Leroy
07-02-2005, 01:13 PM
I went to Dear Friends last night, 10th row. It was excellent!
First thing though, now I knew it was coming, but actually seeing people come to a classy concert hall in beaten up t-shirts and jeans was far more amusing than I could have ever imagined. Seriously, bunch of dirty anime fans.. talk about low class. One guy wore a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt and the number of people that looked like they hadn't shaved or cleaned their hair in months was astounding.
Now that I have that out of the way, here's what was on the program.
Liberi Fatali (FF8)
To Zanarkand (FF10)
Terra's Theme (FF6)
Theme of Love (FF4)
Dear Friends (FF5)
Vamo' alla Flamenco (FF9)
Love Grows (FF8)
Aeris's Theme (FF7, aka cheap rip-off of Celes's Theme)
You're Not Alone (FF9)
Ronfaure (Everquest)
Final Fantasy I-III Medley
Cloud Smiles (FF7 movie)
Theme of Final Fantasy
Now, in my opinion it was a serious error to start with Liberi Fatali, it was simply the best performance of the night (and I hate Final Fantasy VIII). To Zanarkand was pretty good, though I've never played X. Terra's Theme was good, but I've heard better versions of it, they played it too fast. Theme of Love was FANTASTIC, coming in second place of the night. Dear Friends and Vamo' alla Flamenco played together (both featuring guitar). Excellent piece, Dear Friends is an awesome track and the second one actually had me interested in playing IV (or at least checking out the soundtrack). Love Grows was alright, I don't recall it being anything special.
Intermission. Yay or something.
Aeris's Theme was next. Now, I hate Aeris with a thousand passions and I particularly hate how her now infamous theme is a shoddy rip-off of my single favorite Final Fantasy track of all time. Of course, all the dirty anime fans ate this one up, and I'll be honest, the orchestra really added some power to this piece. Still, I have personal reservations against it. You're Not Alone was good, not too memorable as was the Everquest track they played after that. The Final Fantasy I-III medley was pretty damn good, putting it in third place for the night in my opinion. It consisted of FFI overworld, FFI Matoya's Cave, some FFIII track, FFIII Chocobo and FFI Rebel Army theme. The Final part of the medley was AWESOME. I was hoping beyond hope for the FFII overworld theme but it would've brought the piece down since it's a fairly somber piece. So now they play a track from the upcoming overtly-pretentious Final Fantasy VII movie. Much in tune with the soundtrack to the game, the track was fairly forgettable, though as a movie score piece I suppose it's supposed to be a little more subdued piece. Finally we get the Theme of Final Fantasy, used in a few of the games but most memorable as the opening of Final Fantasy IV as Cecial and Kain leave Castle Baron. Freaking amazing piece, I always thought this was a damn fine track and I really got into it.
So then, the encore.. yes you guess it, dirty anime fan favorite, Generic Bad Guy's Theme: One Winged Angel. I love the track, it's hard not to like it.. but the choir really botched up the vocalizing on it, it was WAY to fast. Still, it was pretty bad ass performed live as one of the few really good tracks coming out of Final Fantasy VII. Now, here's where I get pissed. THEY PLAYED ONE WINGED ANGEL A SECOND TIME. Look, the song kicks ass but TWICE? It seemed pretty low class in my opinion, especially considering how the dozens upon dozens of other fantastic music pieces in this series that could have been played. Oh well, they gave the dirty anime fans what they wanted.
Overall it was an amazing performance (other than my one complaint). I've always loved the music for the series (up until VII of course though VIII had a good soundtrack and now I'm interested in diving into IX's) and this was always a childhood dream of mine to see something like this. Now I just hope More Friends comes to Dallas/Ft. Worth because I've heard that concert is much more interesting (with the Black Mages band performing a rock-opera version of One Winged Angel).
First thing though, now I knew it was coming, but actually seeing people come to a classy concert hall in beaten up t-shirts and jeans was far more amusing than I could have ever imagined. Seriously, bunch of dirty anime fans.. talk about low class. One guy wore a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt and the number of people that looked like they hadn't shaved or cleaned their hair in months was astounding.
Now that I have that out of the way, here's what was on the program.
Liberi Fatali (FF8)
To Zanarkand (FF10)
Terra's Theme (FF6)
Theme of Love (FF4)
Dear Friends (FF5)
Vamo' alla Flamenco (FF9)
Love Grows (FF8)
Aeris's Theme (FF7, aka cheap rip-off of Celes's Theme)
You're Not Alone (FF9)
Ronfaure (Everquest)
Final Fantasy I-III Medley
Cloud Smiles (FF7 movie)
Theme of Final Fantasy
Now, in my opinion it was a serious error to start with Liberi Fatali, it was simply the best performance of the night (and I hate Final Fantasy VIII). To Zanarkand was pretty good, though I've never played X. Terra's Theme was good, but I've heard better versions of it, they played it too fast. Theme of Love was FANTASTIC, coming in second place of the night. Dear Friends and Vamo' alla Flamenco played together (both featuring guitar). Excellent piece, Dear Friends is an awesome track and the second one actually had me interested in playing IV (or at least checking out the soundtrack). Love Grows was alright, I don't recall it being anything special.
Intermission. Yay or something.
Aeris's Theme was next. Now, I hate Aeris with a thousand passions and I particularly hate how her now infamous theme is a shoddy rip-off of my single favorite Final Fantasy track of all time. Of course, all the dirty anime fans ate this one up, and I'll be honest, the orchestra really added some power to this piece. Still, I have personal reservations against it. You're Not Alone was good, not too memorable as was the Everquest track they played after that. The Final Fantasy I-III medley was pretty damn good, putting it in third place for the night in my opinion. It consisted of FFI overworld, FFI Matoya's Cave, some FFIII track, FFIII Chocobo and FFI Rebel Army theme. The Final part of the medley was AWESOME. I was hoping beyond hope for the FFII overworld theme but it would've brought the piece down since it's a fairly somber piece. So now they play a track from the upcoming overtly-pretentious Final Fantasy VII movie. Much in tune with the soundtrack to the game, the track was fairly forgettable, though as a movie score piece I suppose it's supposed to be a little more subdued piece. Finally we get the Theme of Final Fantasy, used in a few of the games but most memorable as the opening of Final Fantasy IV as Cecial and Kain leave Castle Baron. Freaking amazing piece, I always thought this was a damn fine track and I really got into it.
So then, the encore.. yes you guess it, dirty anime fan favorite, Generic Bad Guy's Theme: One Winged Angel. I love the track, it's hard not to like it.. but the choir really botched up the vocalizing on it, it was WAY to fast. Still, it was pretty bad ass performed live as one of the few really good tracks coming out of Final Fantasy VII. Now, here's where I get pissed. THEY PLAYED ONE WINGED ANGEL A SECOND TIME. Look, the song kicks ass but TWICE? It seemed pretty low class in my opinion, especially considering how the dozens upon dozens of other fantastic music pieces in this series that could have been played. Oh well, they gave the dirty anime fans what they wanted.
Overall it was an amazing performance (other than my one complaint). I've always loved the music for the series (up until VII of course though VIII had a good soundtrack and now I'm interested in diving into IX's) and this was always a childhood dream of mine to see something like this. Now I just hope More Friends comes to Dallas/Ft. Worth because I've heard that concert is much more interesting (with the Black Mages band performing a rock-opera version of One Winged Angel).