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Review: Play! A Video Game Symphony by Jacqueline Ristola

Monday, April 22, 2013

As I approached the DeVos Performance Hall January 29th, I noted my drastic lack of formal attire. With my jeans, tennis shoes, and backpack, it wasn’t clear I was about to attend a symphonic concert. But to my relief, I wasn’t the only one, for this concert was no ordinary Grand Rapids Symphony concert. The concert was Play! A Video Game Symphony, and gamers from children to adults came to listen to their favorite gaming themes.

The whole concert experience felt more democratic in nature; there was no assumed dress code for the event, though some chose to wear gaming T-shirts to show their pride. Gamers cheered loudly for their favorite games, starting the concert with continuous, uproarious cheering through the first piece, various Super Mario Bros. themes. Eventually the audience bridled their their enthusiasm at appropriate moments to listen, but their participation illustrates the communication between both parties, the performers and the audience. With the symphony’s increase in live performances to film, this indicates the symphony’s attempts at both broadening the scope of their audience and perforating the line between high culture and low (pop) culture.

Aiding in this democratization was Andy Brick, encouraging the audience to be vocal about their love for this music. Not only was he the conductor for the evening, a video game music composer and conductor of the Play! Symphony tour from 2006-2010. He took time to introduce each piece and the game the music was attached to, and illustrated the sense of pride and celebration of the gaming artform. It’s hard not to get elated when the conductor himself sang along to the Dragonborn theme from Skyrim.

The music itself was thrilling, bring a full scope of textures and a richness to the music that. Having a full orchestra only amplified the mood and atmosphere of the pieces, especially the creepy tones to the Castlevania and Metroid themes. The video game footage playing on three large screens above the orchestra (which also cut to live footage of Brick and performers throughout as well) also helped set the mood and illustrated the artistry of both the music and game. The Legend of Zelda piece might have had the best combination of music and visuals. Beginning with the opening Zelda theme and beautiful images across the open plains of Hyrule, the experience was transcendent.

I suspect the Symphony will keep expanding the standard classical limits and integrate the popular arts into their performances. If their work is anything like Play!, breaking the high/low culture barrier will prove fruitful indeed.

Sigur Ros: Live in Detroit by Jacqueline Ristola

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Driving down to Detroit, anticipation for the Sigur Rós concert was quelled by assigned readings and reflection. Remnants of a lecture lingered in my mind concerning the decline of the city, robbed of its vitality with the decline of industry in the nation. But within the city, a gilded stage remains, The Fox Theater, the destination of my friends and I for our eventful night.

There are many acts that are radically different seeing live than listening via an album. My Brightest Diamond’s set last year comes to mind; full of masks, theatricality, and raw talent, Shara Worden elevates her music to beautiful performance art. The same might be said for Sigur Rós. With the elegant theater stage set with an opaque screen separating the performers from the audience, the concert began. Projections of light and images illuminated the screen, eventually culminating with a large shadow of a man lit to mythic proportions. That man would be Jónsi, wailing on his guitar with a violin bow, blasting sound to fill the room. At the apex of their second song in, the veil dramatically dropped, and the concert really began.

With a large encompassing screen in the back and small lights on the stage, Sigur Rós combines visuals and music as effectively as I’ve ever seen in a large show, often connecting the two in terms of creates a cohesive atmospheric effect. The visuals always supported and added to the narrative effect of each song. Whether it be the slow plan up of revealing to be a mountain, a colored wave of light mirroring the surface of water, or the actual music video to the track itself, the production values illustrated themselves as more than just eye candy, but inherent to the performance itself.

The music was grand in every sense of the word; epic in scope and breadth, nuanced and mixed for clarity and precision, and performed to fill the auditorium to the brim with luscious sound. One highlight of the night included the performance of “Brennisteinn,” a heavier, metal-inflected track off their new album coming out this June. Another was a drifting vocal solo by Jonsi to finish a song, hitting a high note for over a minute with an almost beguiling sense of grace and serenity. With a mix of old favorites and newer tracks, one length encore was enough to make concert attendees fully satisfied.

Needless to say, my friends and I left the theater elated. One mentioned it was the best concert he’d ever been to, while another mentioned it exceeded his already high expectations. Driving back, the night ended with the remark that every human being should see a Sigur Rós song performed live. Leaving the lusciously decorated Fox Theater into the disparate Detroit cold, I lamentably, yet heartily agreed.

Greg’s best of film: 2012

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Excellent
Life of Pi
Zero Dark Thirty
Amour
The Sessions
Take this Waltz
Monsier Lahzar
Django Unchained
Quartet
The Intouchables
The Hobbit
Silver Linings Playbook
Moonrise Kingdom
Cloud Atlas
Ruby Sparks
Rust and Bone
Hitchcock
Les Miserables
Lincoln
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Safety Not Guaranteed
Argo
Looper
Beast of the Southern Wild
The Master
The Cabin in the Woods

Good
The Hunger Games
The Dark Knight Rises
Bernie
Magic Mike
Anna Karenina
This is 40 (FYI: This is not a comedy, really)
Seeking a Friend at the End of the World
To Rome with Love
Skyfall
The Avengers
Wreck-It Ralph
Prometheus

Fair
Brave
Killing Them Softly

Yet to see:
Searching for Sugar Man
The Deep Blue Sea
Chasing Ice
This is Not a Film
A Simple Life
The Innkeepers
Kill List
People Like Us
Killer Joe
The Kid with the Bike
Hyde Park on Hudson
Cosmopolis

Why Knowing the Music Matters by Jacqueline Ristola

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Last semester the SAO had an incredible line-up of great artists, and I had the privilege to attend most of them. On a personal level, these concerts also proved to be the most fruitful concerts I’ve attended, not just because of the artist’s talent, but my own preparations for each concert were quite rewarding. I listened extensively to many of the latest albums of the performing artists, writing on much of what I heard as well. By processing the music this way, I had a much deeper grip on the content, and enjoyed the concerts much more.

As to why I enjoyed these concerts so much, I do believe knowing the music of an artist exponentially increases your enjoyment of a concert. I learned this the hard way last year, as I was not familiar with many of the artists, or their latest work. Some artists escape this difficulty with music that you comprehend more with your body: Cut Copy and their entourage of Washed Out and Midnight Magic taught me how to dance, plain and simple, and I am ever grateful. But beyond physicality, their music has the ability to unite a crowd of people rather easily. As often as pop is disparaged, good pop can connect people through music (and often dance) that can be incredibly difficult to do otherwise. In other words, knowing the words wasn’t a prerequisite for deeply enjoying the concert (though it could have saved me from some small embarrassments here and there.)

In contrast, Bruce Cockburn’s simple (acoustic guitar, with a few percussion accessories), but profoundly affecting set would probably have been more accessible to me if I had know his work better. Instead, I was hearing many of these lyrics for the first time, which means my brain is capturing the art on a technical level, but not a thematic level or otherwise. It also meant I wasn’t able to notice any stylistic innovations on his part.  In order to understand what the artist is doing differently, I would first need to know what their original work sounded like as well. In short, there’s so much I was missing in the concert that I could have enjoyed with a little more research and a lot of music listening.

In my experience, this semester has illustrated how knowing the music ultimately makes for a more engaged audience member. I nodded my head vicariously to mewithoutYou. I deeply appreciated how the lighting of “All the Rowboats” aesthetically complemented Regina Spektor’s song. I lost my voice from singing along to nearly every song by fun. Aside from physical presence (a whole other important aspect to live performance), being engaged leads to better enjoyment of a concert. I guarantee it.

Greg’s top albums of 2012

Monday, December 03, 2012

Here is my list of albums I enjoyed listening to most in 2012 (in alphabetical order).
* those that I spent more significant time listening to

Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls
Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself + Hands of Glory
Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man
Beach House – Bloom*
Bob Dylan – Tempest
Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball
Cat Power - Sun
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Father John Misty – Fear Fun*
First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
FUN. – Some Nights*
Great Lake Swimmers – New Wild Everywhere
Jack White – Blunderbuss
Kishi Bashi – 151a*
Lost in the Trees – A Church that Fits Our Needs
M. Ward – A Wasteland Companion
Metric – Synthetica*
Mewithoutyou – Ten Stories*
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again*
Mumford & Sons – Babel*
Of Monster and Men – My Head is an Animal*
Passion Pit – Gossamer*
Patrick Watson – Adventures In Your Own Backyard
The Punch Brothers – Who’s Feeling Young Now?
Purity Ring - Shrines
Regina Spektor – What We Saw from the Cheap Seats*
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Shearwater – Animal Joy*
Sigur Ros – Valtari*
Sufjan Stevens – Silver & Gold
Taken by Trees – Other Worlds
Tame Impala -Lonerism
The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter*
The Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth*
The Shins – Port of Morrow
The xx – Coexist*
Yeasayer – Fragrant World*