About 2,000 gamers pried themselves away from their Xboxes and PlayStation 3s on Saturday night to hear some video game music covers.
Video Games Live, the first and most successful video game concert tour in the world, made its first appearance in the city Saturday at the Baton Rouge River Center.
The concert event was created by the video gaming industry and featured video game music performed by the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.
“Some people think video games are just for little kids, and some people think video game music is nothing but a bunch of little bleeps and bloops,” said CEO and Chairman of the Game Audio Network Guild Tommy Tallarico, who created and produced the event. “Some people [even] think video games are the cause of violence.”
Tallarico said the purpose of the event was “to show how culturally significant video game music has become and why it has become the entertainment of choice for the 21st century.”
Tallarico was the first musician to release a video game soundtrack worldwide. He has won more than 45 industry awards and worked on more than 275 game titles.
He was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2008 and currently holds three Guinness World Records, including the person who has worked on the most commercially released video games.
Fans and gamers shouted and cheered as Tallarico and the orchestra performed compositions from classic arcade games like “Castlevania” and “Space Invaders.”
The concert also contained a variety of modern game compositions ranging from “Metal Gear Solid” and “God of War” to “Kingdom Hearts,” “Final Fantasy” and “Halo.”
“I think it is more expression of how amazing and popular video game music has become,” Tallarico said at the concert. “It’s really cool.”
The concert hosted flutist and trained operatic singer Laura Intravia, who performed the female vocal solos in “God of War.”
Intravia also performed compositions from “The Legend of Zelda,” dressed as Link, and various “Super Mario” compositions, dressed as Mario.
“It isn’t just music on its own, it’s a collaboration with other elements of the game, which is hugely important to creating an atmosphere for the player,” Intravia said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille. “A player has to feel like they’re inside the game, and music is a big part of that.”
Select fans had the opportunity to play video games, like “Space Invaders” and “Guitar Hero,” on stage as the orchestra played the background music.
Fans waved their PlayStation Portables, Game Boys, cell phones and even a MacBook in the air at the end of the show in hopes for an encore.
“[The concert] is not only the first step. We’ve made many steps before this, and we’ll make many steps after this,” economics senior Joel Kelley said of bringing the gaming industry to Louisiana. “It’s just one of those things that are going to put Louisiana on the map.”
 
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Contact Julian Tate at [email protected]