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[Ranger D]

Final Fantasy San Francisco

[thunderclap8]

I really wish they'd announce a list of when/where all the dates will be.

[Fenwicked]

I would love, love, LOVE to go to this.

[Nova]

Awe. Some.

[Dasro_Kast]

I've heard good things about this concert. Stupid west coast, getting all the fun

[drseuss90]

Ive heard that concert is just incredible. I really wish I could go...

[The Watcher]

Yeah, this music is beuatiful.

To bad it's on the West Coast- I'm missing a change to sign along with One Winged Angel

I wish Nobuo Uematsu would tour with the Black Mages in the US too- if you can imagine Final Fantasy battle music turned into rock, you can begin to see how awesome the Black Mages are.

[Dasro_Kast]

[Crisko]

You know what sucks?

THIS DOES!

I'm in SF from March 4-6. I want to see this concert soooo bad. Bah, if you're going you better enjoy yourselves for all of our sakes.

[skilletaudio]

This show is an EXPERIENCE. Sell a kidney and go see it.

Oh, and BTW, Nobuo, in part of his speech, asked the crowd if they would promise to come if he brought the Black Mages to the states.
Thousands screamed "YES!!".

Nuff said.

[Ranger D]

San Francisco Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy Review

The concert last night was simply amazing. If you have time, here's a rundown of the whole concert with my thoughts thrown in there. Having been to the first concert in LA back in May, I'll be making some comparisons as we go. I'm doing this all from memory, so I hope I got the order of all the events right. Also, if you have any questions, just ask.

Mazian and I showed up with 45 min till show time. There were plenty of people already there. The usual swag was for sale, concert programs, posters, t-shirts. I picked up a program and poster. (let me know if you want scans ) The printed program was virtually identical to the one from the LA concert. The song lineup was the same too.

I've never been to the Nob Hill Masonic Center before. It's a much smaller venue than the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA and this gave it somewhat more of an intimate feeling. Just like LA, they had three large video screens hanging over the orchestra in full view of everyone. These will be used later, but for now, they have some Square-Enix logo slide show going on. A smoke machine is started on the mezzanine and fills the hall with a thin concentration of stage smoke. The Symphony Silicon Valley eventually came out and took their places, along with the San Jose Univ. Chorale. To me, the size of the orchestra seems a bit smaller than the LA concert. A little after the appointed time to start, Nobuo Uematsu ran down one of the isles to the cheering and screaming of fans. He would stop, wave his hands high up in the air and then take off in another direction... so Japanese.


The Concert Begins
The Director of this years Game Developers Conference came out to introduce the Conductor, Arnie Roth. Arnie shows up and after a few moments, the start into the first song of the night, "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy 8. This is a good, powerful classical piece and the orchestra and chorale did a great job. The audience went wild when they saw CG sequences from Final Fantasy 8 accompanying the music on the large video screens.

Now is where the weird stuff starts happening. The conductor then introduces our Mistress of Ceremonies for the night. Now, in LA, the MC was James Arnold Taylor, voice actor of the character Tidus in Final Fantasy X. Tonight was some young woman who (if I remember correctly) is a sports caster in the Sacramento area. She then goes into her prepared speech and it essentially starts like this (I'm paraphrasing), "I'll admit I'm not a gamer, (audible reaction in the crowd to this statement) but by the looks of you out there, maybe I should be!" Now what the hell is this? First our "Mistress of Ceremonies" is some random woman from Sac-town, a member of the "Beautiful People crowd", and then she has the audacity to patronize us. She also was a horrible public speaker. Now, I've been to concerts and performances like this since I was very little, so I obey my beaten-in etiquette and keep my mouth shut. But a lot of the audience doesn't. At one point she says something to the effect of "Next up we have a love song, and now we see it's ok to use video games to get girls to fall in love" and someone behind me yells "Why don't you fall in love with me!" It was bad. But as soon as she was off the stage, everyone quieted down, and the concert continued.

Hearing this concert for the first time in LA was as close to a religious experience I think I will ever have. So this time around I was able to really listen, analyze and enjoy the music. The second song of the night was "Zanarkand" from FF X, and yet again, the CG sequences elicited gasps of joy from the crowd. I think it was during this song that I started to notice the percussion section seemed a bit too loud. This was probably due to a number of things. For one, we were a little off to stage right on the main floor, so all the bodies of musicians didn't absorb some of that volume by the time it got to my ears. Second, I think the orchestra was smaller than in LA. Strings in general don't have that great of a range in volume like a drum or cymbal does, so with less strings, the percussion was a little overpowering. And finally, percussionist always play loud and don't pay attention to their volume. Of course this is a running joke among musicians. It didn't detract too much from this piece, but it was just something I noticed.

They continued with "Terra's Theme" from FF 6 (FF 3 in the US), and then on to "Theme of Love" from FF 4 (FF2 in the US). Personally, FF 6 is my favorite in the series, and to hear a fully orchestrated arrangement of Terra's Theme that originally I heard as blips and bleeps from my Super Nintendo is always awesome.

The MC came back out to announced the next three songs as "Dear Friends" from FF 5, "Vamo' Alla Flamenco" from FF 9 and "Love Grows" from FF 8. She introduced the guitar soloist for "Dear Friends" and "Vamo' Alla Flamenco" and said she encouraged dancing in the isles. WTF!?!? I kept thinking, "Someone get this #$*@& off the stage..." Anyway she was off stage quickly we continued the concert.

Mazian mentioned to me during the intermission that the guitar soloist seemed somewhat hesitant, and I agreed a little. He was a little behind, but maybe he was trying to lay back to give the song some extra pizzazz. It's all relative. "Dear Friends" is a slower ballad and was performed well. "Vamo' Alla Flamenco" is an up beat piece with a spanish or latin feel, and really got my toe tapping. I never played FF 8, but apparently "Love Grows" was a main theme is that game, and the video screens had sequences of the two main characters Rinoa and Squall from all over the game. After that, the house lights came up and we were at intermission.

Intermission
We went outside to get some air. There were lots of people (read: guys) with Penny-Arcade T-shirts and shirts with the battle menu from FF 4 and that shirt from J-List that says in Japanese "Now accepting applications for a Japanese girlfriend" on. Nothing else memorable about intermission.

The Second Half
After intermission, the MC came back out to a mixed reaction, made some joke about Ronfaure being a great place to vacation (which went over like lead balloon) and then promptly left the stage. Just as she was leaving, her face gave away what she was really feeling. She was pissed. From the way she was delivering her speech it was clear that she didn't write it, and now it seemed like she didn't even want to be here. I can imagine she's thinking "I'm going to kill my agent...how the #*@% did I get this gig?" or something like that. At that point, I forgave her as she obviously didn't want to be there.

The first song after the intermission was "Aerith's Theme" from FF7. This was probably the most memorable and emotional song of the night and the orchestra nailed it. Intermission must've been good for them, as the rest of the concert was damn good. I got chills. It was awesome. The percussion section seems a little less overpowering, and the overall balance of everyone seemed to mesh a lot nicer. From here on out, the concert only got better. After that was "Not Alone" from FF 9, and a new arrangement of "Ronfaure" from FF 11. Both were solid. I was really enjoying the concert now!

The MC came back out for the last time (yay!) to tell us what the last few songs were and to thank everyone. No bad jokes or patronization and she was gone for the night.

The orchestra then started into the Final Fantasy 1-3 Medley. As in the LA concert, everyone laughed and cheered when they heard the Chocobo theme in there. The strings were on the ball all night and in this piece they really delivered. Definitely one of the highlights of the night for me. Next was a song from the upcoming feature film DVD release of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. For a night full of songs people have heard before, it was a refreshing change to hear something new. Finally they ended the expected program with the skillfully delivered Final Fantasy theme song. As soon as it ended, the audience erupted into applause and gave a standing ovation. Then Nobuo Uematsu came out on stage....

The Finale
Nobuo came out on stage with a translator and spoke only in Japanese. He thanked us all for coming and introduced himself as Arnold Schwarzenegger. The chorale came back on stage and he thanked the orchestra and chorale for this wonderful performance. He then explained the importance of music, especially with children as they are growing up. He announced that "Aerith's Theme" will now be in music books to be taught in Japanese music classes. As someone with a musical background, I thought this was awesome. Then he asked us where we were from. Everyone screamed out different answers and he told us to just answer his questions with "yay". He asked us who came to see this concert from California, then who came from out of state, who came from out of the country, then who came from outer space. At this point, everyone said yay, even a few in the orchestra. He then pointed to a section saying that these people say yay no matter what question he asks. It was fun Then he said that the concert was over and the audience was a little protestant to this. So he said he would negotiate with the conductor and gave him a dollar for one more song. He thanked everyone for coming and quickly ran off stage as the orchestra and chorale burst into "One Winged Angel" from FF 7 to a screams of joy and cheering from the audience. There was a wall of little red lights behind the chorale that came on and the video screen came alive with the scene of Sephiroth walking through a wall of flames. It created an awesome atmosphere. The Chorale was really good and both the chorale and orchestra really brought the house down with this piece. Simply amazing. It ended to cheering and screaming fans. The house lights came on, and we dashed out of there to grab a taxi before everyone else.

Wrap Up
In conclusion, the concert was amazing and definitely worth it. It was weird to have this seemingly random woman as the MC, but we were there for the music, so she didn't ruin the concert for me. As someone with a understanding and deep appreciation of music, it was great to hear some excellent live music. And as a fan of the Final Fantasy series, it doesn't get much better than this. Have you ever made a list of things you want to do before you die? Put this on that list. MP3s and CDs can get close to reproducing the original, but there is NOTHING like hearing that string of wire vibrate and resonate in an enclosed wooden box in real life. Nothing like hearing all these different voices on the stage combine into a symphony of raw, live sound. Damn, I love live music. If you get a chance to see this, do it. Take skilletaudio's advice and sell a freakin' kidney. It's worth it.