After the intermission and the quick retuning, Roth and the orchestra brought everyone’s senses back to the subject matter with “The Man with the Machine Gun” from Final Fantasy VIII. I’m a huge fan of the music from VIII, and while I still enjoyed that game more than most, the music still tends to be my favourite aspect of it. And sure, maybe there were no “Eyes On Me” this night, but I can work with battle themes too.
The big treat came next: Nobuo Uematsu was going to play a duet with Arnie Roth! Roth told the story of how they tried to find a song that they could play together, with Uematsu shooting down song after song, saying one was too hard, or that another wasn’t one he liked very much. Well, they agreed to go with the “Dark World” theme from Final Fantasy VI. Uematsu came out and sat at some keyboards set up at the stage while Roth picked up a violin. And then as we listened to the simple, steady, repetitive organ chords (and the wind effects) rolling out from Uematsu’s fingers, we all jokingly understood why he wanted to play this song: it was easy for him! After the concert we all more or less seemed to have come to that conclusion, so it’s likely we weren’t the only ones. In any case, still great to be able to hear the legend himself play a song.
(My friend's sneaky video of the set.)
Also, I do love me some Final Fantasy VI.
My memory’s a little shoddy, so I hope I have these set lists correct. Next I believe it was a set of “To Zanarkand” from Final Fantasy X and “You’re Not Alone” from Final Fantasy IX; it was one after the other, if not in that order exactly. “You’re Not Alone” got a few big cheers around the theatre from Final Fantasy IX fans. My friend’s face was completely lit up and she poked me when she caught my observation. Well, it went both ways, because apparently “To Zanarkand” while watching cinematics of Yuna doing the “sending dance” makes my eyes misty. It can’t be helped: manly tears were shed by many that night. True story. Probably.
My inability to save face got worse with the next set. “I think it’s time to play the opera…” Roth said. Up in the balcony, I must admit that I actually shot up in my chair, slapped my hands past each other, and threw a fist up in intense anticipation; I also kind of scared the crap out of the rest of my otherwise silent area. Well, as I recomposed myself, Roth introduced three opera singers who were going to sing the parts to the famous “Maria and Draco” opera from Final Fantasy VI.
For me, the next twelve odd minutes of reliving the opera sequence from the game were pure bliss. I have had a few different versions of the opera to listen to over the past fifteen odd years, and every time the story of the opera (and the larger story of the characters acting inside and out of the opera) never left my mind. The fact that they showed the actual gameplay from that sequence edited to line up with the music as the orchestra played made it even better. The only difference to me that night was I was hearing the opera sung in English instead of Japanese or Italian. Well, the three opera singers did a fantastic job, and when the set was over my hands were red and sore from clapping as hard as I was for them.
As I said, I do love me some Final Fantasy VI.
The concert went through some newer songs, again previewing some music from Final Fantasy XIV. As Roth introduced “Twilight Over Thanalan”, he joked about how the game was “…having some difficulties,” but that “the music is fantastic!” From what I heard that night, I’m agreeing so far. He also introduced and conducted “Blinded By Light” from Final Fantasy XIII (perhaps the only song of the night not composed by Nobuo Uematsu), calling it “the most memorable theme from the game.” Again, you really can’t go wrong with battle themes – especially one as amazing as that. Quite a few friends have told me that “if anything, XIII at least gave us that song.”
The concert was drawing to a close now. Roth again thanked everyone for coming out and everyone who helped with the concert. He also took time to remind everyone that Japan is still getting hit by aftershocks months after the big earthquake, and that relief donations are still needed and appreciated. You could feel the disappointment in the air as everyone realized we were at the end of the show (as well as hear the audible “awww” that came out). Roth commented that they had enough music for a week of nonstop Final Fantasy, but that it was not the plan for tonight. So for as their alleged final piece they went with “Terra’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VI. Already a beautiful song as it is, they showed off their penultimate clever surprise for the night as the second half of the video showed the opening cinematic for Final Fantasy VI with the three magitek armours walking through the snow. Rather than the game’s opening credits, they were instead the credits for the Distant Worlds concert itself. The audience applauded as Uematsu’s name faded in, as well as for Roth when his name faded in. The video also reminded us that the illustrations were by Yoshitaka Amano, and that Square Enix gives permission for the Distant Worlds concert to use their game videos.
Not a bad way to end a concert, and Arnie Roth left the stage. But no one was fooled and a standing ovation brought him back out for one more song. Uematsu was with him and (jokingly or not) commented that he just wanted to go back to the hotel and get a beer. They still had one final amazing surprise for us, though:
“We have a problem,” Roth said, “we don’t have a choir tonight. So here’s the thing... we do a little trick where we put the lyrics up on the screen… and you, you all…” The applause more or less drowned out the next bit. But we had the gist: they wanted us, the audience, to sing. Roth then got us to “rehearse”, and had the piano give us three tuning notes expecting everyone to know what song it was just from that. Well, I was sadly slow on the uptake and didn’t quite have the song figured out until I heard everyone around and below me chant “Se-phi-roth”.
So yes, interactive sing-along “One Winged Angel” from Final Fantasy VII was our encore. And it was ridiculous. And it was brilliant. And Uematsu himself was bouncing back and forth across the front of the stage encouraging everyone to sing out loud, going so far as to do the Hulk Hogan “cupped-hand-to-ear” to get us singing. It mostly worked, though let’s face it, Latin is nobody’s first language. If nothing else, the audience was very good at nailing the “Se-phi-roth!” parts, and was quick to laugh itself silly in between.
I started the concert with a goofy grin on my face, and I finished with a goofy grin on my face. There are few times where I can comfortably say that I have spent two straight hours feeling completely content and amused, but this was one of those times. I am so glad I came to this concert and do not regret the small hole in my Visa credit with which the tickets left me.
Actually, I do have one regret about this concert… I truly regret not getting the super expensive VIP tickets when they were still available. After the show was over, we met up with some other people in the lobby and outside the theatre entrance. We were a little hungry and wanted to get a bite to eat.
But we had to wait for our other friends to finish up with their post-show meet-and-greet…
