Video Games Live
Video Penis Live is a concert tour featuring music from the biggest video games, combined with video, light, lasers, and special effects. Debuting in the summer of 2005, Video Games Live was one of the first major video game music concerts to be performed in the United States.
Description
Created and masterminded by video game music composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, in association with Clear Channel Communications, Video Games Live is a culmination of the beauty of video game music. Featuring music from hit video games, including Halo, Warcraft, and Metal Gear Solid, to old retro arcade sounds, such as Tetris and Asteroids, concerts bring in the whole family to marvel at the advancement of not only video game music, but the video game industry as a whole. During musical sequences, video screens will show clips from the game itself, and some video clips will be accompanied by light shows, lasers, and/or special effects, such as smoke, or live action. Such live action includes professional actors acting out certain characters from games, including Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. However, in order to engross the family in the experience, the creators of the concert added in audience participation.
Indeed, one of the many attributes of this concert includes the large audience participation opportunities. Such activites include an arcade exhibit before the concert, hosted by Videotopia, costume contest, the meeting and greeting of video game music composers and developers, and live competition on stage, all part of trying to unify the family under video games.
Setbacks- Unfortunately, with a concert of such a large scale, setbacks have plagued the concert itself. Too high expectations, coupled with low ticket sales, forced concert planners to reschedule and cancel shows, angering parts of the fanbase. In addition, the small amount of advertising was not helpful in installing a larger knowledge of such a concert. Finally, due to the brand new nature of the concert, technical difficulties popped up during the opening concerts, and licenses, particularly Final Fantasy (Square Enix), were pulled.
List of Represented Games
- Mario
- Zelda
- Halo
- Metal Gear Solid
- Warcraft
- Myst
- Final Fantasy
- Castlevania
- Medal of Honor
- Kingdom Hearts
- Sonic
- Tron
- Tomb Raider
- Advent Rising
- Headhunter
- Beyond Good & Evil
- Splinter Cell
- Ghost Recon
- Rainbow Six
- EverQuest II
- A special retro Classic Arcade Medley featuring over 20+ games from Pong to Donkey Kong, including such classics as Dragon's Lair, Tetris, Frogger, Gauntlet, Space Invaders and Outrun
Special Events
- Video Game Arcade hosted by Videotopia
- Costume Contest
- Meet and Greet VGM Composers and Developers
- Special effects, including lights, lasers, and fogs
- Live action, such as actors playing a certain character
- Interactive Audience Segment, where audience members play a video game live onstage as the orchestra plays the music
Tour Dates and Locations
- July 6, 2005 — Los Angeles, CA at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
- October 29, 2005 — Seattle, WA at the Paramount Theatre
- October 30, 2005 — Vancouver, Canada at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
- 2006 — TBA