Event: Video Games Live

Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
615 Louisiana
Houston, TX 77002

A friend, Miss Antsylily, calls me up one day and asks if I wanted to go see the Houston Symphony with her cos she got some free tickets. I was like UUGGHH at first cos it sounded kinda boring. But since I haven't spent any quality time with Miss Antsylily for some time now, I was like sure, why not. As we made our way towards the venue that evening, we got more info on what the performance was all about. The Houston Symphony as well as the Houston Symphony Chorus would be performing music from popular video games spanning from through out the years. The show was called Video Games Live. I was like, okay. Whatever. I'm not a video game kinda gal. But my friend is kinda a gamer. If anything, she's mos def more knowledgeable about it. Once we stepped inside, my first thought was, gee, I think I'm over-dressed. Friend and I dressed for the symphony. Dresses. Everyone else was pretty much dressed down. You got nerdy guys in nerdy gear. Folks dressed as their fave video game character. If I had known better, I would mos def have donned a more appropriate costume. Oh wellz.

It's unfortunate that we didn't get there much earlier. There seemed to have been quite a lot of things going on such as a guitar hero contest and a costume contest plus other things that I think we missed. We managed to catch the end of the costume contest. Rod Ryan from 94.5 The Buzz was the one doing the costume contest. Some girl dressed as Link from Legend of Zelda won. She looked very much like Link.

So the actual Symphony itself. Completely super awesome man! They played music from Halo, Gears of War, Final Fantasy (of course) and other older games like Tetris, Space Invaders, Metroid, Donkey Kong plus many others that I can't remember. To all you crazy gaming nerds, let this jizzle your nizzle. They premiered music as well as clips from the yet to be released StarCraft II. That means absolutely nothing to me, but I distinctly remember the audience shouting with pandemonious approval. So I clapped and cheered as well. I'm such a poser! Haha! It was so much fun. There were so many moments where I was brought back to my childhood as they flashed game after game on the big screen. Duck Hunt. Mario Bros. Legend of Zelda. Friend and I were cheering like crazy! The chorus group were amazing! It was mainly nothing but chanting in Latin or something. Sounded like I was in a video game.

There were other distractions so that it wasn't song after song after song. The winner of the Guitar Hero competition from earlier came on stage for a challenge. The host guy had him play a song on the new Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Edition. He had to score at least 150,000 and he would win something. It was a bag containing some goodies. The kid, who was like 17, hit 160,000 plus. Crazy! Another thing they did was this dude who was a winner of something on The Buzz came out and the host told him that he had to beat the first level of Space Invaders in under two minutes. Instead of using a controller to move the spaceship back and forth, they attached something to him so that he had to run back and forth to move the spaceship. Fun to watch. But he sucked. Wasn't able to complete the task. But he won the prize anyways for playing. What was it? A frackin' X-Box 2! At the beginning before the show started, Rod Ryan had this Frogger contest. Two guys competed and only one came out on top. The winner won a WII. I would be completely jealous, but you are reading the blog of a person who already owns a WII as well as the X-Box II. It pretty much collects dust except for when we have people over to play rockband.

To Miss EmMa and Miss GWWNAWW (girl who was named after wonder woman), Video Games Live was a one night thing but they've been stopping in Houston once a year since 2006. So maybe next year ladies! I know a few other people who want to go also after my two thumbs up raves. Honestly, my incoherent ramblings and child-like sentences does not do this performance any justice.

Jack Wall: Conductor/Co-Creator
Tommy Tallarico: Host/Co-Creator

Before I get to the fotos that I was not supposed to take, here is this video clip that they played in the very beginning. It is people dressed up as the characters from Miss Pacmac, and the ghosts are chasing Miss Pacman through the streets of St. Louis. It was hilarious and incredibly fun to watch.



And now the fotos:

The purtiful Miss Antsylily. Thank you thank you thank you for inviting me!

Costume contest.

Frogger contest.

The folks next to me were dressed as such:

I saw this guy wearing this cool tie and asked if I could take his foto. He threw in that pose on his own.

I bought the bf this shirt. I wished he could have come cos he would have LOVED it!

I wanted to buy a Mario plush toy. But it was twenty buckaroos. Not worth it. Plus it was fabric. If it was vinyl, then maybe.

Did I mention that our seats were third row CENTER. Made for some better fotos that's for sure.

Fotos from the Miss Pacman chase clip. Like someone once said. Sooner or later, Miss Pacman will die. She always dies.

Zelda and Link. On crack. Kidding! Anyway. True story. Until that night, I did not know that Zelda was not the main character. I always thought that the little elf thing dressed in green was Zelda. It's called Legend of Zelda and all you see is the one dressed in green. So why wouldn't that be Zelda. But I was corrected. The green guy is Link, and he is on his way to save his girl, Zelda. Isn't that just like a woman. To have the guy do all the work and have the game named after her. I was telling the bf's friend this story and was like, they should have just named it Legend of Link. Bf's friend said there is a game called The Adventures of Link or something. Well. Whatever. Who Cares.

The theatre with the lights on.

The theatre with the lights off. And everyone holding up either their cell phones, PSP's, or DS. So cool!

Jack Wall doing his meistro thing. He was rockin' this awesome coat/jacket. Velvet. Hem went to mid-thigh.

Tommy Tallarico, the host, jamming on his Spiderman geetar.

Girl on left is Cindy Shapiro. She came out and did this operatic number with the symphony. It was so good! She had a super powerful voice. Dude in the middle is Martin Leung who ripped it on the piano. And that's Jack Wall on the left wearing his awesome jacket. I wanna steal it!

Friends and I with the winner of the costume contest. She's dressed as LINK. Not Zelda. I was looking at pictures of people who did the costume contest last year, and I'm pretty sure she was in it and wearing the exact same thing. Lazy!