PLAY! begins near Chicago Saturday, May 27
by Dan Choi 
{ Jan 26th 2006 at 1:30PM }
Well, it turns out that PLAY! A Video Game Symphony won't be opening first in Sweden this June after all; the
concert series will actually get its start Stateside in May at the Rosemont Theatre near Chicago. Tickets are on
sale now.Guests for the musical extravaganza include a few composers like Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind), Yuzo Koshiro (Shenmue), Marty O'Donnell (Halo), and Jason Hayes (World of Warcraft). Unfortunately, you can only participate in the meet-and-greet session if you purchase one of the pricier VIP tickets being made available for $125 each, which is a lot to pay for a signature on a cover of Halo.
Still, it's nice to know that PLAY! is debuting in the same theatre that the related "Dear Friends" Final Fantasy tour kicked off in last February (after an auspicious California start). Those who attended back then know that gamers and related music fans can fill the seats in the theatre; the only question is whether enough diehard fans of the myriad games musically represented will feel the need to attend a concert spread among other game soundtracks and series. This blogger's interested -- is anyone else in the area considering going?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The ZeroCorpse @ Jan 26th 2006 2:20PM
`Just as dumb as people who only go to the symphony to hear movie scores. This is like faux high culture for people who can't be bothered to step outside of their comfort zone.
Me @ Jan 26th 2006 2:45PM
... or it's people that enjoy the music from the games they play and would love to hear it done live...? Listen to any FF OST, then listen to the 2002.02.20 soundtrack(a dear friends concert in Japan). It's a world of difference and enjoyment. Then being there in person is something all together different.
I went to the Dear Friends concert in Rosemont when the tour first started. It's not people trying to be high culture. It's people going and enjoying the music they love. People dressed in casual nice clothes(khakis and a button up) to jeans and a t-shirt(with a coat, was cold), to cosplaying as white mages. Considering all the listed songs are basically orchestral pieces(as opposed to Tecmo Superbol or Katamari Damacy), it basically lends itself to this sort of thing.
Personally I'd love to go, but the timing is off and I don't think I'll be having any side cash with spring classes starting.
Jeremy Gray @ Jan 26th 2006 3:14PM
To #1: No, I highly doubt anyone going to any of this type of show would ever think they are in for some kind of "faux high culture".
I attended the Video Games Live show in Vancouver last year, and you know what? It, and everyone in attendance, was casual, light-hearted, and just having a fricking fun time reliving musical memories. Were the musicians doing their jobs seriously? Hell, yeah, but they were still having fun like everyone else.
Nguyen @ Jan 29th 2006 12:49AM
I was also at the Feb. '05 Dear Friends concert and it's just a great way to relive your favorite moments from the game. I'm not sure I want to go to this concert, but that's only because I didn't really get into these like I did with Final Fantasy.
And #2, did you see the guy dressed up as Sephiroth with the huge fake sword accompanied by Lulu? And members of SHIELD from FF8? That was a good night.