Well then! Here's my full thoughts!
First of all, the whole thing was an amazing display of talent, hard work and great planning. I can't even begin to imagine about how much work must have gone into the logistics for the whole thing. Makes me wonder if a single console was enough for all the artists, since I know usually a single artist can consume several channels fine tuned to their personal liking. There was Pentakill, there was several DJs, there was the Orchestra and just... wow!
Logistics out of the way, I think my favorite moments were the opening Worlds Theme, The Crystal Method with the DJ Sona Tribute and the Star Guardian Medley. I didn't really have "Low Points" but I'll talk about my only two nitpicks in a moment.
It's always an amazing thing when all those tracks I normally listen to at home are performed live. I liked the use of the traditional Chinese instruments, as they gave many of the pieces a very distinct palette of eastern sounds. I was truly also amazed at the many talents that were congregated for this one musical event. I've always thought League had a huge reach in different genres of music, so it was great to watch all these artists gathered to perform.
About my nitpicks, I have two:
First: With how amazing Nicki Taylor, TJ and Lunity were during Burning Bright, the Pentakill tracks, Amumu and the Jinx/Vi tracks, I was just so sad that their voices were almost completely muted by backing vocal tracks during the Alan Walker fragment. I could barely hear any of them. It was quite distracting and took away from their amazing performances :(
Second: I'm a bit disappointed that some of the tracks that ended up in mixes. If Amumu's track can be played fully, I keep wondering... why not give Ignite/Warriors/Worlds Collide the same treatment? Even the Jinx/Vi songs I felt I would have enjoyed more if they had their own numbers.
It actually makes me a bit worried about tonight's performance at the Bird's Nest, since it might as well be the only time that Legends Never Die is performed in its entirety. Warriors has never been performed as its own full track since Finals 2014, and I personally think playing those songs in their original form would be even greater than some of the champion mashes. We've listened to Nami/Taliyah/Asol/Freljord mixes repeated times, and I can't help but feel these take time off the program that could be used by some of the tracks that were mixed. The DJ Sona Mix I can understand, but when I saw that Nicki was gonna be at the show, I was super hyped to hear Worlds Collide in its full form, as it had only been played once during Summoner's Con 2015, and that wasn't professionally recorded and well. I can't lie: I was a bit disappointed by the tiny portion it had on the show, and add on top the issue I had with the backing vocals that I mentioned before, and that part of the show just was not what I expected.
I wish big songs like Warriors, Ignite, Worlds Collide and now Legends Never Die had their own dedicated numbers in the future, instead of being part of a mix. Ignite is more of a techno track. Worlds Collide has more of an opera-rock/pop feel to it, and Legends Never Die/Warriors are the more rock-esque tracks of the bunch. Mixing em all together I feel takes away from their uniqueness and doesn't do justice to the original compositions. Even if Zedd/Imagine Dragons themselves weren't at the show, I know amazing versions of the tracks could have been made yesterday... Maybe next time :)
Everything excluding those two aspects not only met my expectations, but highly exceeded them. The show was better than last year's (which was really good already) and I'm just so happy we've got the VOD to go back to. I often find myself listening to live versions of tracks instead whenever I'm working or whatever, and I know I'll be doing that with the show from last night.
Massive cheers and respect to the tech team, the musicians and everyone who made last night's show possible!
[slayer-jinx-wink]
P.S. This would have been my Ideal Setlist:
01.- Intro "Honor/Worlds Theme" (Same as yesterday)
02.- Curse of the Sad Mummy Feat TJ Brown
03.- DJ Sona Mix/Arcade Mix Feat The Crystal Method
04.- Tales From the Rift (Serves as Intro for #5)
The Star Guardians Break Teeto's Curse
05.- Endless Starlight (Full Version) Feat Live Singer (Anyone)
06.- Burning Bright (Full Version) Feat Lunity
07.- PG One "Penta Kill" / Summoner's Call
Pentakill Section
09.- Tear of the Godess (Full Version)
10.- Mortal Reminder (Full Version)
11.- Deathfire Grasp (Full Version)
12.- Champions Mix (Camille/RakkanXayah/Galio/Kayn/Ornn/Eve)
Mix of only the latest champs we've never heard live and serves as bridge for final block
13.- Here Comes Vi (Full Version) Feat Nicki Taylor
14.- Get Jinxed (Full Version) Feat Lunity
15.- Warriors (Full Version) Feat Pentakill
16.- Worlds Collide (Full Version) Feat Nicky Taylor
17.- Ignite (Full Version) Feat TJ Brown and Alan Walker
18.- Finale (Same as Yesterday, ends with Silver Scrapes)
That list is more wishful thinking than anything else. Once again, thx for the amazing show we had yesterday!
[poppy-wink]
