One of the important things to realise about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is that it is, in part, a trade show. Artists come to the Fringe looking to find their audiences but are also looking for the next gig, or the next promoter to put them on a roster. We mention this because we came out of Extra Lives: The Interactive Video Game Concert profoundly hoping that we’d see them at the next video game convention or comic book show we attended.
Extra Lives are musicians who tour the world playing music inspired by video games. Their show is a testament to how essential music is to a good video game, and how it can tell and carry the story. Each show contains one of three stories (the audience decides on the Sunday). The show STARBURST attended was the sci-fi dystopia show (naturally), but other tales can and will be told; a not-so-subtle hint to come back to their show regularly during the run. The other options are Comedy and Fantasy, so if that matters to you, check their website before booking.
Audience members are given a QR code, and scanning this code means they can use their phones to vote for what happens next. These are options such as ‘running away’ or ‘crawl through air ducts’, and these prompt a different tune from the band. This is music from games such as the Final Fantasy series, Super Mario, Metroid and more. We were delighted to hear Gremlins 2 get a play at one point; we hadn’t heard that in a long time.
In addition to the music, video game footage is played in the background, and lighting effects cycle depending on what’s being played. The result is rather mesmerising; it’s easy to get sucked in with the confident and well-performed music and the impressive visuals. The ‘choose’ segments break this up nicely and keep the audience engaged. And yes, it’s really just a fancy way of asking the audience what they want to listen to next, but that’s fine.
A fun addition is that the audience is also asked to advocate for one of the two choices, which is great fun for kids. (This is very much a family show.) Extra Lives are fantastic and will keep you glued to your seat throughout.
Overall, Extra Lives have invented a winning formula to present a very specific sort of music in a delightful way. Essential listening for the video game nerd. Recommended.
You can get tickets here.
