Hans Zimmer Live Rocks

I’m not saying there aren’t quiet, contemplative moments. Lovely, transportive ones. I’m just saying that Hans Zimmer Live is one heck of a show, and a lot of that show involves thin, innumerable beams of technicolor light slicing through the air at rapid speed while massive screens above the stage flash everything from frenetically shifting abstract images to gently curling clouds of smoke. The musicians (and there are many) have clearly been instructed to rock out with confident abandon. Which they do. Because basically, Hans Zimmer Live is a rock show, except that they’re playing movie music. And the man who composed it all is there performing, too, wearing blue jeans, a white shirt, waistcoat, and tails (he abandons the jacket early on) while many of the musicians around him are clad in sparkling black leather. It’s loud, it’s high energy, it’s spectacular—it’s altogether a lot of fun.

But here’s the part I didn’t expect. It’s very string heavy. I knew cellist Tina Guo would be playing, as Strings recently ran an article about her long association with Zimmer, and she’s been touring with him. But strings effectively front the band throughout much of the show (with participation by woodwinds, guitar, piano, and voice). At almost any time, the audience will find three violins at the front of the stage (played with extravagant panache by Rusanda Panfili, Molly Rogers, and Leah Zeger) with Guo and Mariko Muranaka on cello. And that’s not to mention the other string players that float to the front now and then, in addition to the section of the backing orchestra they also occupy. So there’s plenty for the string player to enjoy if the music and sheer scale of the thing aren’t enough on their own. Which, really, they should be.

Zimmer—the Academy Award– and Grammy-winning composer of such film scores as Dune, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Lion King—addresses the audience throughout the show with the air of someone having an amiable chat in his own living room. He seems to be genuinely fond of—and very possibly in awe of—the musicians in his production. When guitarist Guthrie Govan plays a solo, Zimmer sits down right in front of him on a chair (backward) to take it in. Guo he describes as a “warrior goddess, tigress.”

She is obviously a fan favorite, as members of the crowd shout “I love you, Tina!” as she takes center stage during a quieter moment. And there are lessons to be learned about stage presence from Guo: with lights careening wildly around her upon a stage full of other showstopping performers, she seems to have no trouble commandeering one’s attention and holding it tight. In fact, each of the featured string players shares this quality. When a solo offers the opportunity to shine, every one of them finds a way to dazzle the crowd from the center of a swirling, glittering cosmos.

It’s an experience heightened by surprise, so I won’t tell you much more. Meditative moments yield to a splendid and percussive hurricane of music and light. It is the tenth anniversary of Hans Zimmer Live, and this ensemble celebrates in style.