Dear Symphony of the Goddesses, Please Come Back to Philly

Awesome. Mind-blowing. Stunning. Incredible. All gross understatements. Describing the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses’ performance in Philadelphia may well be impossible to adequately do in just a single word. However, there are two things that are for sure: one, it was the best concert I’ve ever been two, and two, it needs to come back to Philly. It was well worth every last cent, taking SEPTA through a less-then-lovely area of Philly, and the five months of waiting that ensued after buying my front-row ticket.

Now, as a full disclaimer, yes, I do know and work with Jeron Moore, the producer of Symphony of the Goddesses. However, this post is entirely my own. It is not going up to make him happy. I’m not being paid to write this. The thoughts expressed in this post are my own, genuine thoughts. That all said and done, the Pittsburgh Symphony delivered a performance that I will not soon forget. It’s also one that I really, really wish I had on a Blu-ray with accompanying audio CD. Yes,   the three encores were great in keeping the show going, but a Blu-ray would be like an encore on demand 😉

Actually, Symphony of the Goddesses was the first concert I’ve been to that even had an encore to begin with. While yes, the only other concerts I’ve been to are Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concerts and one at the 2010 New York Anime Festival, I’ve been to plenty that certainly deserved an encore, but didn’t actually have one. Yes, I did know SotG was prepared for at least one encore, but I was not going to rally for an encore unless absolutely necessary for that reason. I knew I wanted one, and I was sure the other 7,000 or so in attendance would want one, but I was going to let them decide that. That said, I did laugh quite a bit when Jeron got up on stage and said, “All of you people leaving must not know how this works.” Well done, Jeron. Well done.

So yes, obviously I did have a bit of insider information, but I didn’t have it all – nor did I want it. Wednesday night was the first time I heard the performance and the music in it. I don’t own the CD that came with Skyward Sword – but I’m really considering picking up SS just for the CD – nor did I watch the E3 performance until I went to the SotG site to look at the tour schedule, nor did I ever once even consider watching or listening to a rip on YouTube. I wanted Wednesday night to truly be the first time I was experiencing the show. So to Eric, Wayne, Brian, and Jeron, thanks for not spoiling the whole show for me 😉

Now I realize I haven’t talked about the actual music yet. Honestly, it’s very difficult to put it in to words. No official set list was given out, nor do I know the name of every theme, cue, song, etc that was played. I’ve actually only played Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and The Wind Waker. That’s it. Seems kind of ironic for someone who works with ZREO, doesn’t it? Well, there are a number of reasons I’m not involved with the music 😉 Nonetheless, The Wind Waker movement was easily my favorite of the songs played. And yes, I knew about the special baton. I admit my reasoning for Wind Waker being my favorite is biased one as Wind Waker was my favorite Zelda game. Both the music and game in general I believe were the best in the series. But then again, I have only played three Zeldas. Nonetheless, Wind Waker I believe deserves a full orchestrated soundtrack. The themes that were present in the movement, such as Outset Island and Ocean, were fantastically done. The Twilight Princess movement was also phenomenal and I very much loved the arrangement of Minda’s Theme (Eric, Wayne, Jeron, it’s not for that reason :P). Ballad of the Windfish was one of the encores, I and certainly now know why it’s our most requested song on ZREO. It was very much beautifully done. I don’t think we’ll be able to out do it at ZREO (a symphony of our own might help :P), but I will get on the team’s case about it after TPS is done. We know you all want it and it will be ready when it’s ready. We’re not going to do a rush job on it just because it has been so heavily requested.

All in all, sorry Jeron, but I’m now going to have to nag the hell out of you again to get Symphony of the Goddesses to swing by town again. If you missed it, you missed one hell of a night. Jeron, I can’t thank you enough for giving me the heads up about it. Everyone did an amazing job that night. I definitely think it’s one that will be easily remembered by everyone there. So please, let Link come to town again 😉

PS: Here are some pictures from the show.