Master Boot Record Review: What's the Future of Live Video Game Music?

Nostalgia is a bit of a funny thing, right? It really gives a connecting thread to an entire group of people across different socio-economic classes, and geography. Bold claim for sure, but allow me to give you an example.

 

I strolled over to Foufounes Electriques on May 4th to check out a show by the Italian madman known as Victor Love, who you may recall as one of the founders of Dope Stars Inc... or perhaps as the insane organ slinging involved in Keygen Church... the point is the man does a lot of things, and on this day, he and two hired guns were ready to play to a Quebec audience so they could perform as yet another alternate band, Master Boot Record, specializing in 8-bit tunes turned into metal tunes

 

Of course there was an opener for the show, namely the duo of Voonic2, which is from Montreal, but is made up of a Colombian and a Mexican, so, for those keeping track, I have mentioned three different countries in four sentences.

 

Okay, fine, I'll throw the separatists a bone and say it's "four countries in four sentences," but just because I want to average one "country" a sentence.

 

Anyway, Voonic2 played a bunch of video game covers as well as some originals from their various releases. Tight set, though they did encounter a pet peeve I have at shows which is when a band gets momentum and then promptly kills that momentum by stopping between every song. To keep the mood feeling lighter and to stay in a theme frame of mind, I choose to think of these not as pure stops in the music, but "loading screens" between tracks and I'd love to say that helped, but... not really. However, despite this, I have to say that if you're in the mood to hear some good chiptunes live, they may be correct in their claim that they are one of the best offerings from Quebec.

 

Uh oh, I just realized I may have lost the separatists by saying a band made of members from real countries is the best in this "country." Oh well, no great loss there.  

 

Then, Master Boot Record came out, and, though it was definitely more intense and had a thicker sound due to three people performing rather than two, it had the same feel to it. Playing a mix of covers and originals, broken up by stops to transition between songs and to get the backing track right, all the while projecting classic games onto the backdrop behind them. Honestly, they may be the most technically proficient "video game music" band I've ever seen, seemingly effortlessly producing beefed up music that was confined to or based primarily on 8-bit sounds.

 

All of this is great, and for all of us weirdo Ninten-nerds its more than any of us could have imagined. If you posed this to any self respecting gamer from the late 80s or early 90s, their minds would be totally blown. "Video game music... live?! By... more than one band? On the SAME NIGHT?! This is UNHEARD OF! Surely if this is what the future holds in music, then I can't imagine what society must be like. It must be a utopia full of equality and with all the climate issues that we're talking about now in the late 80s /early 90s solved. I can't wait for this amazing future!"

 

But this also highlights an issue.

 

Obviously I'm talking about two bands, but there are countless ones that are also doing similar things. Powerglove, Random Encounter, Bit Brigade, Master Sword, The Megas, Minibosses... all bands who do covers of video game music, and that is NOT a near exhaustive list. There's even multiple orchestras (orchestri?) doing scores from game series.

 

I guess my question is, how many of these bands do we need? And, realistically, how many songs can they cover that people will actually recognize? It just feels like there's an obvious ceiling here that I guess hasn't been reached, but feels like it might be close.

 

To give you an idea of how this manifests, I have seen three bands cover the theme from the first Contra, and that feels like two too many. And yes, I love the theme from Contra, both as a song and a connection to simpler days where the world didn't seem so fraught with issues. Maybe all of that is why these bands seem to have struck a chord with so many people globally, as we all try to reconnect with a past time when we felt our lives were complete and the only trouble we had was how to beat the second level of Golden Axe so we could move on to third level and see what unseen and unknown wonders might be there to behold.

 

So, nostalgia is fun. Nostalgia is good. But, perhaps rather than focus on old games or themes from old TV shows, we can instead focus on the parts of nostalgia that could make the world a better place. Perhaps it would be better to focus less on thinking about how much time we spent on Ninja Gaiden and still didn't beat it, we could focus on all the crazy ideas we had, like how we should be nice to all people, and how everyone should get a fair shake at trying to have a better life. If we do that, maybe we won't have such a powerful response to things that remind us of simpler, nicer times, because we'd already be there, helping each other.

 

But also... fuck Ninja Gaiden; that game is so cheap with its knockback bullshit. I'm going to go beat it right now. Tune in two weeks from now when I've snapped every controller in half in my pursuit.