Written by Anna “Lania” Sladö
I must admit that I wasn’t as excited as last time. I mean, yes, it is amazing that we got two concerts in the same day in Stockholm, but I couldn’t help but feeling somewhat like “been there, done that”. We know what PLAY! is now. What we look forward to is the music.
Tricked by the show’s program, I believed that we’d be fed last year’s music all over again, and had that been the case it would’ve been a tremendous let-down. Luckily, they had a brand new line-up, with medleys from Commodore 64 and Amiga games, like The Last Ninja, Lemmings, Turrican 2, International Karate and The Great Giana Sisters to name a few. Returning classics were of course Super Mario, Zelda and Metal Gear Solid. Silent Hill’s Theme of Laura was played again as well, but with the special appearance of Akira Yamaoka, the composer of Silent Hill’s music. He did an OK performance on his electric guitar, but I was definitely not as star struck as I was from simply seeing Nobuo Uematsu in the audience in 2006.
The new parts of the concert contained music from Shadow of the Colossus, Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy VI, scores from recently released Swedish game The Darkness, the upcoming game Lost Odyssey, a charming PC-game called Anno 1701, a kick-ass medley of old and new Castlevania music and Super Shinobi from way back when.
What I missed in the line-up was music from Stella Deus. On PLAY’s official website, it’s mentioned with all the other games, but I guess it wasn’t for us Swedes. It’s kind of upsetting, that game has such good music. I guess I´ll have to listen to my CD at home a bit longer.
Like I said, I wasn’t as excited and I believe I wasn’t the only one. The audience didn’t feel all that excillerated compared to last year. During the first concert of the day, the people felt a bit laid back. Sure, the scores got their fair share of cheers, but the evening show generated more of that. Not that the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra played better the second time around. And that statement is painfully true for one person in particular – the organist.
The final score was Dancing Mad, the insane but mindblowing boss music when facing Kefka in Final Fantasy VI – and it was the Black Mages’ version to top it off. The arrangement is unpredictable but a true work of art, especially the organ part. Sadly, the organist was either unexperienced (but how could that be since he’s with the Philharmonics?) or he was dead nervous, seeing as they only get a week of practice, and this is one tricky piece of music. The problems started in the first concert; he skipped some notes to make the playing more easy on himself, but that’s really something you can’t do when you play for an audience who know what they are listening to.
But that was nothing compared to what would happen later that evening. The second time around, I actually experienced pain as he performed. Not only did he skip notes, but he played the wrong ones. Not one time, many times. He played too slow, then too fast, then too slow again. It was horrible!
Part of this performance was also Swedish rock band Machine Supremacy (who apparently specializes in playing arranged game music). They were of course there to perform the heavy rock parts of Dancing Mad. Problem was, a concert hall is not at all made for rock bands with big ass amplifiers, so when they started playing – it all became a blur. I couldn’t hear anything but noise. The choir got lost, the electric guitar was gone, and the strings were nowhere to be found. All that was left was a heavy sort of murmur in my ears. Terrible. But, they got their applaudes, despite everything.
The best part of the evening was, of course, the ending theme from Shadow of the Colossus – Those Who Remain. In addition to the fantastic music of Kow Otani, the orchestra was accompanied by video footage from the game. And this was such an improvement from last year, when they hardly treated us to any game footage at all. They had really listened to the critique from then, and all the scores came with big chunks of matching video sequences. To me, PLAY showed its best side when SOTC was performed.
It’s hard to re-create the amazing atmosphere from 2006. Everything was so new, no one really knew what to expect – but the end result blew us away. This year’s performance was not only shorter but they had also put in a piece of classical music (not Mozart, but still), as to teach us that this is where game music composers get their inspiration from. Well duh. We’re not stupid just because we love game music. I felt that was really unneccesary. It was a nice piece of music, but if I pay to see a game concert, that’s what I’m expecting to get. Teaching is for school, so that’s one part they should definitely leave out for next year.
Despite spirits not being as high as last time, a clumsy organist and a semi-cool rock band, I did enjoy the evening. I got my money’s worth. I liked the fact that the Mario and Zelda medleys contained different songs compared to last year and that the theme of Metal Gear Solid was performed with greater confidence.
Maybe part of my not being overly excited, has to do with the fact that PLAY – and video game music overall – is becoming more and more mainstream, for better and for worse. It’s good, since more people can hear it and it’s actually taken as a serious art form, and bad – because only the biggest titles are played at these events.
Of course, it’s hard to get everything you want, but as Arnie Roth himself said at the end of the show, PLAY is evolving and changing and they will be back with a different line-up each year. I hope that’s a promise they can keep.