Final Fantasy concert first up for E3 goers in LA

At last year's E3, Nobuo Uematsu, the creative genius behind the music of Final Fantasy, brought the United States the first performance of "Dear Friends," a live symphonic performance of many of the series' most popular songs. Last night in the Universal Amphitheatre, Final Fantasy was again the theme in "More Friends," a concert that promised to offer much of the same, and also much more.

The concert began with the Opening: Bombing Mission from Final Fantasy VII, marking the first time that song had been performed live in the United States. After the applause died down, a not-so-familiar face, but very familiar voice took the stage. The show's emcee was again James Arnold Taylor, the voice actor who played Tidus in Final Fantasy X. Throughout the show, he alternated between giving praise to Nobuo Uematsu, announcing song titles and performers, and making deeply referential FFX jokes that were met with universal laughter from the audience.

The first half of the concert was not much different from previous "Dear Friends" concerts, as it featured finely orchestrated renditions of classic songs from six different Final Fantasies: "Aerith's Theme" from Final Fantasy VII, "Zanarkand" from Final Fantasy X (which James Arnold Taylor quipped was his personal favorite of the series), "Don't Be Afraid" from Final Fantasy VIII, "Terra's Theme" from Final Fantasy VI, "Swing de Chocobo" from Final Fantasy II, and "Final Fantasy" from Final Fantasy. Screens set up around the stage alternated from showing close-ups of the symphony performers to game FMVs, when available and when appropriate.

Of special note was the touching scene of Aerith's death during "Aerith's Theme" and the compilation of Chocobo footage spanning all the Final Fantasy games during "Swing de Chocobo."

Throughout the concert, there was continual emphasis on the show's title...that "more friends" were going to show up. This became apparent after the intermission, during which all the guest performers arrived. The first and probably most notable of these was Uematsu's own band, The Black Mages, assembled by the composer in 2003 to play rock remixes of Final Fantasy battle music. Their two songs for the night were "Battle 1 - The Rocking Grounds," from Final Fantasy III, and "Maybe I'm a Lion," from Final Fantasy VIII. Those uninitiated with the music from the series would not necessarily have been able to differentiate their performance from that of any other hard rock band, especially given the raucous response from the audience. The Black Mages performance was brief, but it was definitely the highlight of the night.

After The Black Mages, two Japanese guest singers came out to perform with the orchestra. RIKKI sang "Suteki da ne" ("Isn't It Wonderful?") from Final Fantasy X, and Emiko Shiratori sang "A Place to Call Home - Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy IX. At this point, almost every song was met with standing ovations from the crowd.

On stage, James Arnold Taylor listed the number of music genres that had been covered that evening, including classical, pop, and rock. He claimed that what the performance desperately needed was "a night at the opera," so three opera singers emerged to perform the touching "Maria and Draco" from Final Fantasy VI. After this climactic performance, Nobuo Uematsu appeared onstage to give his heartfelt thanks to everyone involved, make a few jokes with his translator, and introduce the encore: a performance of "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII, which was to be performed collaboratively by the orchestra, a full choir, and The Black Mages.

After a few false starts, the performance came together quite nicely, and the crowd seemed to be pleased.

There were a few sound problems in the first half of the show that were fixed by the second half, but it was apparent the performance, like all live shows, wasn't as technically sound as the recordings. As part of his postshow dialogue, Uematsu explained the deal with iTunes to include Final Fantasy tracks for purchase. His translator emphasized that it was the first official channel to acquire the music, and both she and Uematsu laughed. It was overwhelmingly apparent that both the audience and performers were extremely passionate about the Final Fantasy franchise.