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Bit Brigade brings Nintendo rock to Santa Fe
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Bit Brigade transforms plonky 8-bit Nintendo music into a spectacle of squealing prog rock virtuosity. Although this may sound like a novelty act, the band’s prodigious talent has earned them critical acclaim for over 20 years.
On Wednesday, March 12, Bit Brigade will perform live rock arrangements of two full Nintendo Entertainment System/Super NES soundtracks — Super Mario World and F-Zero — at Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery in Santa Fe as part of their nationwide tour.
Lead guitarists Bryant Williamson and Taylor Washington, bassist Luke Fields and drummer Mike Albanese play the soundtracks live, while their gamer, Noah McCarthy, speed runs the games live on stage.
Although McCarthy’s contribution is silent, he’s considered a full-fledged member of the group, as essential as the other four, according to Williamson.
“Our performance is fully synched to Noah’s playthrough,” Williamson said. “We play all boss music, victory jingles, intros, credits, etcetera, in time with his gameplay.”
Far more than an animated wallpaper, McCarthy’s performance sets the tempo and cues for the rest of the band.
“If he dies, well, we stop playing and play the death jingle,” Williamson said. “If he beats a stage superfast, well, time for the victory tune.”
McCarthy has been performing with Bit Brigade since its inception.
“We all rehearse together,” McCarthy said. “They need to see my gameplay just as much as I need to hear their playing to practice our timing.”
And the timing takes a lot of practice. As a trained speedrunner, McCarthy plays Nintendo games at a pace most casual players can scarcely imagine, and Bit Brigade has to keep up. When he speeds up or slows down, so do the others, making for incredibly complex time signatures and tempo changes. Compared to classic math rock bands like Rush, Bit Brigade is advanced calculus.
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“Some of the most intense parts of our shows have come from RNG — randomness, essentially. In games like F-Zero, where I have to react to lapped vehicles that populate the tracks,” McCarthy said. “That can lead to some pretty wild unscripted events that are really fun but also a very big challenge.”
Lead guitarist Williamson’s favorite tune they perform is “Fortress” from the Super Mario World soundtrack.
“With how Noah’s run is put together, we basically tease the song — play half of it — at the first fortress, then play the entirety of the song on Larry’s Fortress,” Williamson said. “It’s a very long composition with a very intense arpeggio section, plus very effective chord changes. An incredible song.”
While there are many electronic music groups who play video game-inspired music, Bit Brigade is one of the few groups to cover Nintendo songs with live instruments, which creates a completely different energy and intensity.
“A lot of video game-based electronic music has much of the music preprogrammed. Not that we don’t enjoy those types of performances, because many of those artists have impressive compositions,” Williamson said. “But we’re onstage with real instruments giving a real in-time performance. No backing tracks or preprogrammed music.”
When Bit Brigade formed 20 years ago, NES soundtracks already evoked a sense of nostalgia, which has only grown stronger in the intervening years.
On the other hand, Williamson said some of the band’s younger fans only know the games because of their covers.
“The truth is that these soundtracks still completely hold-up, though. Just incredible compositions,” he said. “So, if anything, I’d say we’re helping expand the awareness to newer generations.”
