I recently attended the Avatar The Last Airbender In Concert showing at the ASU Gammage Center in Tempe, Arizona. Avatar: The Last Airbender, in my opinion, is one of the greatest animated shows ever created. With stunning animation and set pieces, meaningful world-building, an endearing cast of characters, fantastic music by Jeremy Zuckerman, and one of the best written redemption arcs on television, this show is beloved for many reasons.
As a huge fan, I was very eager to attend this concert and see the blend of orchestral music and footage from the show live in a huge concert venue. Was it worth the price of admission?
The Venue
Located on Arizona State University campus, the ASU Gammage Theater seats up to 3,000 guests. The multi-purpose facility was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1964. The Gammage is registered in the National Register of Historic Places. Having the opportunity to walk through the building and admire the stunning architecture was a lovely experience. Despite the typical hot and dry weather found in Tempe, the venue was absolutely packed and bustling with excited energy as fans arrived.
Our showing was the second of three in the span of two days due to how quickly the concert was selling out, which is very telling about how beloved this show is for so many. In fact, I had hoped to buy some merchandise, but the sheer volume of the lines meant risking missing portions of the concert or needing to stay late after the concert just to get through.
We had remarkably good seats, just a few rows back from the very front, meaning we had a fantastic view of the orchestra and the screen above. In addition, we could see the unique blend of Eastern instruments that would be featured in this concert displayed on stage. Honestly, being this close to the stage was incredibly except that the orchestra itself felt quite small, though their sound was generally still good and quite impressive. I’m not sure if this is isolated to our concert experience or not, but its small size felt like a missed opportunity to truly go big.
The Setlist
To kick off the performance, the orchestra first played the intro theme, along with Katara’s narration, from Episode 1. As a nice touch, any time there was narration or dialogue from the show on the screen, they added subtitles for viewers to follow along with. From there, the setlist was organized into books corresponding with the show’s seasons. This was a clever way to present the concert, as it meant we could essentially witness it in chronological order.
Book One: Water
- “The Boy in the Iceberg”
- “Agni Kai”
- Katara
- Zuko’s Scar
- Into Fire Nation Territory
- The Kyoshi Warriors
- Jet
- Blue Spirit
- Roku Destroys the Temple
- Northern Water Temple (Yue and Sokka)
- Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall
- Yue Becomes the Moon Spirit
- Aang Becomes Ocean
- Into a Nighttime Sky
Book One: Water features iconic tracks featured in the first season, including tracks such as “Agni Kai,” “Blue Spirit,” and “Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.” The selection of songs was good, and each was accompanied by a stylized title card befitting Avatar.
Many of these tracks were quite short, lasting only a minute or two long at most. This made the concert feel incredibly fast-paced and borderline rushed as songs were quickly played and transitioned to the next with little or no pause or breathing room.
In addition, I think these types of concerts are best when there is always animation or visuals on the screen. It ensures you’re taking advantage of this unique blend of audio and visual media in a concert setting. Unfortunately, Avatar The Last Airbender In Concert didn’t always utilize the screen to its maximum potential.
Sometimes the screen was black, almost as if they didn’t have enough animation footage, which felt strange and awkward. For other tracks like “Agni Kai” in which the scene in the original show is already edited to coincide with the music, the concert version added additional cuts and black screen for what I assume is dramatic effect, but it didn’t quite land for me.
Because the orchestra was so small, there were times where the songs, such as “Agni Kai,” were backed up by the music playing in the scene from the show. It’s not a deal breaker, but it did reiterate that the smaller sized orchestra struggled to carry some of the songs on its own. “Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall” featured a lovely orchestral arrangement that was actually timed to play alongside the animation of the lute strings being plucked in the show, which was a nice touch.
Book Two: Earth
- Azula
- Toph
- The Cave of Two Lovers
- Zuko Alone
- Appa’s Lost Days
- Aang and Hope
- Iroh (Leaves from the Vine)
- Zuko’s Transformation
- Long Feng and the Dai Li
- Unlocking the Chakras
The lighting throughout the concert was quite effective, using spotlights to highlight key players and flashes to coincide with the action on the screen. This was particularly effective during “Azula” when she shot blue lightning and the spotlights flashed blue as well, and it was a very nice touch. “Toph,” perhaps unsurprisingly, utilized the black screen to great effect, matching her narration about her blindness. “Zuko Alone” was a great showcase of the unique Eastern instruments and implemented them perfectly.
Something I noticed quickly is that what led to the most applause and excitement from the audience was not necessarily the songs themselves, but the title cards or if certain characters appeared on the screen. It speaks to the power of the show’s cast and story. The music is iconic and great in context, but it plays a supporting, secondary role to the writing and animation.
Following Book Two was a brief intermission before Book Three. I’ll admit that this made the pacing of the concert feel rather strange, but I’m not sure how else they could do it. You can’t cut in the middle of a book, I think that would feel less satisfying. But by having their intermission after Book Two, it means the concert ends up concluding much faster with only one book left afterward. It’s not a criticism, but an observation nonetheless.
Book Three: Fire
- The Painted Lady
- Crafting Sokka’s Sword
- The Beach
- Bloodbending
- Zuko Joins Up
- The Firebending Masters
- Aang Seeks Wisdom
- Zuko Seeks Forgiveness
- The Last Agni Kai
- Katara and Azula
- Ozai and Aang
- Peace
- Secret Tunnel
For me, I think Book Three: Fire featured the strongest blend of song selections and animation. Something else I really liked was that both “The Beach” and “Zuko Joins Up” added dialogue and scenes from other episodes to beef up the video footage, meaning we weren’t stuck watching a black screen; it enhanced the song and significance of the scenes. This feels more in line with how the Final Fantasy concerts tend to approach their videos, and I wish this was more consistent throughout the Avatar concert.
Witnessing scenes like Zuko and Aang learning the true meaning of firebending, and the final battles between Zuko and Azula and Aang and Fire Lord Ozai, were absolutely incredible to see on the big screen alongside the orchestra. Finally, “Secret Tunnel” was featured as the encore song, which included lyrics on the screen for fans to sing along with and additional animation from throughout the show to close it out. It was a nice touch. Is it the greatest song ever? Definitely not, but it is amusing and fits the tone and spirit of the show well.
Addressing criticism
Some criticism I’ve read about the concert is the idea that it didn’t fully commit to a full orchestra, and I even heard it described as a “glorified YouTube playlist showcasing favorite moments from the show.” Basically, they argued that they could just watch the show and didn’t need to see it in concert form as it didn’t offer anything new. I think this is a bit harsh and misses the mark.
The purpose of going to see a video game or animated show concert is to witness the music with live, orchestral instruments. Our orchestra was small, but the blend of seeing the performance live and the stunning animation on the big screen made the experience worth it. Would I have liked to see a bigger, stronger orchestra? Of course, but it doesn’t invalidate the experience for me, either.
For example, approximately half of the music performed at Final Fantasy concerts are songs that were once 8-bit and have been orchestrated for these experiences, while the other half features songs that are already orchestrated thanks to the benefits of modern video game development and music composition. Do we say, then, that concerts featuring songs that were already orchestrated is invalid? That it’s just a YouTube playlist at that point unless it adds something completely unique to the experience?
Final Takeaways
This concert is one of the ones I was most excited about. Was it worth the cost of admission? Overall, I would say yes. I do wish the orchestra was filled out more and a bit stronger. But I greatly enjoyed hearing the unique Eastern instruments and seeing the show’s best moments on the big screen was very fun to watch.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
At the end of the day, I enjoyed my time at the Avatar The Last Airbender in Concert quite a bit. It wasn’t perfect, but I wanted to support a concert of one of the best shows ever made, and I think it’s worth it for that alone. Fans of the show will have a good time with this concert, even if it doesn’t perhaps eclipse other concert experiences.
Featured Image: Avatar The Last Airbender In Concert
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