So this past weekend, July 9th-11th was a pretty big weekend for some gamers. In Seattle, at the Benaroya Hall was held this concert, entitled Distant Worlds, Music from Final Fantasy. As you can imagine, fanboys and fangirls everywhere would nergasm knowing they could actually meet Nobuo Uematsu himself, composer of the Final Fantasy music!
At a price of course, $100 meet-and-greet passes! I even read that on Friday night, there were about 40 people in attendance to meet Nobuo, the one I could’ve been to if I was rich. But I fret not, for I saw him from my seat. Nobuo actually sat in the stands, with whom, I have no idea, (apparently he sat by these lucky fans(skip to 1:00)) but I kid you not, many people were asking aloud, “Holy shit, is he actually SITTING IN THE STANDS?!”
To give the reader a sense that they were there, here’s the program:
Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali
Seattle Choral Company
Final Fantasy X: To Zanarkand
Final Fantasy VIII: Don’t Be Afraid
Final Fantasy VII: Aerith’s Theme
Final Fantasy I-III: Medley 2002
Final Fantasy V: Dear Friends
Final Fantasy IX: Vamo’ alla Flamenco
Final Fantasy VIII: Love Grows
Final Fantasy XI: Ronfaure
Final Fantasy series: Main Theme 
Intermission
Final Fantasy VII: Opneing – Bombing Mission
Final Fantasy VIII: Fisherman’s Horizon
Seattle Choral Company
Final Fantasy XI: Memoro de la Stono – Distant Worlds
Angela Niederloh, mezzo-soprano
Seattle Choral Company
Final Fantasy VIII: The Man With the Machine Gun
Final Fantasy IV: Theme of Love
Final Fantasy series: Swing de Chocobo
Final Fantasy VI: Opera – Maria and Draco
Angela Niederloh, mezzo-soprano 
Stephen Rumph, tenor
Michael Delos, bass
Final Fantasy VI: Terra’s Theme
To begin the concert with, Arnie Roth (guest conductor) told the audience how not only is he a huge fan of Final Fantasy, so is everyone on stage with him. When they tuned, it was like when you turned on a PS3, the nice oboe to the quiet strings, except a bit more prolonged. The giant screen sitting directly above them had images and scenes from all the Final Fantasy games throughout the night.
After a few songs, Arnie turns around again and makes Nobuo stand again.
“We all know who the best fans in the world are, Final Fantasy fans!”
-Arnie Roth
With that said, he says he has something special for us, a short 3-bar tune; the Victory Theme Jingle that every fan of the series knows and loves. “Da da da da, da dun, dun da dun~” After a great big applause, the concert resumed.
So this video started and the Seattle Symphony was not playing, it was most intriguing, until a classic battle scene fade-out/fade-in animation took place. They performed the typical battle scene song and then continued into the cut scenes. Characters on screen were running from some sort of a metal spider mech.
Later, the scenes from FFVII with Cloud and Aerith were to say the least, touchingly cute. Played alongside Aerith’s Theme a fantastic song that anyone would become a fan of easily.
The first three games were also on screen as the Symphony performed the Medley, very nostalgic going back to those olden days when random battles were such an amazing concept.
There was also a guitar soloist for Vamo’ alla Flamenco and then Eyes on Me, instrumental, known as ‘Love Grows’ was performed, very exciting.
As I continued to watch, I realised some footage was from FFXIII! I couldn’t believe it, would some kind of announcement be made on it? Of course not, and I was silly in thinking there would be.
Intermission then ensued. Fans and the likes just giggled and talked about how amazing Final Fantasy is and was. Reminiscing about the older titles in the series. Excited for what is to come.
The screen then showed us the very first scene in FFVII with the Seattle Symphony performing the Opening – Bombing Mission, you can imagine a fanboy’s (or girl’s) heart leaping when on the stage we could hear the train whistle from the train pulling in! Magical? Not quite, but close.
Angela Niederloh, the mezzo-soprano solosit was loverly, she had a wonderful voice and projected it well. To my honest opinion, it sounded a bit like the lion’s from the Wizard of Oz, so at points it was a bit much for me, yet she pulled through and I enjoyed her performance.
A Chocobo, the beloved Final Fantasy pet of all trades pops up on the screen in some glorious pixel action as one of the first-ever created Chocobos to hit the series. Dancing left and right and then seeing how the animations for Chocobos grew and evolved as the audience and technology did. Swing de Chocobo is a great piece, and is definitely a crowd favourite.
Joining Angela this time around, were Stephen Rumph and Michael Delos, tenor and bass respectively. All three were phenomenal, beautiful opera. Opera – Maria and Draco is a powerful piece that brings along with it a story of passion.
Ending the program with Terra’s Theme was great, but wait! What’s this? Nobuo still needs to go up on stage and bow? The crowd is applauding him again? Arnie Roth asks him to do a solo?! Of course he backs out, what were you thinking? That he’d join the choral and sing with them the final piece, One Winged Angel?!
Well, if you managed to fathom that, you’d be pleasently suprised to know, that he did in fact do just that, and the crowd went wild. When Sephiroth was younger, progressing to his older self and fighting Cloud, what other way is there to end a Final Fantasy concert with one of its most cherished and villainous characters?
All in all, this concert was a sight to behold, something you just had to be there for. Something that no matter how many videos you watch, or how many experiences you read, you still can’t comprehend until you go see it yourself! I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to watch a Distant Worlds concert to go do it and pay the extra $100 to meet Nobuo himself, it’ll be worth your money and time.
Below are some pictures of the schwag I managed to get ahold of, quite expensive. The shirt was $15, the CD $20, and if I had the money, I would’ve also gotten the “Official” Program, but alas, that was $30 too pricey. (Although I did see the person to my left flip through his, mostly an art book with descriptions from FF‘s 1-12, pretty cool) Along with other pictures from the concert.
