I would go to Vienna if Hamauzu showed up.  Not the one in Virginia.  The actual one.

Here is an excerpt from my sister's experience at Play:

I'm curious about the signing and the crowd...Did a lot of other people know many of the composers? I would expect Uematsu and maybe Mitsuda to be known. But someone like Mitsuyoshi, only the hardcore VGM fans would know. Were other people bringing CD's to sign?

Heh, if I had copies, I'd have loved to see the look on Koshiro's face if I had asked him to sign a copy of Music from Ys, Music from Ys 2 or Sorcerian (he took part in composing them, then ended up selling the rights to Falcom, who proceded to arrange the hell out of them.)

I'm glad to see these composers getting some spotlight outside of Japan (even the ones I'm not terribly fond of), but I'll probably make more of an effort to attend one once they move it away from the symphonic setting...This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Hehe, well, Uematsu was pretty wacky at the Dear Friends concert. I was a bit concerned about Yoshitaka Amano at DF, though...he was very stoic and serious compared to Uematsu and.....gaaah, I forget who the other surprise guest was!

Anyway, yeah. Nice to hear that the composers were so offbeat, heh.

Wasn't Sakaguchi there, too?  It's been so long...

Oh, and no, we didn't leave you out of any drinking plans back then.  In fact, you would have been one of the first people I'd invite if there were any!

Uematsu would be the best grandpa ever.

Here's an article + interviews with Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda!

http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=518

"Dancing Mad" and Chrono Cross Arrange Album

Very, very nice to hear that the CC arranged album will be coming out within the next year, and whatmore, it being acoustic. Ace.

What could Mitsuda's next "big" thing be?  I doubt it's Square, given all the projects they just announced.  He's done some Nintendo stuff, so maybe that?

I'm almost betting it's one of the Mistwalker titles. I don't see Uematsu cranking out two soundtracks just like that and Mitsuda probably has strong ties with the people there.

Besides, one of them is supposed to strongly resemble the Chrono series anyway and he's expressed plenty of interest in composing for the series.

That's where my money is.

Could also explain why Mitsuda & Uematsu were particularly close during this outing, and also why Uematsu says that he's composing ~10 tracks for Lost Odyssey. It's possible that Mitsuda is doing the rest of the soundtrack..

We'll see..

Hmm, nice interviews, they did a pretty good and squeezed out some nice info 

But Uematsu has his own production company now, like Sakimoto.  So I would assume his underlings (Oh the irony) would do the rest. 

On the other hand, loyalty to cohesiveness didn't stop the bizarre inclusion of Shinji Hosoe's lackeys on Musashi II along with Square regulars, to do like five tracks.

Wavelike Zeal is related somehow to Supersweep? I didn't know that. I just thought Iwai 1&2 were old Capcom freelancers.

Yes, you are right. Takayuki and Yuki are freelance composer, and are not affiliated with Super Sweep.

Nice video coverage:

http://www.gametrailers.com/downloadnew … ype=mov&f=

(click for Quicktime or Windows Media format)