Play! San Jose was full of disappointment and lies

Sunday, May 27, 2007 » gaming music thought update

Went over to hear the Play! Symphony yesterday because the nerdometer was running dangerously low. (Also, because Dear Friends a couple years ago was really great.) When I bought the tickets a month or so ago, it was because I was so impressed with the huge repertoire on their Website, most notably Shadow of the Colossus and mofo-ing ActRaiser. So we take our seats, the lights dim, and the orchestra launches into some Super Mario Bros. and Sonic. Some great arrangements, yes, but the whole time I kept thinking, ooh, I wonder when we're going to hear Fillmore!

Well, guess what games they didn't play.

Here is how the program ended up:

• Super Mario Bros., Shenmue, Sonic the Hedgehog
• World of WarCraft, Metal Gear Solid
• Lair
• Kingdom Hearts
• The Darkness, Chrono Cross/Chrono Trigger
• Oblivion, Halo, Blue Dragon
• The Legend of Zelda
• Final Fantasy VII

So it turns out the Website is just incredibly misleading. They didn't even have Castlevania. And there was a really uncomfortably delayed applause when they announced that one of the world premiere pieces was a suite from Lair—which, by the way, easily ran three to four times longer than the songs from any other game.

I don't mean to blame my disappointment at all on Symphony Silicon Valley, which performed wonderfully. Everything sounded great. It's just that if they had advertised the actual pieces to be played, I wouldn't even have considered attending.

Incidentally, I also realized less than 24 hours before the concert that there was an anime convention going on two blocks away, so of course every other seat at the concert was filled by some sort of costume or geek t-shirt. Also, standing behind us in line were two three- or maybe even four-hundred pound beings who spoke the entire time either in Japanese or Orc. I WISH I WAS MAKING THIS UP.