Star Wars In Concert: Better Than It Sounds

The other weekend I did my geekly duty and dragged Mrs The Incredible Suit along to The Venue Formerly Known As The Millennium Dome But Which Now Has A Stupid Brand Name I'm Not About To Advertise to see Star Wars in Concert, a performance of some of John Williams' orgasmically amazing music from the films performed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. It was ace.

There's really nothing quite like hearing a full orchestra bashing out film music, and if you've ever owned a soundtrack album or hummed a film theme you really should get yourself along to something like this.

Here are a couple of things what I liked about it:

• Due to The Venue Formerly Known As etc etc's massively optimistic attendance expectations, our £30 seats up in the clouds were bumped up to £100 seats on the floor for an additional cost of nought pence, which was a good job because we'd have been hard pressed to make out Jabba The Hutt if he'd slithered on stage from that distance. Neechawawa!

• They played some arrangements I hadn't heard before, which is a bonus when you know each soundtrack album backwards. They even played that daft jazz number from the cantina scene, which I've never seen a live orchestra do before. Thank the maker!

• There were loads of kids there, which is normally the kind of thing that would drive me up the wall but I'm all for brainwashing the little buggers into an appreciation of film scores, especially performed live. Forteeny!

Here are a couple of things what I disliked about it:

• C3P0 actor Anthony Daniels kept striding on stage between each number being even more camp than C3P0, which was only to be expected because he whores himself out so much these days that he'd probably turn up at your house and press play on your Star Wars DVD if you chucked him a few bob. How wude! 

• There was a mind-bogglingly huge screen looming over the orchestra showing clips from the films as the music played, which was all very well but I'd gone to watch the guys playing the instruments, not clips I've seen more often than my own reflection. All too briefly we were treated to some swooping shots of the orchestra on the screen, and those were the best moments for me. When you can see the strings of a violin vibrating in high definition three storeys high you really start to appreciate just how good this stuff is. Poodu!

Star Wars In Concert is playing until July, but only in the US. Which means you've probably missed your chance, unless you're that one American guy who reads The Incredible Suit.

 

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