Reportage Video Games Live in Paris - When the music plays...
Textes, photos, web design : Prof. OKASHI
Illustrations : SAM
Video Games Live in Paris - When the music plays...
Convening over 3500 fans of video games, on a Thursday evening, in front of a symphony orchestra, this idea alone could have appeared completely crazy ! This is however what the Video Games Live concert realized on that December 18, 2008 in the Grand Amphitheatre of the Palais des Congrès de Paris (France), fully occupied by crowds of excited people !
Even it is the first performance of a video game concert in France, it must be said that the Video Games Live is not on its beginnings. Launched in the USA on 2005, the show was soon performed in many countries worldwide (Canada, Brazil, Spain, China, United Kingdom, New-Zealand...), every time with the same success before coming in France thanks to Akouna, the Tristan Duval's production company.
You must see it to believe it, so difficult is to describe your feelings when you rediscover your poor, harsh sounding old little console video games, sumptuously transfigured on a large screen by the lighting effects of a large hall and the incredibly, fabulously rich and penetrating sound of a true symphonic orchestra !
About fifty professional musicians and chorists of a young classical orchestra from Paris area, the Star Pop Orchestra, and some international soloists (mezzo-soprano Cindy Shapiro, tenor Ron Ragin, pianist Martin Leung aka Video Games Pianist), conducted by Jack Wall, a video game music composer (Myst III and Myst IV, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire, Mass Effect...), thrilled the public at the rhythm of the top classic video games musical themes, from Pong and Space Invaders to God of War and Civilization IV, including all Mario, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and other titles which feed nowadays the most people's ludic world imaginations.
The part of the host was played by Tommy Tallarico, co-creator with Jack Wall of Video Games Live, whose dynamism and 'good boy' sense of humour obviously captivated the public, very reactive though he only spoke English. As a musician and a video game music composer too (Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary, Out of This World, Prince of Persia...), he musically took part in the show with his splendid Gibson Les Paul 'Webslinger One', signed by Spider-Man creator, Stan Lee (don't rush to the store, the model is sold out).
Tommy Tallarico also hosted the games included in the show : a game of Space Invaders for which a candidate, chosen from the public and transformed into an alive joystick thanks to a position capture Tee-shirt, had to hop from one side of the stage to another in order to move his laser-gun on the screen ; later, a game of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in which the champion, pre-selected before the concert, made a great demonstration, accompanied by the orchestra and Tommy Tallarico on the guitar.
The whole people was invited to take part of another performance, put up by Michel Ancel, Christophe Héral and Patrice Héral, respectively creator of Beyond Good & Evil (published by Ubisoft), this game's composer, and percussionnist, who added sound in live to 'The Pig', a teaser for the game next version, still in progress, accompanied by the orchestra and the public, requested to add some sound effects (wind, crickets...).
A cosplay contest, organized by the Sohei association, took place discreetly before the concert, but some (too rare) cosplayers stayed in costume for the whole evening amongst the people, thanks to them !
After a full three hours which flied like a dream, many spectators remained to thank the Video Games Live artists during the dedication meeting.
Let's hope they won't have been disappointed by the Parisian public's reception and will soon come back for a new magnificent show !
