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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
And now for something completely different: The Minibosses, a band that plays nothing but tunes from old video games.
Apr 21, 2004 | The opening act has just finished at Northsix, a Brooklyn, N.Y., hot spot, and the crowd of 300-plus is crying out for more. But as the next band, the Minibosses, climbs onstage for its set, something seems a little odd. The players move all the vocal mikes off to the side. And once they're ready to begin, frontman Aaron Burke, 27, announces the first number, one that you're not likely to hear in your average club: a song from the video game "Goonies 2."
From the very first crash of Burke's guitar, it is obvious that the "Bossies" -- rabid fans scattered among the crowd -- didn't need to be told where the song came from. They know the tune by heart, and they are screaming, bouncing and headbanging. The rest of the mob is not quite sure what's going on, but the band's energy and intensity pulls them in. The sound is turbo prog-rock with a tinge of metal. Burke and 27-year-old bass player Ben Baraldi, both 6-foot-6, tower over the free-standing crowd, which presses in toward the stage. A second guitarist, Fred Johnson, 25, compensates for his comparative lack of height with dramatic moves, while Matt Wood, 27, attacks the drum kit.
There is no set list tonight, so after the first song Burke yells out, "OK, what are we doing next?"
The audience erupts into a shouting match with enough game requests to fill an arcade: "'Metroid'! 'Contra'! 'Punchout'! 'Ninja Gaiden'!"
The Minibosses launch into "MegaMan 2," and the pattern of instant audience recognition -- even identification -- continues throughout the set.
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Their songs have no words. Their music comes from old Nintendo video games. And four of the tracks on their latest CD are under 20 seconds long. Named after a generic game character who must be repeatedly pummeled before a player can proceed, the Minibosses take all of their material from original Nintendo Entertainment System games, which they memorize note for note and perform live.
The Minibosses are a sign of the gamer times. Vid-kids of the 1980s have now grown up, and they want to bring gaming with them into mainstream culture. They want entertainment that connects to their life experience.
Raina Lee, 27, publisher of 1-Up, a zine about video game culture, says the shift in video game acceptance by the masses began in 1995 with the debut of the Sony PlayStation, but has accelerated over the past five years.
"It's only recently that [video] games have lost their stigma," Lee said. "Video games now are very mainstream ... People are finally identifying themselves as gamers -- they are viewing gaming as a lifestyle."
And with the games comes a subtle but powerful component: music.
Enter the Minibosses. Burke founded the band in 1999, along with bass player Baraldi and drummer Wood, who had met while they were students at the University of Massachusetts. Video game music was a natural choice for Burke, since he had used it to learn the guitar, and before that, he had played games throughout his elementary and junior high years.
"It was the first music I really listened to, and listened to deeply," he said. Baraldi and Wood were also longtime video addicts, and loved the idea of performing only Nintendo music.
When Baraldi landed a software programming position in Phoenix after graduation, Burke and Wood decided to join him so they could continue playing together. They did around 20 shows a year, mostly in small area clubs. Johnson, another guitar player obsessed with games, came onboard last year.
