Bear McCreary & the Battlestar Galactica Orchestra Play LA

I was lucky enough to score a front row seat to the FREE Music of Battlestar Galactica concert tonight in downtown LA at the California Plaza on Grand Street. There’s lots of reasons why Battlestar Galactica has been called the “best show on television” and I’m now more convinced than ever that the music has played no small part in that fact. Composed and conducted by Bear McCreary, this concert wasn’t the normal stuffy affair you’d normally expect from an “orchestra”. There were no less than a half dozen percussionists and guitarists (each) switching out instruments at any given time (was that an electric sitar?). Flanking the guitarists on one side was Bear surrounded by keyboards and piano, his arms flailing directions when he wasn’t playing. On the other side was the most animated fiddle player ever. He was just into it. That’s what’s great about this band. Everyone, whether they were playing guitar, cello, woodwinds, or giant japanese drums, looks like they’re having a good time. It helps me to enjoy a show if a band looks like they’re enjoying themselves and would be cutting loose like this even if 500 or so people weren’t watching them at the time. Even Starbuck herself, Katee Sackhoff, hopped on stage for a moment to share the piano with Bear for the song her character played in the turning point episode “Someone To Watch Over Me“.

If you’re going to the San Diego Comic-Con, you haven’t missed your chance to see the Battlestar Galactica Orchestra just yet. The tickets just went on sale for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances (July 23, 24, 25) at the House of Blues in San Diego. Space is limited, so get your tickets now! More information about the shows is available on Bear’s Battlestar Blog.

By the way, in earlier posts to our Twitter, I mentioned that they weren’t permitting pictures to be taken, even though Bear had expressed a desire to get photos from fans on his blog (UPDATE: now his blog says no FLASH photography. Too bad the folks running the show didn’t make that distinction or I would have taken more pictures and probably would have held the camera in a way that would have yielded me better results). And sorry for not getting any of Katee, but she was on the other side of the stage. In fact, she appeared on stage with so little fanfare, that I wasn’t even sure it was her until after the show when I asked one of the band members. Oh well, next time.

Check out our photos on Flickr