concert - video games live, LA, CA 2010 (E3)

Hey guys~ I was out of town last week and hanging around my apartment in Pasadena because of the Video Games Live concert at E3. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get to attend E3, as it's industry only and I'm afraid I'm not yet in that industry (yet. ONE DAY. I SWEAR IT.) - but Video Games Live is awesome and I wanted to go and they had a bunch of things going on that were only made possible because they were the closing show for E3.

VIDEO GAMES LIVE, LA, CA 2010 (E3 Event)

The concert was June 17, 2010 at 8p. Aside from VGL, E3 was wrapping up, the NBA finals were going on (Lakers vs. whatever - I don't watch Basketball), and I think some other thing was having a show as well? All in the same vicinity so parking was terrible. I went with mochawhip and we circled around for half an hour - some of the lots were charging $50 to park! I saw one that was $60....holycrap. It was so expensive that when we saw one that was $40, Mocha suggested splitting the parking fare and just parking there - but I wanted to look around just a little bit more before we settled for the cheapest parking we could find. Luckily though, we found that the convention center lot still had spaces and were only charging $20! Splitting the fare there brought our cost to a (more) reasonable $10/each. Gwuh, one of my least favorite things to do is to find parking LOLOL. Especially in LA. Can anyone else see why I hate living in Southern California? Pretty much the entire place is like this URGH.

Anyway, we were let into the Nokia center (where the concert was taking place) around 7p - and there was this hugeass line outside. jen_kat was already waiting in line and called out to me though, and Mocha dragged me to well... "Oh, how convenient! You have a friend here, let's just wait with her!" LOLOL anyway, Jen was nice enough to let us sneak in line and wait with her - we all have assigned seats anyway, so it's really just to get into the hall LOLOL. We were all in the pit too! Jen was like...3 rows behind? Really close! *3* Mocha and I sat in the third row - we had a great view - though the seats were really cheap on account of them setting up folding chairs as the pit section LOLOL. /sighs (Cheap as in quality, cause they certainly weren't cheap in price D8. ....Worth it, though!)

So. The set list. I'm grabbing this from jen_kat cause she wrote up an amazingly detailed set list oh hoho. Her post is here: link - she actually took photos as well - I didn't bother ahah.

SET LIST:

1. Montage of older games like PONG, SPACE INVADERS, DRAGON's LAIR, FROGGER, etc.
2. SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
3. GOD OF WAR - guest composer, Gerard Marino, conducts
4. UNCHARTED 2 - guest composer, Greg Edmonson, conducts; world premiere of live performance
5. AFRIKA - guest composer, Wataru Hokoyama, conducts
6. WORLD OF WARCRAFT - arranged and performed by Martin Leung
7. ASSASSIN'S CREED II - guest composer, Jesper Kyd, conducts (with 2 batons)
8. METAL GEAR SOLID 3 "Snake Eater" - guest composer, Norihiko Hibino, performs on saxophone
9. LEGEND OF ZELDA - Laura Intravia AKA Flute Link performs on flute (solo)
10. LEGEND OF ZELDA Montage
---Intermission---
11. SILENT HILL 2 - guest composer, Akira Yamaoka, performs on guitar
12. WORLD OF WARCRAFT BGM Medley
13. SUPER MARIO BROTHERS Montage
14. SUPER MARIO BROTHERS - arranged and performed by Martin Leung; requests taken: SUPER MARIO BROS. 3, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, FINAL FANTASY medley, TETRIS
15. GUITAR HERO "JUMP" by Van Halen - game played/performed live by competition champion
16. ROCKMAN/MEGAMAN Montage
17. HALO - Tommy Tallarico (MC) performs on guitar (steampunk guitar)
18. FINAL FANTASY VII "One-Winged Angel" - Akira Yamoka and Tommy Tallarico (MC) perform on guitar; cosplayers slide show
19. CASTLEVANIA
20. CHRONO TRIGGER/CHRONO CROSS - multiple guests perform with orchestra
---End---

VGL's tagline is pretty much that they never play the same show twice. This was my third time going (first time was 2008 in San Jose, second was 2009 at San Diego Comic Con) and it was just as awesome as ever - and also very different. I was so happy to hear Shadow of the Colossus, and then they started bringing out guest composers and I was dying of happy. SotC, God of War...it was so great! God of War had some of GOW3 stuff added in - which made me really happy. *3* There were a bunch of new things actually - I hadn't ever heard Martin Leung play his WOW medley - but they took out the orchestra one. Laura Intravia was incredible as always of course - I saw her for the first time last year at SDCC, and she was so entertaining and incredibly skilled as well. She actually did the vocal parts for the God of War set and was absolutely incredible there as well.

I was a bit disappointed not to hear Civilization 4, which was easily my favorite of all their pieces from the last two shows - but the Silent Hill 2 one was so, so, so good. And Akira was incredible on the guitar. And the Rock Man/Megaman montage was aasdglkhg. They finished up with Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross which made me SO happy - just. AHHHHHH. The performance was amazing *3* I want to go again - I know there's another VGL concert coming up in July for SDCC again....I really want to go, but I'm not sure if I can afford it. They're still selling tickets...maybe I'll see how much I earn at AX - if I earn enough I can take my brother to both Distant Worlds and VGL down in San Diego next month (but it also depends on whether they'll still be selling tickets at that point or not.)

If you haven't gone to see Video Games Live, you really, really, really should try. They perform just about everywhere and they're always fantastic. I always have tons of fun and each show is at least a little bit different from the previous one so it's like watching something new every time! <3

Could use a bit less guitar though. And as much as I love FF, I'm a bit tired of One-Winged Angel LOLOL. I was glad they decided not to play Kingdom Hearts this time though ahaha, I love Yoko Shimomura but her KH compositions are like...my least favorite out of all the stuff she does.

So yeah, that's about it. I spent all of last week Not Doing Any Work so I am woefully behind on keychains. I'll get back to it soon though! *3*