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sashagee and I at the symphony
2025-Jan-27, Monday 09:12
A nerd symphony, of course.
A while back, I got an email that Distant Worlds was coming through town to do a concert specifically focused in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I last went to Final Fantasy music in January of 2020, right before the Plague Years, when I went to go see the chamber music version of that same concert series that had all the smaller hits that you don't need an 80 piece orchestra to perform. That got me excited for Distant Worlds again...and then, well, you know what happened. 🦠 So it wasn't until much later that I actually even had the opportunity to go again, and then I wouldn't have been interested in the material (andsashagee was still not feeling all that well). But more time passed, and sashagee's condition improved, and another version of Distant Worlds, this time focused on Final Fantasy XIV and XVI said they were coming to town. So that was the one we went to.
After the standard opening--the prologue, the victory fanfare, and so on--they did a few audience hit pieces like the Four Fiends theme from Final Fantasy IV and To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X, and then go into the program. They started with Songs of Salt and Suffering, one of my favorite songs in all of the Stormblood expansion, and did Tomorrow and Tomorrow since they had Amanda Achen, the original singer, there to do the vocals. That meant they also did The Final Day and Flow from Endwalker, and both timessashagee specifically commented on how Achen's performance was amazing. They ended with a chocobo medley, and then went to intermission.
After the intermission and a couple more fan favorites like Dancing Mad and Aerith's Theme was the XVI portion of the show, and I don't have as much to say about that half because I still haven't played XVI so the only exposure to the music I have is the FFXIV collab, and that means I'm most familiar with Find the Flame because that's the song that plays when you ride the Torgal mount you get in FFXIV, and they did play that (apparently in the game it only plays once). They also played Ascension, which is another big bombastic choir song--when you have a full orchestra and a choir, you might as well take advantage of it--and a couple other songs that didn't really stick with me, then finally ended with the classic Sephiroth's Theme.
I've been to half-a-dozen of these by this point, so I had fun but it wasn't amazing because a lot of the songs are ones I've seen in concert before. Sephiroth's Theme is a classic encore, for example. But forsashagee, this was her first time, and she mentioned she got goosebumps during some of the songs. We'll definitely be going back, especially if I can find another performance of the A New World chamber series. The music there is less bombastic, but much more varied.
Bonus picture:
The concert finished not too long after 4 p.m., and sincesashagee had forgotten to eat lunch, we went to a nearby restaurant that used to be my favorite to go to before the symphony: the Gage. The food is great and the problem I always used to have--that it would sometimes take up to forty-five minutes to get the check after we were fully finished with our food--wouldn't have mattered since it was after the concert and we didn't have anywhere else to be, so we walked in, immediately got a table over in the bar area, and checked the menu. I got the fish in the end, because even though I'm more often than not disappointed with fish I get at restaurants since they're mostly tasteless and put a sauce on it that provides all the flavor, which tastes like mush with sauce on it. Despite costing $40, this...wasn't really that different, to be honest. Halibut, cod, tilapia, all have that whitefish "we taste like nothing" thing going on that more usual fish I enjoy like salmon do not. I should have gotten the coconut curry with salmon or the pear salad, to be honest.
On the other hand, the fried pickles and curry fries were delicious, andsashagee was very happy with the burger she got, so at least we'll be going back next time we go to the symphony. And we got home at 7 p.m., like your standard tired parents, and went to bed not that long afterward.
A while back, I got an email that Distant Worlds was coming through town to do a concert specifically focused in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I last went to Final Fantasy music in January of 2020, right before the Plague Years, when I went to go see the chamber music version of that same concert series that had all the smaller hits that you don't need an 80 piece orchestra to perform. That got me excited for Distant Worlds again...and then, well, you know what happened. 🦠 So it wasn't until much later that I actually even had the opportunity to go again, and then I wouldn't have been interested in the material (and
sashagee was still not feeling all that well). But more time passed, and sashagee's condition improved, and another version of Distant Worlds, this time focused on Final Fantasy XIV and XVI said they were coming to town. So that was the one we went to.After the standard opening--the prologue, the victory fanfare, and so on--they did a few audience hit pieces like the Four Fiends theme from Final Fantasy IV and To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X, and then go into the program. They started with Songs of Salt and Suffering, one of my favorite songs in all of the Stormblood expansion, and did Tomorrow and Tomorrow since they had Amanda Achen, the original singer, there to do the vocals. That meant they also did The Final Day and Flow from Endwalker, and both times
sashagee specifically commented on how Achen's performance was amazing. They ended with a chocobo medley, and then went to intermission.After the intermission and a couple more fan favorites like Dancing Mad and Aerith's Theme was the XVI portion of the show, and I don't have as much to say about that half because I still haven't played XVI so the only exposure to the music I have is the FFXIV collab, and that means I'm most familiar with Find the Flame because that's the song that plays when you ride the Torgal mount you get in FFXIV, and they did play that (apparently in the game it only plays once). They also played Ascension, which is another big bombastic choir song--when you have a full orchestra and a choir, you might as well take advantage of it--and a couple other songs that didn't really stick with me, then finally ended with the classic Sephiroth's Theme.
I've been to half-a-dozen of these by this point, so I had fun but it wasn't amazing because a lot of the songs are ones I've seen in concert before. Sephiroth's Theme is a classic encore, for example. But for
sashagee, this was her first time, and she mentioned she got goosebumps during some of the songs. We'll definitely be going back, especially if I can find another performance of the A New World chamber series. The music there is less bombastic, but much more varied.Bonus picture:
The concert finished not too long after 4 p.m., and since
sashagee had forgotten to eat lunch, we went to a nearby restaurant that used to be my favorite to go to before the symphony: the Gage. The food is great and the problem I always used to have--that it would sometimes take up to forty-five minutes to get the check after we were fully finished with our food--wouldn't have mattered since it was after the concert and we didn't have anywhere else to be, so we walked in, immediately got a table over in the bar area, and checked the menu. I got the fish in the end, because even though I'm more often than not disappointed with fish I get at restaurants since they're mostly tasteless and put a sauce on it that provides all the flavor, which tastes like mush with sauce on it. Despite costing $40, this...wasn't really that different, to be honest. Halibut, cod, tilapia, all have that whitefish "we taste like nothing" thing going on that more usual fish I enjoy like salmon do not. I should have gotten the coconut curry with salmon or the pear salad, to be honest. On the other hand, the fried pickles and curry fries were delicious, and
sashagee was very happy with the burger she got, so at least we'll be going back next time we go to the symphony. And we got home at 7 p.m., like your standard tired parents, and went to bed not that long afterward.
