Hao Tran

Here I am, 2 weeks later (I should get on the ball about this more).

Video Games Live was pretty awesome; it's definitely not your traditional concert. They had a fan-made music videos playing before the show and during intermission, so there was always something going on. They covered lots of different music including (series-wise): Metal Gear Solid, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Halo. They even played the intro theme/Baba Yetu from Civilization IV (which I found to be a real treat)! If the Oregon Symphony wasn't enough, they even brought in Martin Leung (also known as the Blindfolded Pianist), who not only played a medley from various Final Fantasy games and of course, Mario, but he also did some requests, such as Tales of Monkey Island.
One thing that definitely set this apart from other concerts is because they set up a projector screen (so they can play montages of the games alongside the music), they also had a few audience interactive parts, such as one person playing live-action Space Invaders, and calling up a kid for a Guitar Hero Aerosmith challenge.
Overall, the concert was absolutely incredible, barring an annoying person sitting behind me, as well as some little girls next to me getting some facts wrong (but they looked to be about 8 or so, so I'll let that slide).

To make matters even better, I emailed them afterward and received an reply from Tommy Tallarico himself! My email mostly consisted of praise for the concert itself, but also a few criticisms, mainly in terms of the games played were very mainstream, and there were few games which weren't on most gamers' radars. I offered a few possibilities, and otherwise, the email exchange went pretty well.

Can't wait until they come back to Portland. :)