In the beginning
I heard the news that “NES BAND” was going to perform in Ishinomaki for the first time in three years, and I went to the concert.
It was hard to get up early because we had to move from Aomori to Ishinomaki on the same day, but it was a great show and well worth the trip.
The members of “NES BAND” appeared in black shirts and red ties as usual.
Connect
The band started with an original song.
The sound of the NES is a mysterious thing, and even recently composed songs have the atmosphere of those days.
Mr. Matzken, who has studied NES music to the fullest, used the tones in a way that reminded one of the old days.
Some people may believe him when he says that the music is from the past.
Their technique was as steady as ever.
MOTHER Medley
After the MC at the second controller, the first song was a medley of Nintendo’s classic RPG “MOTHER”.
The medley of Suzuki Keiichi’s melancholy songs was a highlight of the show.
By the time the final song, “Eight Merodies”, was played, many of us may have shed tears as our mind replayed the adventure stories we experienced long ago.
I love the soundtrack of “MOTHER” (sung by a foreign singer) so much that I was drawn into the world from the very beginning.
Disappear in Okhotsk Medley
The choice of this song tickles our maniacal heart.
This is one of Horii Yuji’s three major adventure games.
I had only played the remake version, so it was an interesting experience in that sense.
Doragon Quest III Medley
This is another great medley that brings back memories of the great adventures of my elementary school days in my head.
Musically, the quality of the songs created by Sugiyama Koichi and the techniques used to type them into the NES can almost be called perfection.
One of the fundamental greatness of “NES BAND” is that it is not a “song made to be played”, but a song that can be played manually.
They play the same key over and over again, for example.
It was a wonderful medley that I could enjoy carefully.
Perfection!
Emerald Boy
After a 15-minute break, the second part started.
I had never heard this original song before due to my lack of knowledge, but I liked it very much because it had a pop song-like taste.
The song was originally written for performance on the PC Engine, so it consists of six notes, but it has been arranged for the NES.
Please release an album when you have enough original songs, I’ll buy two!
Dragon Quest IV Medley
Oh, they are going to play one more Dragon Quest song, I’m so glad.
It is quite long, as he himself called it a “big medley”.
Moreover, as this is the fourth Dragon Quest, many strange melodies and odd time signatures appear, perhaps to differentiate it from the other three.
This could be called a big progressive medley.
The difficulty level of the battle songs can be seen even by amateurs, and we have no choice but to surrender now.
And what gives me chills no matter how many times I hear it is the deformation scene of Despizaro.
The exciting melody that follows is now hard rock.
The ending of the film is also a beautiful composition in which many of the songs we have heard so far appear little by little.
One can only applaud the persistence of the four members in recreating this perfectly.
All That Needed (Was You)
For the encore, the band played an American-inspired song from “MOTHER” again.
The scene of tiny dots dancing to this song must have left a lasting impression on many of us.
After the encore, the four members left gracefully, looking very cool.
At the End
The performance was as described above, but I also learned a lot of maniacal trivia about the NES performance in the intervals.
The most eye-opening thing was a technique where, when playing the same melody in unison on one and two channels, one note is lowered a little (a little more than a semitone) to give the sound a wider range.
The mechanism is the same as that of a choral piece, where the melody is slightly different from each other to create a wider range of sound.
Wow, this is a great learning experience.
I would like to use this technique myself.
It was too hard to go back to Aomori all at once, so we stayed overnight in Morioka and went back the next day.
Thanks to the four members of the NES BAND, we had a very enjoyable trip.
Thank you very much.
October 18,2022 Freakz
(Postscript)
Before this Ishinomaki performance, I had only seen the show once in Tokyo.
At that time, the female member was a different person.
They also played “Dragon Quest 4.”
I laughed when they played the NES version of “Golf”.
They also played a medley (conte?) in which each part was swapped.
The former members even jumped in, and there was plenty to see.
After the concert, we were having a drink at the restaurant and I remember MatsukeN came to greet us.
He must have gone to greet all the guests, he was a very disciplined person.
I was so drunk that I think I requested “Challenger”.
Well, is the next NES BAND performance yet?
March 22,2023 Freakz
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