Atlanta Trip Part 1: Concert

OK, with the little intro out of the way, lets get started!

So as you may know (read: definitely do know because I wouldn't shut up about it), I just returned from a weekend trip to Atlanta (and a few surrounding towns) to see Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy. I'll talk about the rest of the trip in a moment, but for now I'd like to discuss the concert. How was it?

It was, without hyperbole, the most amazing musical performance I have ever seen.

Now, granted, I don't go to many concerts, and I go to even less orchestra performances, but when I heard that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra would be performing Final Fantasy music, and the Nobuo Uematsu himself would be in attendance, well, I about fell out of my chair.

Tickets bought, trip planned.

Even though our tickets were in the next-to-last row, it didn't matter. We had a clear view of the Orchestra, as well as a HUGE screen that they used during the songs to project cutscenes from the games. It was helpful in keeping your attention, because some of the songs they played were almost like lullaby's. I caught myself nearly dozing off quite a few times.

You'll notice on the list of songs that Uematsu's most famous song, One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, is absent. I noticed that as well, and spent the entire concert thinking "There's NO WAY they'll NOT play that. It's his signature. They'll probably play dumb at the end and get the crowd all riled up, then play it.

And sure enough that's exactly what happened. And it was AWESOME!!!

So yeah. The concert was an absolute musical masterpiece. Of course, I'm incredibly biased, but that fails to count for anything when the music is THIS good, THIS varied, and THIS fun to listen to.


I'll talk more about the rest of the trip later.