Kamui
Laying the Beatdown
- AKA
- Kamui, Amaya, Ammy
I know there was a thread created by ForceStealer for the Baltimore concert but this one is for the Chicago one that took place on 12/12/09. I had the thrill of being front row at the concert and I'm gonna give a review of it plus put up all the announcements they gave at the concert.
Review:
The concert overall was a highly enjoyable experience, the screen was large enough that even from the video I saw on YouTube, the balcony could see it easily. The show opened up with a medley then went into Liberi Fatali. Fisherman's Horizon was my personal favorite of the old classics from their standard list, something about watching Seifer attempting to fish and failing always makes me laugh. Same goes for Don't be Afraid, Seifer is hard to take seriously when you can't understand what he's saying. From there they played a lot of the classic stuff like Opening ~ Bombing Mission ect. from previous Distant Worlds. Their first new pieces were Suteki da ne from FFX and Melodies of Life from IX. Susan Calloway (who did the vocal solos on the DW Soundtrack) was amazing. I was honestly blown away by the durability of her voice (having been around musicians all my life). The end of the first half was concluded to J-E-N-O-V-A, and was completely phenomenal, listening to it on AC or VII was intense enough, get it live and know Nobuo Uematsu is 5 rows behind you = awe inspiring.
The second half opened up with a bunch of announcements and new premiers including Dancing Mad which justified my claim that Kefka is insanely creepy and therefore a great villain. The only downside was they didn't have anyone on a massive pipe organ, but they did include his creepy laugh at the end. The Man with the Machine Gun was very cool featuring some battles with Laguna. Main Theme of FFVII was interesting, they showed a surprising amount of the menus. Then they went into the world premier of the FFXIV songs. I can't quite remember what they called the two pieces Twilight Under something and Bloody Battle, like I said I can't remember the names, but both were well orchestrated. The first one was slow and more melodic like you'd expect the opening theme, the latter was a fight song. They closed out the concert with Terra's Theme from VI.
Then came the last piece, cause everyone knows we wouldn't leave without OWA. They did Advent: One Winged Angel, with Mr. Uematsu on the Harmonic Organ, right in front of me. Mr. Roth then instructed we could sing along with the "SEPHIROTH" line. When they completed the first round of it, the entire audience gave a ~5 minute standing ovation, and they did an encore. During the encore I got Mr. Roth to headbang with me for a measure, and at the end I was shouting and Mr. Uematsu shouted with me while looking at me. I almost fainted at that point.
Other than the music the crowd was awesome, two people sitting behind me were also dressed as Squall. We formed the impromptu "Squall Squad/Wall of Squall". I also saw two Clouds, a Rinoa, a Yuna, and a red, black, and white mage. The facility was nice, and when I went to go get my things autographed by Mr. Roth, Ms. Calloway, and Mr. Uematsu, I had a great time talking with them, though I think I embarrassed myself when Mr. Uematsu asked whose copies of VII and VIII he had signed and I replied "Yes sir!"
The only complaint I had was that when I went to the T-Shirt sales area after the concert, they wouldn't sell me or my parents shirts. So that disappointed me but it's a minor complaint compared to the experience.
Announcements made:
Final Fantasy XIV music
Distant Worlds 2 CD (they're recoding in January with the Stockholm Philharmonic and will be releasing it in May/June)
2010 tour locations including 2 days in San Francisco (July 15 & 16) and San Diego some time around ComiCon.
Overall I had a great time, and I highly recommend if you like Final Fantasy or music done really well, check out the 2010 tour. I'm definitely going again when I get the chance. I'll put up links to pictures on here if anyone wants them.
Rating: 10/10
Review:
The concert overall was a highly enjoyable experience, the screen was large enough that even from the video I saw on YouTube, the balcony could see it easily. The show opened up with a medley then went into Liberi Fatali. Fisherman's Horizon was my personal favorite of the old classics from their standard list, something about watching Seifer attempting to fish and failing always makes me laugh. Same goes for Don't be Afraid, Seifer is hard to take seriously when you can't understand what he's saying. From there they played a lot of the classic stuff like Opening ~ Bombing Mission ect. from previous Distant Worlds. Their first new pieces were Suteki da ne from FFX and Melodies of Life from IX. Susan Calloway (who did the vocal solos on the DW Soundtrack) was amazing. I was honestly blown away by the durability of her voice (having been around musicians all my life). The end of the first half was concluded to J-E-N-O-V-A, and was completely phenomenal, listening to it on AC or VII was intense enough, get it live and know Nobuo Uematsu is 5 rows behind you = awe inspiring.
The second half opened up with a bunch of announcements and new premiers including Dancing Mad which justified my claim that Kefka is insanely creepy and therefore a great villain. The only downside was they didn't have anyone on a massive pipe organ, but they did include his creepy laugh at the end. The Man with the Machine Gun was very cool featuring some battles with Laguna. Main Theme of FFVII was interesting, they showed a surprising amount of the menus. Then they went into the world premier of the FFXIV songs. I can't quite remember what they called the two pieces Twilight Under something and Bloody Battle, like I said I can't remember the names, but both were well orchestrated. The first one was slow and more melodic like you'd expect the opening theme, the latter was a fight song. They closed out the concert with Terra's Theme from VI.
Then came the last piece, cause everyone knows we wouldn't leave without OWA. They did Advent: One Winged Angel, with Mr. Uematsu on the Harmonic Organ, right in front of me. Mr. Roth then instructed we could sing along with the "SEPHIROTH" line. When they completed the first round of it, the entire audience gave a ~5 minute standing ovation, and they did an encore. During the encore I got Mr. Roth to headbang with me for a measure, and at the end I was shouting and Mr. Uematsu shouted with me while looking at me. I almost fainted at that point.
Other than the music the crowd was awesome, two people sitting behind me were also dressed as Squall. We formed the impromptu "Squall Squad/Wall of Squall". I also saw two Clouds, a Rinoa, a Yuna, and a red, black, and white mage. The facility was nice, and when I went to go get my things autographed by Mr. Roth, Ms. Calloway, and Mr. Uematsu, I had a great time talking with them, though I think I embarrassed myself when Mr. Uematsu asked whose copies of VII and VIII he had signed and I replied "Yes sir!"
The only complaint I had was that when I went to the T-Shirt sales area after the concert, they wouldn't sell me or my parents shirts. So that disappointed me but it's a minor complaint compared to the experience.
Announcements made:
Final Fantasy XIV music
Distant Worlds 2 CD (they're recoding in January with the Stockholm Philharmonic and will be releasing it in May/June)
2010 tour locations including 2 days in San Francisco (July 15 & 16) and San Diego some time around ComiCon.
Overall I had a great time, and I highly recommend if you like Final Fantasy or music done really well, check out the 2010 tour. I'm definitely going again when I get the chance. I'll put up links to pictures on here if anyone wants them.
Rating: 10/10
