Selphie in Distant Worlds: Vancouver

On Thursday, October 8th, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra played Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy at the Orpheum in Downtown. It's an otaku event, so I MUST be there! It's actually thanks to Radiant Dreamer that I knew about this early on and got tickets for two cheap seats closest to the front. I went with my brother who took some of the pictures here. I also went with Selphie Tilmitt ^_^

I believe this is the first time I went for an outing carrying a figure in my pocket in order to take photos... I blame Danny Choo for this!

Before the concert we had dinner at White Spot, which was only a few blocks away from the Orpheum. A chance to have fun with figure photos while waiting for our food! Unfortunately we didn't bring a proper camera and the lighting was horrible... So camera phone was used heavily and had to deal with what light we have above our table. Pardon the horrible picture quality...

This are our tickets. My brother sat in seat 49, while I sat in seat 48. The waitress came by with our drinks when I was taking this picture. She commented, "how cute" when she saw this ^^;

Here's Selphie trying to sip on my Peach Daiquiri... Oy oy oy Selphie! You're still underage! I ordered peach because I'm sure it'd be yellow and have a good colour match with Selphie. Oh and the Daiquiri was on special that night, so I had to have one, plus I didn't have to drive afterwards XD

Selphie with my Spicy Crunch chicken burger, trying to steal a bite. It was a good burger. The spiciness have quite a bite. Usually western "spiciness" isn't as spicy as Indonesian "spicy". Or maybe I can't really handle spicy that well, lol.

I was planning to arrive at the Orpheum a bit earlier to take pictures with Selphie, but instead I met a friend of mine from high school, whom I knew like Final Fantasy a lot, and in fact the person who got me into FF in the first place (with FFIV). He also pointed me out to another couple of friends who I haven't seen for at least 10 years! We caught up for a bit and found out what we were all up to. Unfortunately people were getting to their seats. In the last 10 minutes I went and search for Radiant Dreamer who was in the front row... Easy to find :P

I finally met Mrs. Radiant Dreamer and she recognized me as the guy with the messy room. Ahahaha! I was quite embarassed that I'm known for that XD So we had a bit of a chat, but unfortunately the concert was about to start, so I had to get to my seat real quickly.

The first half was great! I was enjoying a lot of the FF VIII. A lot of my favourite music was from VIII, but I was loving the music from other series as well. Totally loved the Vamo' alla Flamenco from IX.

This photo and the first photo of the post was taken during intermission. Bad lighting again, plus you can only do so much with a camera phone ^^; Selphie stands ready with her nunchuks... and I'm wondering what the people behind me who are looking at me taking this picture are thinking about XD

Second half starts with FF VII's opening. Another great score! The crowd was loving all the video that was playing on the screen... Unfortunately I couldn't relax to slump on my seat because the guy in front of me had a big head and he INSISTS on sitting up the whole time! I was able to see the screen, but I feel sorry for the person right behind me ^^;

In the beginning of the second half they also showed a video of the original Final Fantasy composer, Nobuo Uematsu, who couldn't be here in Vancouver... He's just finishing the score for Final Fantasy XIV in Germany. Nobuo shows his weird sense of humour in the video XD

The main concert ended with the Opera from FFVI... but of course we had to have encore. They can't finish without playing One Winged Angel! It's a staple to any Final Fantasy concert (at least in North America). It definitely stood out as one of Nobuo Uematsu's finest.

So of course I had to get the CD soundtrack. I've heard it at least 3 times in a row in the car. I usually would get a shirt, but I think the design was too plain. The logo in front of the CD is what's in the front of the shirt. If the wings was in the back and the logo in the front then I'd be sold right there and then.

All in all a very good time was had by all! I met with many friends and had a great night overall. Will definitely go again if they come :D