Video Games Live!

Last Saturday (April 30th), I went to Video Games Live! This is the 2nd time they've come to Montreal after about 2-3 years. Tommy Tallarico said: "What took us so long to come back here?!" (that's what everyone's thinking). He also mentions that "in every interview about VGL, I say that Montreal is the loudest crowd in North America". Tommy knows how to make us feel special. :3

This is my 2nd time going to VGL and it was in a much larger venue this time. I was on the ground floor in row L near the middle of my row. Despite being the 12th row from the front, I had a great view and enjoyed the show a lot.

The first time they came to Montreal, Tommy was on stage in a cardboard box (MGS anyone?). This time, he just walked out on stage with his awesome guitar. They started out with the old school games medley. My favourite part is the bleeps and bloops of Pong. XD Tommy also mentions that the orchestra playing was Medici McGill. I felt so special because I go to McGill and I've heard them play before (well, in the medical building's cafeteria while I was busy writing a midterm in the auditorium next door ^_^"). Tommy also mentioned that the choir was a bunch of "local" people. I'm local! *pout*

(*Note: The following list of things I mention are not in the order they were performed unless clearly indicated.)

Tommy mentions that a Grammy award was given to a video game song. The song from Civilization IV begins to play. I can see why it won an award because it's a really beautiful piece of music.

So more awesomeness ensues with music from WoW, God of War, Shadow of the Collossus, etc. Of course, the famous Halo music plays with Master Chief making an apperance on stage, waving a huge flag.

Tommy mentions about how video game composers sometimes have to write music with lyrics to them. They bring out Laura Intravia (who is famous for playing the flute for the VGL tour) to be the lead singer for Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater opening. It's very James Bond-y.

Tommy also mentions that wouldn't it be cool for the orchestra to play music at the same time as the CG movie of a game plays? Of course! The opening scene of Assassin's Creed II is then performed by the orchestra.

A bunch of contests happened after intermission. The first was a drawing for video game consoles and 12 tickets to go to Otakuthon. >.< What was funny is that one person won all 12 tickets. I thought they'd be a bit smarter than that and give the tickets in pairs or singles. @.@ Best part of that segment was Tommy having a tough time pronouncing all the names he pulled out. XD

Of course, there was the Frogger competition between 2 dudes. Yan, who is vingt-neuf ans (XD), had such long flowing hair that Tommy decided to call him "Jesus". The other contestant was a 15-year-old kid named Mikey who was really tall. Tommy checks his height with Mikey. I squeed at Tommy's realization that he's shorter than a kid half his age. X3 Yan went first and Tommy made comments like "You're Jesus, you can just walk on water" XD. In the end, Yan won, but Mikey got a consolation prize at least with Tommy joking around saying that their might be Frogger in their for him to practice.

There was also the Rock Band competition. This time it was the Van Halen version and a 16-year-old dude comes on stage to play, since he had the highest score of the game at the booth outside. Tommy notices how tall this guy is and is wondering what we're eating here in Montreal and he wants some of it. XD Of course, Tommy says that the guy needs to get over 400k on hard to win the prize.
What does the crowd say? "Expert!"
What does the dude say" "Expert."
What does Tommy say? "You want expert?! Ok, give him expert!" XD
The guy wins easily. But it was exhilarating watching him play through the song with the entire orchestra and Tommy playing along with him, especially when the song says "jump", Tommy actually jumped with his guitar. Tommy, why are you so awesome. X3

One of my favourite segments comes up: Martin Leung!!! He is known as "the dude who played Super Smash Bros. medley blindfolded yo". Guess what? He decided to play the medley blindfolded!!! He got a standing ovation for that. He also comes back later on in the show to play a Final Fantasy medley (no blindfold) and he gets another standing ovation. There were people in the crowd bowing down to him. I bowed down too. His awesomeness cannot be measured.

Laura Intravia also comes back on stage to do a skit that got her famous and she was introduced as FluteLink. She cosplayed as Link with a Navi beside her head. Basically, it was a "who's better at playing this instrument" kind of skit. It was a back and forth of "Link" and Navi playing Legend of Zelda music on the flute. Link wins (I think), but kicks Navi off the stage, literally, for good measure.

Tommy ends the show with "ONE... WINGED... ANGEL!!!". Tommy rocks it out with his guitar, while the slideshow on the monitor showed a bunch of FF7 cosplays that ended with "Cosplay FTW". VGL was not allowed to show any footage because Square-Enix said "no". (This happened the first time they came to Montreal too where they played Kingdom Hearts music and all they could show was footage from Disney.)

Shows over. Standing ovation. But the crowd keeps cheering. They were actually cheering some hockey cheer? Not sure, but it got Tommy out for an encore! Laura comes back out to play the flute for the amazing medley of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. I'm so glad they played this because I love when Laura plays the flute, especially for Chrono Cross.

Medley ends. Shows over? Standing ovation.
Tommy: "Do you want to hear one more song?!" Crowd: "YES!!!"
Tommy then asks us to take out the DS's, the PSP's and wave it like lighters or glowsticks. He was surprised that someone had a laptop and then when he found out the laptop was a Mac, the crowd booed and Tommy says "You can't play games on that, can you?" Oh Tommy. He then mentions that we need to wait for the PSPs to boot up. XD

Laura is now sitting on a stool with a microphone in her hand. Tommy: "I think you guys all know this song, but we've put up the lyrics just in case".
On screen is a birthday cake with the flame being extinguished by a mechanical hand. --> The cake is a lie. --> It's Portal time!
I've heard bits of this song before, but I never knew it was from Portal. The whole crowd sings the song "Still Alive" with Laura.

The show finally ends with the last standing ovation of the night. Video Games Live is amazing. I'm a casual gamer and I've never played most of the games of the music they're playing, but I enjoyed it so much. It was unbelievable how much of a good time I had. I screamed so loud that I made myself deaf. ^_^" Yes, I am the crazy screaming girl in the audience. XD

If Video Games Live ever comes to your city, you should definitely go. Maybe you can get a cool shirt and hoodie like me. ;D