The Pros and Cons of Concerts

September 30, 2022thisiskrys Leave a comment

A couple of years ago I had a coworker who really liked to go to concerts. I told her I wasn’t typically into live music, but there were two bands I’d kill to see. However, I didn’t think I’d ever get the chance. The first was Rammstein, a metal band from Germany whose concerts I missed when they were last in America because I was away at college. They’re old for an internationally touring rock band, all in or about their 50s, and I knew they could decide that they didn’t want to do massive world tours anymore or decide to suddenly retire. It had been nearly a decade since they’d been to America and I wasn’t certain they’d ever be back. The other band was My Chemical Romance, a band whose heyday was when I was in high school and college. They broke up right after I graduated college and I was sure that they were gone for good.

And then a few months later in January 2020 both bands announced new tours with stops in my area. I vividly remember getting the tickets for both concerts. Rammstein went on sale at 5 p.m. so I stayed glued to my desk at work, afraid that if I waited the 20 minutes to drive home that all the tickets would be gone. I had no idea who would go with me, because no one I know loves the band like I do, but I bought two tickets anyway, a little nervous to go alone and knowing I’d find someone willing to go. The MCR tickets dropped at noon on my birthday. My friend and I both frantically tried to secure a set of tickets while we were on speaker phone, as I sat in my car next to the sea, a day trip which was my birthday gift to myself. She got unfortunately stuck in the virtual queue, but I managed to snag our tickets. Both concerts were scheduled for September so once the tickets were secured the only thing left to do was wait

And then March came along and the world changed. I would later darkly joke that I had caused the plague in a butterfly effect sort of way by doing something so out of character for me as buying concert tickets. I had never been to a concert outside of two acts at Anime Boston and two Distant Worlds concerts, all of which hardly seems to count in the sense most people mean when they say concert. I know I like to watch a symphony, the concert band high schooler I used to be never getting over the way the bass drum felt in my chest or the blare of the horns or the dainty flutter of my specialty, the flute. On the other hand, going out of my way to attend a rock or pop concert was never quite appealing to me. It just seemed like a whole bunch of expensive fuss. However, there are exceptions to everything I suppose and two of mine happened to turn up in the same year. How could I pass up the opportunity?

Now that I’ve been to both concerts, I can definitively say that they were fun, but it’s not an experience I feel like I need to have again. I could go on at length about why I don’t want to go to more concerts (and in fact a prior version of this post did just that), but I will attempt to be brief and not gripe overly much.

1. Getting to the venue is a nightmare: The public transit sucks in most areas of America, so driving is required to get to a lot of places. Most concerts are in the evenings so you have to fight rush hour traffic to get there, massively multiplying both travel time and frustration, because a lot of people drive like idiots. To be precise, it took me an hour to drive from my brother’s place to MetLife Stadium for the Rammstein show and only 20 minutes to drive him home after. It similarly took probably twice as long to get to the MCR concert at the Prudential Center as it did to get home.

2. You are at the mercy of the conditions in the venue: This is a little hard to explain, but basically you will likely have to put up with some kind of uncomfortable inconvenience in the venue. For instance, some arena seating sections are so unpleasantly steep they activate my fear of heights and make me worry about falling down the stairs and tumbling over the railing to my doom. They air conditioning may be powerful enough to leave you feeling chilly even when you get up to dance. It rained heavily the evening of the Rammstein concert, finally stopping partway through the show, and MetLife Stadium does not have a roof. The music was a good distraction, but between songs it was difficult to not fixate on how uncomfortably damp I was. Thank god it was an unusually cool night for early September and not horribly muggy or I don’t think even the music could have distracted me from feeling gross.

Also, as a side note, while I’m on this topic I’d like to point out that a lot of venues just are just straight up not accessible (or have limited accessibility) for people with disabilities. And they also build these things like airplanes, trying to cram in as many seats as possible to the detriment of the visitor. I qualify as what is known as a mid fat and if my butt was much bigger it wouldn’t have fit in my seat at MetLife, which is a newer stadium, so you would think they knew fat people existed while they were building it.

3. Excessive cellphone use by fans: I understand snapping a few pics or a couple of brief video clips, or maybe taking a longer recording if they play your favorite song. But be fucking reasonable. I paid good money to be here. I don’t want to see your phone in the air for the whole night. You paid good money to be here. Why are you constantly distracting yourself from the experience by fucking around with your phone? Often the lighting in the venue and your probable distance from the stage are gonna result in your footage not being that great anyway. Rammstein specifically had a PA announcement before the show telling people not to film and multiple people around me were poorly filming basically the whole thing. And may I remind you that they were exposing their phones to the rain while they were doing this? Craziness.

All that being said, I would like to reiterate that I did really enjoy myself a lot at these concerts! Both bands are fantastic live, although I did come away feeling that Rammstein lost some of its nuance and became just a blaring wall of mushed together sounds grounded by the drum kit. The members of both bands had good on stage chemistry and seemed to really be having fun, and that energy fed back into the crowd. The MCR concert I went to was in Newark, right where the band was formed, and so that crowd in particular had a fantastic energy because the band are local boys. At one point the singer Gerard even made a comment about wanting to take a drive around his nearby hometown of Belleville.

I’ve been listening to both bands on my own for so long (since middle school for Rammstein and 9th grade for MCR) that it was really surreal to see them in the flesh even from far away. It didn’t quite feel like real life. There was so much feeling in those stadiums, the culmination of two years of waiting, that I found myself getting a bit emotional as the crowd yelled lyrics along with the singers while the drums and guitars pounded in my chest. It felt so powerful to chant the verses to “Du Hast” with the entirety of MetLife Stadium while pillars of fire sprouted overhead. Towards the beginning of the MCR concert when we were all singing “I’m Not Okay” together and I actually weirdly felt tears kind of welling in my eyes.

And while I’m not one to shy away from doing things on my own I’m very glad I got to see these bands that are so important to me with people that are important to me. It was so fun to speculate over what songs would be played and make comments to each other during breaks in the concerts. For instance, at one point late in the MCR concert when they still hadn’t played “Welcome to the Black Parade” I looked at my friends and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if they never played it at all?” and then with perfect comedic timing the first note of the song rang out in the arena. My younger brother enjoys Rammstein’s music, but not with the same intensity that I do, so it was fun to give him context like, “This is the song about cannibalism,” or “This is the fucking around the world song,” and hear him laugh.

So I had a great time at both concerts, but I don’t want to go to another one? Yes. I enjoyed myself enough to not entirely begrudge the existence of the bad bits, but all in all I think I can enjoy my music just as well at home. Do I have a couple of more exceptions that I would be willing to see? Of course! I’m interested to see what Orville Peck’s live show is like. If The Crane Wives ever come east there’s no way I’m passing them up. (I discovered them just before the pandemic started and they quickly became my favorite band.) I also think I’d see Distant Worlds a third time, because I will always miss that symphony feeling. However, I definitely don’t see myself buying more concert tickets anytime soon. I understand why people enjoy it, but I just don’t think it’s for me!

And finally, if you like the pictures in this post and want to see more, I posted on Instagram after each concert!

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My Favorite Distant Worlds Songs

June 28, 2020thisiskrys Leave a comment

If you’ve been following my overall internet presence for a long time (which let’s be real, probably not?) you’ll know that I really enjoy music and nerd stuff which means Distant Worlds, a music project that turns songs from the Final Fantasy series into grand orchestral arrangements out of them, is right up my alley. I’ll be honest and say that I’ve only finished one Final Fantasy game (7), but I’ve played parts of some others (6, 8, Crisis Core, 10) and have watched friends play parts of others (9, 15) so I think I can say with some confidence that these games have great music (although, you know, that’s not exactly a controversial opinion).

I’ve known about Distant Worlds for a long time, but it wasn’t until 2020 when I found out about the A New World recordings. They describe them as “intimate music from Final Fantasy.” I don’t actually know the size of the ensemble used for A New World, but I keep referring to it as chamber music — it’s a smaller, more stripped down ensemble with less of a bombastic sound than the Distant Worlds pieces, but the arrangements are no less impressive or dramatic.

Buying the whole catalog of both of these music projects was my one big quarantine purchase, after I found myself listening to the recordings on YouTube a lot while I was working and figured I should actually give them money. Somehow the music still hasn’t gotten old for me despite the fact that I listened to it for days on end while grappling with the frustrations and limitations of working from home for two months, and it’s still music I reach for now even though I’ve been working back in the office for about a month (not by choice, I assure you).

So I wanted to share a few of my favorite songs with you all. All of these are available to buy on Bandcamp! Here is the link to the Distant Worlds page. And here is the link to the A New World page.

[Just a quick disclaimer before we get started! Despite playing flute in school concert bands for a decade there are certain instruments I can’t tell apart by ear. And also I can’t tell string instruments apart at all, so if I name an instrument incorrectly, please do not come for me.]

Let’s start with Tower of the Magi, originally from Final Fantasy II. This is from the A New World recordings and it’s literally just a piano and a violin. I almost always love songs that are in a minor key and sound kind of gothic, and this song definitely delivers that. It’s a simple little tune (this song was on the NES originally after all) but it’s made very interesting!

Next let’s talk about Not Alone from Final Fantasy IX, from the third Distant Worlds album. I can’t describe exactly what it is about this song that does it for me, but somehow the big broadness of what I’ll call the B melody gets me very hype. (It’s heard for the first time at 1:17 in this arrangement, but is even more hype at 2:30.)

I played enough of Final Fantasy X to meet Seymour, but did not play enough to actually get to hear his battle theme, which is surprisingly kind of disco-y? They covered it on the first A New World album and it’s one of my top five favorite arrangements in the whole Distant Worlds/A New World repertoire. Here are of the *chef’s kiss* moments for me in this piece: the fiddle riff at 0:40ish, the way the tension builds and the music gets increasingly layered and tense leading up to the beautiful broad long notes at 1:30ish, and when the key changes at 2:10ish and the bass gets especially chunky and prominent. I could go on, but I won’t. If you’re only gonna listen to one of the songs I’ve embedded here, make it this one!

I love a beautifully brassy bombastic boss battle theme, as I’m sure all video game fans do. Distant Worlds has quite a few to offer, but I think my favorite is Battle with the Four Fiends, originally from Final Fantasy IV. I feel like this piece has good ebb and flow dynamically (aka, they could’ve just been hella loud the whole time, but sometimes the song eases off and is quieter). In the section at 1:15 where they play the main melody quietly before playing it big and loud for the first time, there is a single little drum in the background. I don’t know what kind of drum it is, but it is used to great effect throughout the whole song. The loud punctuating brass hits whenever the melody is done loudly are also A+! Also for my fellow rhythm game fans, I picked up Final Fantasy Theatrhythm this winter, and I find this track particularly satisfying to play through for some reason, the chart is somehow just feels really good to play through.

And finally I’d like to shout out love of my life, Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X. I’ve been to two Distant Worlds concerts and this song made me feel mega emotional both times, and if I’m in the right mood I can get pretty emotional listening to the recording as well. This graceful, melancholy song has repeatedly given me goosebumps! They’ve covered this in both the Distant Worlds and A New World repertoires and they’re both very lovely, but I prefer the Distant Worlds version. It sounds like both ensembles are working with the same score rhythmically, but the fuller, lusher sound of the Distant Worlds ensemble is just more to my liking with this song, as is the way the layering sounds in the section starting at 2:17 compared to the similar section in the A New World version.

I’ve avoided what I imagine to be some of the more commonly known Final Fantasy songs in this post in favor of highlighting a couple of deep cuts. But I do have a few honorable mentions:

I would LOVE to hear Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy VI played live. Both Distant Worlds concerts I’ve been to have played the Opera (also from VI) as their big really long showpiece song instead of this and it is a PERSONAL ATTACK. (A joke, of course.) (…unless…?) (I don’t care much for the Opera.)
Sephiroth’s theme is another song that has been covered by both Distant Worlds and A New World. I prefer the Distant Worlds version. (Shout out to the trombone flick at 1:13!)
I can’t possibly leave out Vamo’ alla Flamenco (aka, the Chocobo Hot and Cold song from Final Fantasy IX). It’s just a really fun song!

I could go on, but I won’t because we could be here literally forever because there are so many great songs to choose from in these albums! Even if you’re not big on video games, I promise you’ll probably find something you enjoy. I encourage you to check out anything I’ve linked above. I’m not sponsored by them, obviously, who would pay me for these silly little blogs. I just wanted to share something nice with the world that people might not have heard of!

CD Organization!

March 1, 2018November 3, 2019thisiskrys Leave a comment

As the world has become increasingly digitized, I’ve become increasingly uneasy. Yes, it’s convenient in a sense to have my media collected in a computer instead of taking up space in my house. However the idea of my favorite movies, music, or video games existing only on hard drives, where something can go wrong and everything can disappear at basically any time is terrifying.

Enter my CD collection.

I was given my first CDs when I was in elementary school, and as far as I know I still have every CD I’ve ever bought, and I still have many (if not all) of the mix CDs I made back before iPod times. Needless to say, this all takes up a lot of space. You might be alarmed, but actually one of those two disc cylinders is actually mostly filled with blank CDs. But maybe you should be alarmed, bc after dragging all of this out of its shelf I remembered something.

In the spare room I had stored two more boxes of CDs. Whoops. It hit me all at once a few weeks ago, that I should probably do something to organize this mess. I wasn’t even fully sure of all the CDs I had, and whenever I wanted to find something in particular (like when I loaned my My Chemical Romance albums to a friend this winter) it was a huge hassle. Enter my new best friend.

This is a 136 slot Case Logic CD Wallet, which I bought from Amazon. My plan was to put all of my CDs in here (except for mix CDs) and then send all the plastic cases that were clogging up my life off to the recycling bin. I put the CDs in alphabetical order by artist (or play name for Broadway soundtracks). Artists with multiple albums were arranged in chronological order.

Alphabetized from left to right, up to down, but not chronolized yet because that was too much of a hassle at this stage.

I also went off my rocker and decided that I would also tear up the album booklets and put the covers into the CD slots, which greatly increased the amount of time the whole task took. An wrinkle in this plan were the cardboard CD cases that have become a bit of a trend — those required a bit more cutting to size, and in a couple of places, I couldn’t get them to fit without totally ruining the album art. But I was able to preserve the album art for almost all the CDs. Nearly every disc has a cover in front of it, except for a few where I didn’t have the booklets anymore, and the second disc of any album that has two discs.

There was no way this was going to fit.

Even when I got tired and didn’t feel like doing it anymore, I kept going because I was afraid if I didn’t do it all on one sitting I wouldn’t finish it at all. Altogether, from alphabetizing to slotting in all the CDs and covers, the process took about 4 hours. I threw on a couple of Harry Potter movies to entertain me, and got the job done.

I did wind up leaving a few CDs out. I couldn’t bring myself to tear up these two signed albums, and The Light in the Piazza is super special to me, so I didn’t want to take it apart. I knew I had a lot of CDs, but didn’t think it was quite as many as it is. Towards the end I started to get scared I was going to run out of space. I only have 28 more spaces for CDs!

I’m glad I got this little task done. It’ll definitely make my life easier in the future. I’d been meaning to do it for awhile, so now that it’s done it’s like a little weight off of me. And it’s definitely very aesthetically pleasing when I flip through and see all the album covers instead of just the discs.

My next big project will probably be to print up some photo albums of my favorite pictures I’ve taken because I’m super worried about them disappearing too, even though I do have a backup made. Also, probably I should finally sort out my iTunes library on my iTouch, because god is it an unholy mess because of some weird choices Apple made.

Review: Mania by Fall Out Boy

February 8, 2018November 3, 2019thisiskrys Leave a comment

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I’ve been a Fall Out Boy fan since my freshman year of high school when a girl at my bus stop introduced me to them. They’re probably the band that I’ve been actively keeping tabs on for the longest, and also they’re one of two bands where I know all the members’ names. (Fun Fact: the other one is Rammstein.)

So suffice it to say, I was very, VERY excited when I heard Mania was coming out, although since they announced it with the first single in April 2017, I had a very, VERY long wait. (The album was originally supposed to be released in the summer, but they pushed back the release date so they could scrap most of the album and write new songs. [Source]) In fact, the wait was so long that I very nearly forgot about it, but lucky for me, I remembered, because there is some very, VERY enjoyable music on this album.

There are a lot of the hallmarks of Fall Out Boy here, such as big, booming, inspirational choruses, titles that have nothing to do with the content of the songs, and lyrics that occasionally sound like the poetry a high school freshman would write and think was so cool even though it’s kind of awful. It’s not my favorite of their albums (that would be Folie a Deux), but it’s pretty solid!

Before I go into a song by song breakdown, I’d also like to put it out there that I have one major complaint regarding the packaging! I’m a big physical media person, so of course I bought the CD instead of buying it from iTunes or whoever else sells MP3s nowadays. The color combination chosen for the tracklist on the back cover makes it nearly unreadable in anything other than bright daylight. AWFUL graphic design choices were made here.

WHO DESIGNED THIS??

And now for the breakdown. I’m going by the order of the songs on the CD, which is apparently different than other places such as Spotify for whatever reason. So don’t be confused if you’ve seen a different album order elsewhere!

Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea: The beginning of this song kind of alarmed me when I started up the album for the first time — it was kind of like being musically punched in the face. The lyrics are both cheesy (“Are you smelling that shit? Eau de resistance!) and inspirational (“The only thing that’s ever stopping me is me.”). Musically it’s fun to listen to. I like it!

Last of the Real Ones: Definitely one of the songs that feels more focused and tells a clear story without having to read into the lyrics too much. It’s catchy. Kind of in the middle for me in terms of the songs on this album, but on the upper end of middle. I’ve linked the music video here so you can hear it, but it’s kind of….weird (I’m not crazy about the llamas), and sort of makes me feel like they needed to to make the video cheaply so they reused the costumes from Young and Menace because they already had them.

Hold Me Tight Or Don’t: This feels like a super boppy summer song. It’s definitely one of my top favorites from this album and it makes me want to dance. The lyrics are kind of disjointed, but I do get the overall sense we’re talking about a friends with benefits or on and off kind of relationship here. The lyrics are CATCHY though, and I really like the way some of them sound individually. (ie: “I took too many hits off this memory // I need to come down.”) I can totally understand why they chose to make a music video for this one, although only the good lord knows why they picked a Day of the Dead theme.

Wilson (Expensive Mistakes): I’ll be honest, I’m not crazy about this one at all. I feel like it’s lyrically weak. “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color,” feels like it would fit right in on the album that made them go mainstream, From Under the Cork Tree. And, no lie, the first time I heard the line, “I became such a strange shape from trying to fit in,” the image that popped into my head was Spongebob when he became round from trying to be too normal.

Normal

It honestly feels like the most disjointed song on the album to me, like it’s just a bunch of different lines mashed together. The video makes me laugh a lot, and it seems like the guys had fun making it, but it does not make me like this song any better.

Church: I’m always drawn to weird, overly dramatic songs, so of course this is my favorite song on the album. There’s a big beautiful chorus that I’ve had a lot of fun belting out in the car, but I was originally annoyed because I thought it didn’t relate to the verses at all. However, then when I was reading the album booklet and actually understanding all of the words Patrick was singing my dormant English Major training rose from the grave and I felt like I could write a traditional five paragraph persuasive literary analysis essay with the thesis, “Fall Out Boy loves and worships fame, despite the negative aspects of it.” Spotting the wordplay in, “Take the pain / make it billboard [Billboard? ; ) ] big,” was a lightbulb moment for me. The bridge section often gives me chills, and I love how Patrick really gets to show off his vocal range. I’m not at all crazy about the video, but I need you to hear this song.

Heaven’s Gate: I think this one is my least favorite, despite the fact that the chorus has a nasty tendency to get stuck in my head. I like the oldies vibe, but that’s pretty much the only thing I like. The lyrics are kind of goofy, despite the sweet subject matter of wanting to be in heaven with a loved one. Meh.

Champion: This is one of the songs they kept when they overhauled the album. It’s got one of those big anthemic Fall Out Boy chrouses. “If I could live through this, I can do anything,” is something I’ve been repeating to myself as a mantra since I heard it, since I’m in a very unhappy place in my professional life at the moment. It’s a solid song, nothing too exciting or original, but still good.

Sunshine Riptide: This one is way down on the totem pole for me. I just find it a little boring, but that’s okay, that’s just my opinion. I don’t really have a lot to say. It just feels a little pedestrian to me.

Young and Menace: I have serious mixed feelings about this song. I LOVE the verses, both lyrically and musically. When I first heard it back in April I was like, “Oh my god, I love this song.” And then the “chorus” arrived. It was SO jarring. I’m not super into dubstep/super electronic music, so I’m not into the nonsense they’ve put between the verses at all. I didn’t actually time it, but I’d estimate that probably about a minute of this nearly four minute song is taken up by this thing that I don’t like. Also, there’s a sound in those bits that’s basically a car horn, which can be disorienting when you’re listening to the song while driving.

I can appreciate a band trying to do something new and different than what they’ve done, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. Also, the music video is pretty weird and really did a lot to put me off the song as well, tbh. (If you’re curious, this is the other song they kept from the original version of Mania.)

Bishops Knife Trick: This seems to me like another rumination on fame. (“I’m struggling to exist with you // and without you.”) It’s not one of my favorites, but it’s not awful. It’s a pretty solid song. Not much to say about this one.

So there you have it, my thoughts about the newest album by one of my all time favorite bands! If you like the music in the videos I’ve linked, then I definitely think that Mania is worth purchasing (or streaming someplace if you can’t spare the cash).

Distant Worlds Concert!

January 18, 2018November 3, 2019thisiskrys 2 Comments

My birthday isn’t until the 31st, but this past weekend, my friends and I ventured to NYC for my birthday outing. On Facebook I’d spotted that the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds show was coming to our area again, and when I asked my friends if they wanted to go, they were totally down. We’d been in 2015, coincidentally also for my birthday, and the show was so good we decided to see it again.

View of the stage from our seats! Taken before the show started, natch.

Distant Worlds is a touring concert series that performs orchestral versions of music from the long-running Final Fantasy video game series. While the orchestra plays, little movie montages play on a screen, with the footage corresponding to whatever game or character the music applies to. I’ll be honest here and say I’ve only partially played three of the Final Fantasy games (four if you count Crisis Core!), but the music is still fantastic even if you’re unfamiliar with the subject material and your friends just happen to have invited you along (as was the case with a friend’s girlfriend who came with us). Final Fantasy already has great music, but there’s something that’s extra great about hearing it performed by a live orchestra.

You might be saying, “Hey, if you already saw the concert, wouldn’t it be the exact same program? Wouldn’t that be boring?” Fortunately not! As of 2017, Distant Worlds has been happening for ten years, and they’ve built up quite a collection of orchestrations by this point. (If I’m remembering correctly, the conductor/director Arnie Roth mentioned that there’s something like 140 pieces of music in the repertoire. Woah.) There are certain classic songs that you can expect, but they don’t announce the program in advance, and I’m sure there are slight variations from city to city. Additionally, 2017 was also the 30th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series, so they had some special, brand new arrangements to show off, including a new arrangement of The Opera from FFVI and a couple of songs from the recent FFXV.

In 2015 Distant Worlds was playing in Newark, NJ at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which is in driving distance of where we live. But this year they were at Carnegie Hall, so we decided to make a little bit of a day of it in NYC. There were two performances, in the afternoon, and in the evening, so in the interest of being able to take our time, and not having to rush in a dinner before, and then rush to the train home after, we opted for the afternoon, with plans for dinner after the concert. Also, when we were buying tickets, the afternoon show had ever so slightly better seats within our budgets.

I’d never been to Carnegie Hall before, and I was surprised by how vertical everything was. There were many stairs. (There’s also an elevator, just so you know if you need it.) I’d thought there was one more balcony above ours, but I guess I misread the seating charts, because we were right up there by the ceiling! Walking down to our seats kicked my fear of heights into gear just a little bit, even though we were a good six rows back from the front!

View of the back/side of the balcony from our seats. Look how close to the ceiling we are! Oof!

My friends had wishlists of things they were hoping would be played, and all of their boxes got checked! Very lucky! The only thing I wished afterwards was that they had played Dancing Mad for us instead of The Opera, but I knew when they did The Opera we weren’t getting Dancing Mad because they’re both from FFVI and both very long. I just didn’t like The Opera as much because I couldn’t understand what the soloists were singing (it was in English, they were just a little drowned out).

(I hadn’t heard the Distant Worlds version of Dancing Mad before I pulled this up to embed it, so I’m assuming the excessive amounts of pipe organ and electric instruments would be an obstacle to live performance, but also I’m SURE they would’ve made a touring arrangement that doesn’t require it, because I’m pretty sure Dancing Mad is a fan favorite. Anyway, moving on, lol…)

There’s something about live music that I really love, especially orchestral stuff. I was a band student when I was in school, played flute for a decade, so I just love getting to watch and pick out what all the different instruments are doing, because sometimes when you listen to a recording you hear something neat, but don’t know exactly which instrument did it, and I’m a nerd who thinks it’s cool to know.

Also, my friends feel that when they hear this music live, they can feel the emotions better than when they just listen to a recording. I get where they’re coming from, and I agree with it to an extent (and so do all the goosebumps I felt throughout the concert!), but also, I’m not entirely wired like they are. Music doesn’t often make me cry, but there are certain chord progressions that plug right into my emotional core and make me well up.

For instance, To Zanarkand, from FFX. I’ve played a good portion of FFX, but got derailed by a tough boss. From the moment I first heard this in the game, I thought it was lovely. But something about this particular arrangement had tearing up pretty badly. The section between 2:19 and 3:00 especially gets me. This section isn’t exactly present in the original version. There is an undercurrent of those eighth notes (I assume that’s what they are?) in the original, but somehow just the way Distant Worlds builds them out and harmonizes them and spotlights them gets my tear ducts going. I’ve nearly made myself cry about three times while writing this post when I was trying to figure out the timecodes for the part I noted above, lol.

The concert closed with an encore that included One Winged Angel (aka, Sephiroth’s theme from FFVII). They used this as an encore at the 2015 show as well, so it’s probably what they always do as an encore, because they must know that FFVII is one of the most popular games in the series and that’s one of the most famous songs. They make it fun for the audience though, by encouraging them to sing along to each of the loud SEPHIROTH’s in the song.

(Although as I recall, the singalong was a little more extensive in 2015, with subtitles on screen for all the Latin, or whatever that is in there. The composer Nobuo Uematsu was there, and he pointed at us when we were supposed to sing. But I think they might not’ve had a chorus at that performance? Or at least not for the second half?)

After the concert we made our way to dinner. And since this was my birthday outing, you bet your ass I dragged my friend’s asses down to Wagamama. Luckily, they all liked it! I would’ve felt bad if any of them said they didn’t like it (and I trust them not to lie to me about that, lol).

Give me some chili squid and I am a happy girl. The red stuff is some pickled vegetable that my friend let me have because I realized it was similar to the little pickled things you used to be able to order as a side.

And then we basically ran to the train. Not because it was really late, but because it was super cold! I was wholly satisfied with this early birthday outing, and everyone had a good time, which is something that’s important to me. And also, I looked hella cute. All in all, a great day!

Me and the brick wall behind our table at Wagamama. My friends said the brick lighting makes it look like a texture from a PS2 game, lol.

(If you think you’re interested in seeing Distant Worlds live, you can check out their website here. Not sponsored, obviously, just wanted to make your life a little easier!)

This is Krys

Doing my best.

Category Music