If you've been reading this site for a while now, you know that I'm a pretty big Battlestar Galactica fan. I've posted about it many times, and even in non BSG related articles I'm still known to slip in the occasional "Frak" every now and then. I love the show for many reasons. Amazing stories, cool special effects, brilliant actors and actresses . . . the show has it all really. It also just so happens to have one of the most impressive musical scores found anywhere in either television or film.
That music has been composed by a guy named Bear McCreary. Aside from Battlestar, Bear scores many other well loved geeky projects too, such as the SyFy show Eureka and the now sadly cancelled Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. He's even recently started scoring videogames. His first game will be the title Dark Void which comes out soon.
Bear's one of those guys who has so much talent you want to hate him out of pure jealousy. He's only 30 years old right now, which means he's been scoring amazing sci-fi TV shows since his early 20's. The problem is though, his work is so amazing you can't help but love him for what he does. He's the main reason I went to see the Battlestar Retrospective panel at Comic Con this year. I wanted to hear what he had to say about what it was like to work on the music of Battlestar.
If you've never heard any of Bear's work on BSG, listen to this or this or this (that last one is one of my favorite themes from the show).
As an already big fan of his work, you can imagine my excitement when he said during the panel that he was doing a series of concerts in San Diego over the next few nights. It did take some talking into from my friend to get me to go, but that's only because I'm a cheap bastard and didn't want to spend $50 on the ticket to get in.
In retrospect, boy am I sure glad I decided to go. And for the record, I would now gladly pay well over that $50 ticket price for a chance to see them play live again.
We got to the show around 7:45pm. It was set to start at 8pm. Even though I'm a big fan of the music already, I didn't really know what to expect from this concert. I've never been to a show before where the main act was a composer from a TV show who was playing music from that show. Was there going to be a video screen showing clips from the show during the concert? Would the show only last an hour, or would it be a more traditional 2 hour concert length? During the panel the day before, Bear had talked about the show being very much a rock concert, but other than his cover of All Along The Watchtower there isn't a whole lot of stereotypical rock music in the show. Was he going to jazz up the show's music to be more rock-ish? I just didn't know.
Even about 10 seconds into the show though, I somehow knew things were only going to get more and more awesome as the night went on. I knew this because Edward James Olmos . . . Admiral Adama himself came out to MC the show.
He talked for a couple of minutes about how proud he was of the work he and everyone else did with BSG, and how great it came out. He said how last night was his first time seeing Bear play the music from the show live, and that his mind had been completely blown by it. He told us we were in for a hell of an experience.
A fairly decent sized crowd had shown up for this concert, and many of them were wearing BSG shirts or shirts that just said Frak on them, so I knew I was in good and like-minded company. That's when the awesomeness really began. As he was getting the crowd pumped up for the show, Admiral Adama yelled into the mic something along the lines of, "We are ready for some amazing music! So Say We All!!!"
I'm sorry, but when Admiral Adama yells "So Say We All!" at you, there's really only one thing you can do. The whole crowd pumped their fists and screamed back, "SO SAY WE ALL!!!"
Before the real main act got started though, there was an opening act. It was a group called Brendan's Band whom I've never heard of before. The lead singer (Brendan) came out wearing a BSG flight suit, which was pretty cool, but that was the only Battlestar connection his music really had with the show. The band played some good, straight up rock music though. They only played a couple of songs, but they were fast and energetic and they got the crowd bobbing their heads and enjoying themselves. Aside from Brendan, who was a charming and charismatic lead singer, there was a beautiful woman named Raya Yarbrough who provided additional vocals and great harmonies. After about 30 minutes, Brendan's Band left the stage having done an very admirable job as an opening act.
As Edward James Olmos came back out on stage, he informed us that Brendan is actually Bear McCreary's brother and Raya is Bear's wife. Grace Park (Boomer/Athena from BSG) also comes out at this point to co-host the show with Edward. After a few more minutes of chatting, it was time for the main act.
It's really hard to describe just how amazing this concert was. Bear McCreary comes out along with the rest of the band, which consists of 17 musicians playing a variety of instruments. There's a strings section with Violins, Viola and Cello. There's four drummers playing an entire line of large and foreign looking drums along the back wall. There's guitarists and a bassist, there's a guy at the front playing a variety of woodwind instruments and at one point there's even bagpipes (both normal and electric). Bear himself alternates between playing keyboards and piano and at one point even busts out an accordian. He's also conducting the band when he himself is not playing an instrument. Oh, also, it turns out that Brendan McCreary and Raya Yarbrough are also members of the BSG Orchestra as well.
We're a couple of songs in and I realize just how rocking Battlestar's music actually is when played live. The drummers are giving off a heavy beat as the strings section plays lovely melodies and the woodwinds are giving off those eerie notes BSG's music is so famous for. The audience is moving in time with the drums, which are constant and pounding and primal. I became hypnotized by Tina Guo, the stunningly beautiful Cellist with long black hair who appears to almost be in a trance-like state at times as she plays her instrument with her eyes closed, her head tilted back, moving rhythmicly with the flow of the songs. When the music gets really heavy, watching her play is akin to being a voyeur to an erotic act as her face twists and contorts in the throws of musical ecstasy and passion.
All of the performers in the band are incredibly talented, but aside from Bear himself, to me the standout musician was the Violin soloist. His name is Paul Cartwright. He's a young guy with a thick moppish head of hair and dark, thick-rimmed glasses. He looks like a ton of the people that can be found on the sales floor of Comic Con that very day. He looks nerdy and unassuming, but his skill wows the audience to the point that after a few of his solos rock harder than any guitar solo I've ever heard, I'm not suprised at all to see the crowd start cheering him not only at the end of his solos, but at the beginning of them as well. The audience has learned quickly that when this man takes a solo, they are about to be treated to something breathtaking, and they're properly appreciative of this.
In between the songs, stars from the Battlestar series come out to talk with the audience. On a sad note, we find out from them that one of the show's line producers, a gentleman by the name of Harvey Frand, had died the day before at the age of 68. He had been with the show for years and was liked by everyone who worked on the production. Most of the actors had found out just that morning that he had passed on. They had decided to dedicate the performance that night to Harvey, and were making it a tribute show to him. Every now and then between songs, Edward James Olmos would come out and bring up yet another actor from the show on stage to discuss personal thoughts or memories of their fallen friend. Throughout the night the audience got to see Michael Hogan (Col. Saul Tigh), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), Michelle Forbes (Admiral Cane), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders) and Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek) all come out to pay their respects.
It was one of those really rare moments for fans of an incredibly popular sci-fi franchise like BSG where just for that night the wall between the closed circle of those who worked on the show and those who were fans of it fell. The cast of the show had allowed us into their lives a little bit. We were with them at a very sad, personal time and instead of hiding away to greive in private they opened themselves up on stage and allowed their fans to share their sadness with them as well as their love. Michael Hogan was so sentimental that it even made my eyes cloud up with tears as he stumbled out on stage a little drunk, beers in both hands, and spoke with a voice cracking as he tried to hold it together. The sincerity of it all was overwhelming, and it just added an emotional charge to the music that made it that much more profound.
As we neared the end of the show, the song we had all been waiting for was finally played . . . Bear McCreary's cover of All Along The Watchtower. For those of you who have never seen the show, let me just say that Bear's version of the song is like none you've ever heard before. As much as I love both the original Bob Dylan version and the Jimi Hendrix cover I have to admit that Bear's version has overtaken them both as my favorite. He's added so many layers and sounds to it that now when I hear the song any other way, it feels like it's missing something. In my head I'm hearing Bear's instrumentations, even when they're not there.
If you'd like to see the song performed live, there's a great video of it which you can watch right here.
This was my 18th consecutive year attending the San Diego Comic Con. In that time I've seen a lot of amazing things and have incredible memories of things that I will never forget. The last couple of years have been a little lackluster for me though. In fact, before this year's Con I was beginning to doubt whether going to the show was even worth it anymore. What with the large crowds now and the super busy sales floor, I had begun to wonder whether the time and energy spent attending the Con was justified by the experiences I have there. After this show though, all such thoughts have forever been banished from my mind.
It is not something I say lightly, but I fully mean it when I say that in the 18 years I've been to Con, this concert was the single most enjoyable and endearing experience I've ever had there. By the end of the night my legs hurt from standing for almost fours (and this was after a full day of walking the floor at the Con), my back hurt, my throat was hoarse from yelling and screaming, my hands were tingling and sore from clapping so much, but I couldn't possibly have been any happier.
Bear's concert wasn't just a musical performance. It was an emotional and personal journey that reminded my why I love BSG so much, why I love Comic Con so much and why I'll always be proud to declare my love for both.
If you'd like to learn a bit more about Bear McCreary and his work, check out the following sites:
- Bear's personal blog (and where I "borrowed" most of the photos in this article from)
- The BSG Orchestra's website
P.S. Some final thoughts, for those of you who missed the show, don't worry. They were recorded professionally and are being put together for an upcoming Live In Concert DVD. Also, as awesome as the show I attened was, I must say that I am a little sad (ok, very sad) that I missed Thursday night's performance where Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) joined Bear on stage for a piano duet.
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