Bit Brigade shreds games almost as quickly as guitars
Bit Brigade is a five-piece
rock outfit based in Athens, Georgia. The band features Bryant
Williamson and Jace Bartet on guitar, Luke Fields on bass, Mike
Albanese on drums, and Noah McCarthy on... NES?
Yes. Bit Brigade is a band
that combines music and video games into a performance art all their
own. As Noah blasts at top speed through the game of the night, the
other band members provide their own blood-pumping interpretations of
every song and musical cue in near-perfect synchronization.
I saw Bit Brigade perform
at PAX East 2014, where their chosen game was the original Legend of
Zelda. From the opening “press start” screen to the final image
of the Triforce of Power among Ganon's ashes—which took, all told,
about 40 minutes with Noah at the controller—they kept the audience
rocking.
If you are familiar with
the original Legend of Zelda game, you know that there are about four
songs total in it: you have the overworld theme, the dungeon theme,
the final dungeon theme, and the credits. There is also the game over
music, but that never came up. These same songs repeat over and over
as the player goes from the overworld to each dungeon and back to the
overworld again, but those who expected a repetitive and boring
performance were quickly reassured as Bit Brigade drew on songs from
the entire Zelda franchise to keep things going. For me, at least,
part of the fun was seeing how many of the tunes I could
recognize—most of them, as it turned out. My favorite Zelda tune
was and will always be the iconic overworld theme, but other notable
selections included the Dark World theme from Link to the Past, the
overworld theme from the franchise's dark horse Legend of Zelda II,
and Ganon's Tower from Ocarina of Time.
As good as the music is,
Noah's playing keeps pace. As fans of speed running and professional
gaming know, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing a game played
well. A classic game like Zelda, one of the old standbys of Nintendo
and modern gaming as a whole, has a powerful nostalgia factor as
well. Being very familiar with the game myself, I found myself
watching and analyzing McCarthy's playing:
Where are you going?
There's a 30-rupee secret room there!
Not going for level 5?
Oh, he wants the White Sword first.
Last extra heart/potion
room, honestly at this point I would go for the potion. Yup, good
call.
Et
cetera. I probably don't need to tell most of you what it's like to
watch someone be way too good at a game: a combination of analysis,
awe, and learning. I imagine it's much the same experience that
sports fans have watching their favorite teams (though I couldn't
speak from experience on that one).
These two elements of Bit
Brigade's performances—the music and the game itself—are
impressive on their own, but come together to create a new kind of
experience. The real magic is in their teamwork. This could easily
degenerate into inappropriate songs and mistimed effects, but they've
learned to work together. Each time the music faded out as Noah
waited for the right moment to collect the latest piece of the
Triforce, it gave the air of a dramatic pause. When he picked it up
and the musicians rocked out the fanfare, it never failed to get a
huge cheer from the audience.
Unfortunately, as eloquent
as I like to believe I am, a performance is something that must be
seen to be fully appreciated. Much as I would like to, I can't get
all of you tickets to their next performance, so instead please enjoy
this video of their performance of Mega Man 2 at MAGFest X:
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