Board 8 > Went to a Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds orchestra concert

(+) Yeah! (+)

Was a lot of fun. Music was phenomenal, ticket prices were very reasonable, and I got even got a commemorative t-shirt out of it. Went with my sister who doesn't know much about the FF series, but she really liked it too and said the experience exceeded her expectations. It helped that they played tailored game footage in time with the music, giving each song the feeling of telling a story.

Here's my thoughts on everything that was played. They didn't give out concert pamphlets, so this list is off memory and I might have missed one or two songs.

--

Prelude / Series Medley
-Of course it had to start with Prelude. Transitioned into a short melody from each game. Very cool opening, set the tone well.

Those Chosen By The Planet (FF7 Remake)
-They came out swinging with this rendition. Sounded 'powerful', for lack of a better word.

Heavensward (FF14)
-As a sucker for FF14 music, I quite liked it. Basically a medley of music from Heavensward using the trailer theme as a base.

Don't Be Afraid (FF8)
-Pretty good, although there's more interesting choices from FF8 they could have gone with.

FF15 Song
-Sad to say this is the one song that I didn't recognize, and I forgot the name they said. It sounded great though!

Phantom Forest / Phantom Train / The Veldt (FF6)
-Fun FF6 medley. The crowd cheered when video footage showed the train being suplexed.

Battle Against the Four Fiends (FF4)
-Fantastic remix of one of my personal favorite FF songs. Was my #1 pick for the night until near the end.

Dear Friends (FF5)
-Really liked this one. Put me in a contemplative mood for some reason.

Vamo'alla Flamenco (FF9)
-The guitar was too quiet, so some sections of the song felt off. Overall though it was a great rendition.

Chocobo Theme / Mambo de Chocobo (FF11 & FF5)
-Great way to cap off the first half. Lighthearted and entertaining. The music was played alongside adorable chocobo videos that had my sister going 'awwww'.

~Intermission~

Liberi Fatali (FF8)
-Up until this point, the conductor had announced each song beforehand. With Liberi Fatali, he just came out and had the orchestra immediately start playing. Going from silence straight to FITHOS...LUSEC was really memorable.

Invincible (FF14)
-Oh ya go my Emet Selch.

Cosmo Canyon (FF7)
-Got a good reaction from the crowd. As someone who doesn't really care for the original song, I thought they did great with it.

Blinded by Light (FF13)
-Buildup...buildup...then it kicks into gear. Still effective.

To Zanarkand (FF10)
-The single best piece of music they performed. Was a remix/update of the original that still kept the tone. This one got me good.

The Final Day (FF14)
-Probably the best 'experience' of the night for me when combining music + the game visuals being played. Aside from being a very strong piece of music, the accompanying video was clearly cut together by a huge FF14 fan. It showed the start of the final fight, then flashbacked to the very beginning of the game, progressing through each expansion as a sort of retrospective. Spoiled the hell out of everything though.

FF1-6 Battle Medley
-Awesome medley of classic FF battle themes. For 1-5 is did each main battle theme, and then for 6 it did several different themes. Was the longest 'song' of the night.

One Winged Angel
-What else could it have ended on? The conductor tried to fake out the audience by leaving and coming back, but we knew what's up. OWA is basically made for an orchestra, and adding to that, they also had the crowd take part in the performance. We were coached and encouraged to yell SE-PHI-ROTH at the appropriate times. I made sure to do my part.

--

Overall, loved the experience. Would recommend to anyone who is interested.

I bought tickets to one a few years ago and ended up not being able to go, unfortunately. I'd still love to go someday. They seem like great experiences.

The XV song was Apocolypsis Noctis.

Leonhart4 posted...

I bought tickets to one a few years ago and ended up not being able to go, unfortunately. I'd still love to go someday. They seem like great experiences.

I think you'd definitely enjoy it if you can find the time to go one day, yeah.

Lord_Bob_Bree posted...

The XV song was Apocolypsis Noctis.

Did you go as well? Washington DC?

KamikazePotato posted...

Did you go as well? Washington DC?

Yup! The night before. They also did Stand Up from VIIR, which...I don't think adapted well to orchestra.

I can't believe I forgot about Stand Up. It was certainly entertaining if nothing else!

I had tickets for the one in Orlando the week COVID shut everything down.

Luckily I did get to go to the do-over they did like a year or so later but it was FF7 Remake themed instead of just FF in general. I did then go to another one down the line which was FF in general.

Going to the Nier one at the end of this month too.

I always really enjoy orchestra stuff

I haven't been in over 10 years, but I did go to 2 of these when I used to live in the Chicago area. They were very fun. My favorites were the songs Susan Calloway sang (I think I saw Distant Worlds, Suteki da ne, and Melodies of Life) but basically everything was great. Though they've added a lot of songs to their repertoire over the years which I'd love to see but they weren't playing back then--Battle With the Four Fiends being a big one.

I also went to one of the Nier concerts a few years back which was also organized by Arnie Roth (at least in the West) and that was incredible--even as someone who is more of a fan of the series' music than of the series itself. I remember being really impressed with the live version of The Wretched Automatons which was surprising because that's like not even in my top 10 songs from the series. Kaine was also great.

Definitely recommend them to either vgm fans or fans of the games.

How often do they hold Nier concerts? Think it's too late for me to go to the newest one.

I've been to a ton of these and they've always been the best out of all tge video game concerts.

It's worth going each time it comes by, because the setlist changes each year.

I went to the first 2 they did in London. Was cool being in the crowd with the legend Nobuo Uematsu for the first one.

How much is it to go to something like this?

Might depend on the venue and country. The first time i went it cost me 37 at the Royal Albert Hall with good seats. This was in 2011.

I think I spent about 60-70 USD on tickets for the Nier concert in 2020, though I also bought them pretty late. My memory of Distant Worlds back in 2010 and 2011 is something like 40-50. (2 at the Rosemont Theater in the Chicago Suburbs and the other at...uh...some other venue in Chicago I can't remember)

All cases were decent but not great seats.

KamikazePotato posted...

Liberi Fatali (FF8)
-Up until this point, the conductor had announced each song beforehand. With Liberi Fatali, he just came out and had the orchestra immediately start playing. Going from silence straight to FITHOS...LUSEC was really memorable.

That sounds epic!

Though I wish for the other FF8 song they had gone with Fisherman's Horizon. Always had a soft spot for that track.

The Distant Worlds version of Fishermans Horizon is incredible.

andylt posted...

How much is it to go to something like this?

Tickets I just bought for the Nier nosebleeds were $45 plus fees (so like $53)

For Distant Worlds in 2023 I paid $147 per ticket for 3 rows from the front. I only paid that much because they were the only seats I could get. I don't think it's worth paying the extra to be that far forward.

For the FF7 Remake concert in I want to say 2021 I think I paid roughly $70-85 per ticket for mid level row 1 overlooking the mezzanine balcony

It's going to be venue specific but I know in the place I go there really isn't any bad seats and I'd only consider getting super close stuff for plays rather than concerts. For Distant Worlds type stuff you end up watching a huge screen projection rather than people on stage most of the time

These are all at the Dr Phillips Center in Orlando

I'd love to go to this if it ever comes my way - I've been to Video Games Live and the FF songs always slap

Oh cool those are cheaper numbers than I expected. And yeah I guess there's no need to be sat right up front.

Are there tracks they play every time or is it always shifting?

Yeah. I usually average around $70 per ticket to sit fairly close. I've paid higher to be right next to the stage.

andylt posted...

Are there tracks they play every time or is it always shifting?

It always changes. There are some tracks that reappear often, but songs that have been played before rotate nicely with new arrangements. One Winged Angel is nearly always the encore though.

Distant Worlds changes their songs a lot. They've got a huge selection of already existing orchestral arrangements to choose from and they add new ones periodically. Even when I went in 2010 and 2011 there was probably only like 30-50% overlap between the two setlists, and they've got a ton more to select from now. Some songs like Liberi Fatali, To Zanarkand, and One Winged Angel do get played more often though, yes. (Incidentally I'm guessing they like doing the thing where they start Liberi Fatali with no announcement or whatever because they also did that when I went.)

If you're asking about the Nier concerts I think those always have the same tracklist, though it's obviously a bit different when you have 2 games as opposed to however many Final Fantasy has.

As a point of reference I went to 2 Distant Worlds concerts and only remember hearing 7 out of the 18 listed in the first post. Maybe 8 if you count the Chocobo theme--I think they always do some variant of this but they're switching which one a lot and I didn't see these performed. One of the times when I was there was the Swing one from FFX which was very cool.

I saw the smaller scale production a couple years ago. Not Distant Worlds, but A New World. Was an objectively decent show, other than that they heavily picked songs I'm not normally interested in or flat out didn't know.

It may seem common sense but it was something I didn't realize until I went to my first Distant Worlds. It isn't actually a travelling orchestra, they teach locals the setlist. I assume some of the people travel but for the most part it's locals

pyresword posted...

I think I spent about 60-70 USD on tickets for the Nier concert in 2020, though I also bought them pretty late. My memory of Distant Worlds back in 2010 and 2011 is something like 40-50. (2 at the Rosemont Theater in the Chicago Suburbs and the other at...uh...some other venue in Chicago I can't remember)

All cases were decent but not great seats.

Geez I must have been looking in the wrong places or something cause when I checked prices for the Nier concert last year (for a concert last month in Rosemont) the prices were ridiculous. Like $150+ or something like that for just myself. I don't like Nier that much to drop that much on a concert.

My sister is into Kpop. $150 for one concert ticket is peanuts compared to what she deals with lmao. She was very pleasantly surprised at the prices we paid for our Distant World tickets.

MysteriousStan posted...

Geez I must have been looking in the wrong places or something cause when I checked prices for the Nier concert last year (for a concert last month in Rosemont) the prices were ridiculous. Like $150+ or something like that for just myself. I don't like Nier that much to drop that much on a concert.

Was this at time of sale or aftermarket? Because the Nier concert where I am sold out in the venues members only presale and then all the aftermarket tickets were ridiculous

I was able to get tickets by being awake at 3am when they happened to drop the cancellations of which there were like 12 tickets total.

Edit: Kinda linked in with the above comment. Hatsune Miku also sold out in the members only presale at the same venue and now doesn't even have anything on the aftermarket

I just checked and it was actually $75 that I paid for Nier, but still nowhere near $150. When I bought the tickets I just did it by going through the official site for the concert itself which redirected me to Ticketmaster. I think that means it wasn't aftermarket though I don't really know how these sorts of events work in general.

The seats we had were in the second level of the concert hall but in the front couple rows of that section (not the very front), if memory serves.

A New World looked interesting to me and I always meant to go but never actually did. My understanding is it's like chamber music as opposed to a full orchestra. The song selection was definitely interesting when I looked into it though, yes.

Shattered posted...

Was this at time of sale or aftermarket? Because the Nier concert where I am sold out in the venues members only presale and then all the aftermarket tickets were ridiculous

Aftermarket for sure. Think I checked either last summer or fall when I saw the theater advertising the concert. But I definitely checked a few months before the actual concert.

pyresword posted...

When I bought the tickets I just did it by going through the official site for the concert itself which redirected me to Ticketmaster.

Yeah when I checked I went through the official website and got redirected to Ticketmaster. Cheapest seats were ridiculous so I was out at that point.

Damn, I didnt know this was in DC last week! I would have tried to go!

I went to one in Ohio in Sept. and Susan Calloway came out to sing Eyes On Me.

Those concerts are always fun however I truly hated how he announced every song before playing it. Let me just enjoy and if you need to spell it out for people do it after you've played it.