Video games live at the Flynn Center

Author: Amanda Cormier

A boy with a felt mustache and denim overalls wields a plunger down the aisle. His willing attendant, Mom, follows. Gray-haired ladies usher families to their seats through bold rays of gamma-green light. Some of them mouth the words of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which the pre-show DJ has deemed an appropriate song for the occasion.

But what, really, is the occasion?

It's equal parts Comic Con, high school orchestra concert, and awkward rave. It's Video Games Live, the first and biggest traveling show to highlight the best video game music performed by orchestras and choirs. Dec. 17 marked the first performance of the three-year-old show in Vermont, playing to a sold-out Flynn Center crowd in Burlington.

The Vermont Youth Orchestra, comprised of 15- to 18-year-olds, played a diverse and captivating set list of orchestral arrangements from both mainstream and more obscure video games, ranging from Tetris to Metal Gear Solid to World of Warcraft.

The idea seems intuitive, given the staggering status of Video Games in 21st century pop culture - orchestras have long been adapting music from pop culture into intricate orchestral pieces. But what makes Video Games Live such a success is not simply its triumph at crossing instrumental and genre barriers. The show's seamless embrace of burgeoning technology, combined with a profound sense of classic, cinematic emotion, are what make it so spectacular.

Tommy Tallarico, the creator of the show, envisioned the experience to unite non-gamers and gamers alike. After 18 years of composing on more than 275 video games, Tallarico and fellow composer Jack Wall knew they wanted to bring video game music out of monitors and into bigger audiences.

"What makes [the show] special and unique is that all the music is completely synchronized to video screens and rock and roll lighting and a stage show production, with interactive elements of a crowd. It's the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra with the energy and excitement of a rock concert, mixed together with all the cutting edge visuals, technology and fun that video games provide."

The complex and often moving music was played nearly flawlessly by the Vermont Youth Orchestra, which had practiced the arrangements for 10 weeks under the direction of Troy Peters. The Burlington show marked the first time Tallarico and Wall chose to use a youth orchestra, most often using top orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The players' excitement about the songs was tangible, with some of the musicians even wearing character hats (Tallarico explicitly tells each orchestra to not wear tuxedos).

"A lot of [the musicians in the Vermont Youth Orchestra] don't play as much as I expected them to," Wall said, after four hours of rehearsal with the group. "They're just really enthusiastic about the show. [The top orchestras that usually play] are all really good, and they're amazing players - I'll do a three hour rehearsal and when they're done, they just sight-read. But these kids are real enthusiastic about it."

But the beauty of Video Games Live is that even if a voice in the choir cracked or a cello needed tuning, the cinematic video playing on a massive screen behind the orchestra masks any musical imperfections. The screen displayed cinematically-edited montages of famous scenes from video games. The visuals never felt arbitrary, or as if one was watching someone play a video game - which, to be noted, is probably the most boring activity to ever plague our generation. Instead, it's as if one is watching mini-movies with a live soundtrack and accompanying mood lighting - something that even grandmas and other non-gamers can enjoy.

That being said, Tallarico and Wall know their main clientele to a tee and market their show brilliantly.

Before even starting the show, the main announcer indulged that Tallarico and Wall not only allow flash photography and videography, but encourage the audience to post videos and photos of the show on the Internet. This emitted a few hesitant claps, as if this once closeted, nerdy and intensely individual activity had been stripped of its identity and at once accepted by the mainstream. It was awkward.

But Tallarico, who often takes the stage to introduce the next piece, embraces the awkwardness of turning an individual experience into a collective one. Both he and Wall, who conducted the orchestra, make jokes about HTML color codes and obscure video games from the 1980s. Tallarico ridiculed an audience participant who struggled to win a game of Space Invaders -"These kids and their Halo, these days." Tallarico and Wall engage the crowd with contests and prizes and do not hesitate to hail the triumph of the video game nerd.

Tallarico himself is a story of triumph. After spending his first 20 years in Massachusetts, he drove out to California on a whim to pursue his passion for music and video games. Without money and without a home, he went to Disneyland, the only location he knew of in California, and picked up a newspaper. He spotted an ad for a job at a Guitar Center in Orange County.

On his first day of work, Tallarico wore a video game t-shirt, which caught the eye of an executive at Virgin Records who was starting a video game company. From then on, Tallarico was an instrumental player in transforming the bleep-bloops of Pong into the sweeping lyrical scores of Final Fantasy.

After witnessing the growth of what he calls "the 21st century's entertainment of choice," he said the next step for the medium is games that are targeted to an even wider base of video game fans that encompasses all age groups.

"People under 40 years old have grown up on video games in their daily lives," he said. "Half the world grew up playing video games. That number is only going to get bigger and bigger. In the next 10 to 15 years, we're going to have a president who grew up playing video games. Even Obama was just talking about how for Christmas, he got his daughters the Wii, and he's been playing Wii Bowling all the time."

But before Video Games Live can incorporate music for geriatric gamers, the show will be just fine with the score of World of Warcraft. And judging by the audible, collective sigh that marked its introduction, Tallarico and Wall have more triumphs in store in their quest to provide a sanctuary for gamers.