Beginning of Fantasy… tainted by Wasabi?
The concert ‘Beginning of Fantasy’, featuring soundtracks from the Final Fantasy series, was held on Senayan Indoor tennis court on Friday, July 28th 2006. The queue line snaking for hundreds of meters outside to the parking lot and the fact that the court was jam-packed inside were enough signs that this concert was long overdue for us Indonesian gamers, who had never been able to listen to the glory of Nobuo Uematsu’s masterpieces live before. Most of them were kids and teenages (a lot were still escorted by their parents), but quite a number were adults who probably have been playing since the first Final Fantasy installment hits the Nintendo console (that’s a LONG time ago). One thing for sure - all were lured in by the promise of Final Fantasy scores performed live by a symphony orchestra and choir. This is also the first orchestra concert in Indonesia (and probably in the world) featuring a STANDING festival class… a brilliant idea that probably had doubled the number of audience AND organizer’s profit (and pain in my legs! Oh my poor legs…).
Despite the usual organizer antics that delayed the concert for half an hour, Adhie M.S. and the Twilite Orchestra didn’t intend to disappoint - the opening piece, none other than FF8’s infamous Liberi Fatali, blasted through the audience with the full force orchestra and choir, bringing lively applause at the end. Not only the wonderful FF soundtracks and performance of the orchestra itself, the selection of (most of) the featured performers could only add to the excellence of the concert - Arina (vocalist of Mocca) with her beautiful voice and impeccable spoken English sang FF English songs like the hit Eyes on Me perfectly, Sherina’s performance was simply stunning (The way she sang 1000 no Kotoba is so unspeakably wonderful - IMO she’s done it better than the original singer!), and the two pianists Jessica and Kevin successfully introduced the audience to the wonders of piano solo (FFVII Battle Theme rocks!). FF fans present were in heaven and they let their appreciation show - every piece ended with spirited applause!
However, this near-perfection was tainted by one guest performer - J-rock band Wasabi that was supposed to blend rock into the classical flavor. Until now I don’t know whether it was their fault or their sound engineer’s, but their drum and bass guitars virtually drowned everything else whenever they sounded, including their own excellent lead guitar and even at times the entire Twilite Orchestra! Even worse, their vocalist stuttered on stage, missed quite a few tones, and visibly forgot some of his lyrics, making him probably the most miserable man on stage that night ^_^;
That and a bloody concert howling loudly nearby were the only faults I could find that night - with the enthusiasm for a blend of classical and game music this concert generated, I almost couldn’t wait for the next game music concert 
