By Pete Vilmur
When Star Wars: In Concert debuts at Anaheim's Honda Center this Thursday night, it will not only reboot a long tradition of Star Wars concert performances that began as far back as late 1977, it will re-invent it.
Star Wars: In Concert brings an entirely new concert-going experience to fans, synchronizing the orchestra's live music to footage displayed on a three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen -- a Star Wars concert first. Additionally, venues hosting the concert will also include an exhibit of props, wardrobe, models and more for fans to see first-hand as they enter and leave the concert. It's a concert and museum exhibit in one!
Compared to Star Wars concerts of the past -- well, there is no comparison. We researched some of the more noteworthy Star Wars concerts that have been staged over the last 32 years to see what fans might have experienced back in those heady early days of Star Wars mania -- think lasers and fog machines -- and have compiled a dozen-page scrapbook of sorts to track their history and evolution.
So sit back, break out some old Star Wars tunes, and soak in the legacy Star Wars: In Concert leaves in the dust as it launches out of the Honda Center with selections from six Star Wars scores, synchronized larger-than-life high-def footage, and maybe even a few lasers.
(For more information about Star Wars: In Concert, click here.)
November, 1977
The first public Star Wars concert was staged on the afternoon and evening of November 20, 1977, at the sold-out Hollywood Bowl where over 17,000 fans heard Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Zubin Mehta deliver strains from a score that was saturating pop culture at every turn. Composer John Williams had written the "Suite from Star Wars" exclusively for this event, which included poetry reading by Star Trek's William Shatner, a jazz-rock opening by band Electrofusion, and lasers by a group calling themselves Laser Media. This event also launched the "Music from Outer Space" series of concerts, which contained the same general catalog of musical selections: Strauss' "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (that's the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme for most of us), Holst's "The Planets" excerpts, and five pieces from the wildly famous Star Wars score that was sweeping the country.
Selections from Close Encounters of the Third Kind would be added to the program the following year, and also included on a record album conducted by Mehta that was a direct result of this first concert's success.
