Kirby’s Dream Band: inspiration is where you find it.

In late September, I headed north to Vista’s Aztec Brewing for Brew Game Plus 5, an eight-and-a-half hour overdose of bands performing video game songs. My friend and I had never been to the brewery before, so we had trouble navigating the corporate park where it was located. It quickly became apparent that, while this location would never benefit from the random walkups of a hopping business district, it was perfect for a marathon music festival. The park was an absolute ghost town, because its other businesses are closed on the weekend.

Now, it’s customary to order a beer at a brewery, but when I saw they offered an actual hard ginger beer, I had to try it. While walking through the bar area, we noticed rows of TVs lining a couple of the walls, with chairs placed in front of them. It turned out these were stand-alone gaming stations, set up so attendees could enjoy playing throughout the event. I noticed the mini-version of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a newer edition of the classic Atari system, and a rare Sega Dreamcast. Throughout the day, I dipped into some games on the classic NES. These included the early shooter Operation Wolf (B+), the ‘80s novelty Q-Bert (D-), and the NES classic Super Mario Bros 3 (A++).

The stage was set up in a parking lot behind the brewery, with a drum kit and amps pre-set up to speed the band changeovers. The first performers we took in were an acoustic act known as the Two Turtles Duo, who specialize in jazz guitar interpretations of video game themes. They were total pros, but I drew a complete blank as to what songs they were interpreting. A guy next to me was pretty certain that one was from the Zelda franchise. Next up was guitarist Ian Cowell, who was performing with a bassist and some backing tracks in a more electrified manner. Cowell provided a helpful cheat sheet by identifying many of the songs (Castlevania 3 theme, Elex 2, Mega Man X), all of them new to me.

I started to realize how tiny my internal database was when it came to modern video games — and consequently, video game music. The last video game system I purchased was a Nintendo Wii, and this was back when inserting CDs and DVDs into electronic players felt standard, not archaic. Even worse, except for the Super Mario Bros 2-D games, beginning with the original NES versions that I continue to worship, I never really latched onto to any other gaming franchises. Perhaps most embarrassing is the fact that the games I spent the most time playing were puzzles, such as Tetris, Dr. Mario, and the obscure and ultra-addictive Wario’s Woods (fun-fact: that was the final game produced for the original NES system). I never even cracked the code that would have let me enjoy the myriad of sports video games that everyone seems to love. And these days, my gaming consists of phone apps such as Sudoku, Texas Hold’em Poker, Block Puzzle (the crack to Tetris’ cocaine), and daily stabs at Wordle. All of which probably makes me sound like I’m pushing 90 instead of 50.

Late in the afternoon, the rock element began to ramp up as Majora hit the stage. The four-piece delivered a memorable set that featured great, crunchy guitar tone and tasty use of the wild and spacey sounds of a theremin, courtesy of keyboardist (and Aztec Brewing co-owner) Tristan Faulk-Webster (Taken By Canadians, Blue Moonies). The sun had set and the parking lot was starting to get packed; I would guess there were over 200 patrons present when Extra Lives started their set. The band’s instrumentation was standard rock (guitar/bass/keys/drums); what made them stand out was their gimmick of creating an immersive choose-your-own-adventure game, where audience members were the main characters. Participating patrons answered questions on their phones that determined character actions, and those actions would create the setlist selections. I appreciated the concept, but given that we were four hours into 8.5 hours of video game music, the long wait between songs as the votes were tallied became a bit grueling.

The festival saved the best for last, with the one-two punch of The Megas leading into Kirby’s Dream Band. The Megas have been staples on the video game music scene since the 2000s. I noticed attendees wearing their Warriors-esque logo on numerous patches and shirts and, even more impressive, there were obvious fans singing along to certain songs. The Megas use themes from Mega Man games as the basis for full rock songs with original lyrics. Locals Kirby’s Dream Band ended the night with what seemed like a purer interpretation of video game music, offering straight-up instrumental themes delivered by a six-piece ensemble, with shredding dual guitars and keys. I think most of the songs were attached to the Kirby franchise, but once again, for all I know, they could have all been themes from Atari’s legendary video game flop, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.

When it came down to it, prior knowledge of a song wasn’t really required to enjoy music like this. If the themes are catchy, and the performing is shreddy, then all is good, right up until Game Over.