jb Jul 22, 2007 (edited Jul 22, 2007)
This one will be a lot shorter of a read, I did not write anything down and this is all from memory.
One thing to note is that photography and video recording WAS permitted, just as long as there was no flash and there was no recording sounds (beeps, clicks). You will probably start to see them on Youtube and Google Video shortly. I know my friend will be putting up 4 or 5 of them.
The tracklist, in no particular order because I can't remember it was something like this (It was a 2 hour set! 
):
1. Tuning
2. Romeo x Juliet song
3. Canta per me (Noir - Anime)
4. Not sure on what this was from, my friend thought it was from Utena
5. Odin Sphere Main Theme
6. Mononoke Hime theme
7. Laputa theme
8. Totoro theme
8b. Ferris Wheel - Lia, composed by Sakimoto, that solo album thing.
9. Romeo x Juliet song - They gave the title but I can't remember, it sounded like Orgesomething.
10. Anna ni Issho Datta no ni (ED2 from Gundam Seed, extremely rearranged for orchestra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS0Qxy6RTmg)
11. Beyond the Clouds (from Beyond the Clouds, a movie by the director who did 5cm which debuted at the show, composed by a composer called "Tenmon")
12. Romeo x Juliet Song
13. Romeo x Juliet Song
14. Romeo x Juliet Song
15. Hako no niwa
16. Radical Dreamers?
17. Can't remember
18. Thanatos (Evangelion)
19. Pain? I think?
Encore
20. Super Mario Brothers medley
21. Scars of Time
I think that is close, will update with more correctness as my friends get back to me.
Here's a rundown of the particular songs that I can recall:
- The Romeo x Juliet songs were good but seeing as how I've never watched the anime save episode 1, I didn't recognize them or their tunes. They were alright.
- I am not really a fan of Yuki Kajiura but the songs were done well I guess. My friend is a big fan, he enjoyed them.
- Mononoke Hime main theme was done well, but without a full orchestra backing them it doesn't do the song any justice. Was still very emotional
- Laputa main theme was done VERY well. I think the limited instrumentation they had with them was all you need for that particular song.
- Totoro theme was great and jovial.
- Anna ni Issho Datta no ni from Gundam Seed was really really good. They rearranged this quite a bit (per my friend) and it sounded wonderful when they played it. The piano work the pianist did was very heavy and very fast.
- Beyond the Clouds was also suprisingly great. I didn't know where it was from until my friend told me. There is a very light arrangement on the Tenmon guys website I think.
- Hako no niwa was just as boring as the one on the cd 
- Radical Dreamers was alright.
- Thanatos was done well, but it really is just a classical song put into Evangelion and rearranged by Shiro Sagisu. The players with their classical training really didn't have a problem playing it.
- Pain: *yawn*
- Super Mario Brothers Medley: Great medley, they did I think most of the memorable tunes from Super Mario 1, the stage theme, castle, boss (?) and even the end diddy when you tag the flag. The pianist did a wonderful 3 key chord in quick succession that sounded EXACTLY like Mario hitting a coin box, the crowd got a chuckle out of it. I recognized the regular early stage theme from Super Mario for the SNES.
- Scars of Time was good too!
Some particulars on the actual concert itself.
The crowd was better than the FF crowd about clapping as they started playing, they only did it on the Mario medley which wasn't a big deal. I attribute it to the fact that they didn't have a display showing FMVs/images of what it was from.
There were two MCs, one was the manager of Eminence or something, or some PR rep. He was fine. There was also Piano Squall doing some MCing, and eh. He was a very nice guy at the booth, very friendly and very open for conversation, but when he was on stage he kind of seemed a little bit rude with some of the jokes he was doing with the MC from Eminence, joking about Australia and stuff. I guess it turned out okay, it was well received by the crowd. Kind of reminds me of Tallarico though...
Something interesting to note they did introduce Sakimoto and said some things that we already knew/know about him. But the concert master (Hiroaki Yura) is good friends with Sakimoto and Mitsuda and shared some interesting information about Mitsuda. Apparently Mitsuda was very athletic in high school and that was what he was good at, but had a calling when he was like 20 to go back and do music. He later worked for Square as a sound programmer but wanted to do composition, Yura shared with us Mitsuda's first interview at Squaresoft and how he got his first job. I guess he walked into the office and sat down with Uematsu at his desk, to which Uematsu asked Mitsuda if he knew of the Final Fantasy series, to which Mitsuda replied, "uh, I know Dragon Quest". The second question he was asked was what he saw himself accomplishing at Squaresoft to which he replied, "Well I was hoping to use it as a stepping stone for my career." lol. Uematsu was so impressed with his work that he hired him anyway, despite bombing the interview. 
