Great concert…

Saturday night’s movie-soundtrack and video-game concert at the Weidner Center by the Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band was a real crowd-pleaser. Prof. Kevin Collins noted from the stage that the fantasy-theme earned worldwide publicity (literally) thanks to popular blogs that picked up on the unique program by the UW-Green Bay student ensembles. Scores from “Lord of the Rings,” “The Dark Knight” and the “Twilight” movies sounded terrific, as did a suite of popular video game melodies.

…and women beat men in ‘Rock Band’ battle

Also unique at Saturday’s concert: big-screen projection of a pre-concert video game battle, with players seated in a “living room” setup at one corner of the stage. Later, at intermission, the audience was treated to a UW-Green Bay celebrity battle of the virtual bands, with two teams taking turns at the Rock Band game (in the Guitar Hero vein but with drums and vocals, too). The team including Library Director Paula Ganyard and Profs. Sarah Detweiler of art and Michelle McQuade Dewhirst of music (a ringer on vocals) jumped out to a lead with Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”  The all-male music faculty team of Prof. Adam Gaines (vocals), Randall Meder, Eric Hansen and David Severtson, none performing in his area of specialization, tried to match on Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf.” The contest ended early with a Rickrolling, as the familiar strains of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” drowned out the Gaines/Meder/Hansen/Severtson team.