Over the years, I have been following the happenings of an old friend Jason Paul who runs a successful touring symphony based around classic and soon to be classic video games.  The show is called Play: A Video Game Symphony and I finally caught up with it last night in Baltimore.

Essentially, this symphony takes the nostalgic sounds of games like Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Shinobi, Castlevania and newer games like Halo and Metal Gear Solid to life through the complexity of a full orchestra and choir.  See the full list here under “Program”.

Jason’s show has been selling out all over the world – from the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Sweden, Czech Republic and Norway.  Last night’s show was performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in front of nearly 2,100 people with each song followed by a long lasting standing ovation.  Even if you’re not an avid video game head, the sounds were amazing enough to be enjoyed by anyone.

After the show me, Jason, Jacob and another fellow Alamedian living in Virginia (Loretta) went back to the hotel bar to celebrate Jake’s 33rd bday.  Def good times.  Next show I’m gonna go dressed up as Mario.