• Just saw Distant Worlds

    It was great!

    They started off with FF7 prelude and bombing mission before saying anything. Great intro, got you really pumped. This was followed by a 1-3 medley and at some point, Man with the Machine Gun (which should just not be played by an orchestra but I'll say no more on that).

    An absolutely brilliant arrangement of Eyes on Me sung by Susan Calloway (who will be doing voice acting in FF14 if I heard correctly) was joined by a really nice selection of clips from FF8. She also sang Suteki de Na, which was great, and it was actually my first time hearing the song as I've never played X. She also sang Kiss me Goodbye from FFXII, and I felt her voice was more fitting to the song than whoever sang the original on the game ending.


    source: official site


    Arnie Roth's arrangement of Clash on the Big Bridge and FFXIII's Blinded by Light (the only non-Uematsu piece, I think) were full of energy too. I hope Arnie's proud of his arrangement of Clash because it's grandiose and I enjoyed it.

    Dear Friends was real nice. There was a guitarist for that and a flamenco song from IX whose name I don't remember.

    The encore was of course One Winged Angel, and the audience acted as the chorus, chanting 'Se-phi-roth! Se-phi-roth!' It was nice to hear some member of the audience attempt the rest of the latin too, as it was displayed with clips of Advent Children.


    source: official site



    Some of the drum parts from the games simply do not belong in an orchestra setting like this in my opinion. It's no good for the performers either and you can tell. Some drum, driving parts simply need a rearrangement, it's always weird when the drum parts teeter on usurping the rest of the orchestra. I'm nit-picking though.

    Overall super great concert. Great show!

    Unfortunate things: some of the FF fanbase needs to wash more often and not sneak in bottles of alcohol to the orchestra. For the most part, the crowd was really good too though. I saw a red mage and some Rinoa hair-dyes.

    Here's Susan's Suteki Da Ne:
    This article was originally published in blog: Just saw Distant Worlds started by krissy
    Comments 6 Comments
    1. Freya's Avatar
      Freya -
      Oooo how neat! I would love to see this concert. I dunno how I feel about the fangirls/boys cosplaying it up though. Weird. It's an orchestra not a con. :/
    1. krissy's Avatar
      krissy -
      It was definitely the least 'official' orchestra event I've been at, but that's not that big a deal in this case. There's cheering and hooting at the end of every song. It's definitely not a typical trip to the symphony. There were still people in full suits. Honestly I expected more costumes. But yeah, the whole event is more about pleasing fans than being a classical concert. Definitely a lot of fun though, especially if you grew up with the music.
    1. Shlup's Avatar
      Shlup -
      I agree that the costuming seems weird to me. Sneaking in bottles of booze? So unrefined. Tut tut.
    1. Haldour's Avatar
      Haldour -
      maybe I was in a cosplay heavy section, but, shadow totally sat next to me until the first intermission, and I'm pretty sure i had an Aeris behind me...or was it Terra?? Overall great show!, I was quite impressed!
    1. Xuna's Avatar
      Xuna -
      Wow! A concert! I lol when you mentioned the crowd chanting the name of Sephiroth! I wish I could see it too. And I mean like live?
    1. SwordFox's Avatar
      SwordFox -
      I actually checked their website last night and noticed that there's a concert in London in November. So totally buying a ticket when they go on sale now. xD
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