The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/11/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: JAKE DANIELS Adam Bellezza, 20, from Douglasville, holds a guitar in front a television at his home while his roommate Patrick Tilley, 20, also from Douglasville, plays Megaman II Thursday. [Click to enlarge]

Part live music, part video game performance, local cover group Contraband uniquely combines these two art forms into a single spectacle.

Consisting mostly of members of local band Cinemechanica, Contraband plays amped-up covers of video game soundtracks. A projector screen showing the old-school games being played to perfection - in real time - is what separates the band from other video game sound track cover bands, said band members.

Noah McCarthy, a 2006 graduate from Lawrenceville, plays the video games for the group.

"It's exciting that I'm actually playing Nintendo for a group of people," McCarthy said. "It's just exhilarating."

McCarthy said he practices the games for a few hours every day for about a month until he consistently is able to beat the entire game without dying.

"He is ridiculous," said guitarist Brion Kennedy, a senior German and music composition major from Marietta. "He beats Contra in 15 to 20 minutes without dying."

For many of the members, this is something they've wanted to do for a long time. McCarthy said he has played video games for his whole life.

"It's a sense of nostalgia, you know," said Kennedy. "I've wanted to do this since, like, sixth grade."

Kennedy and McCarthy both said they were amazed they had the opportunity to make money playing video games.

"It's exciting that I'm actually playing Nintendo for a group of people," said McCarthy. "It's just exhilarating."

However, despite the unique nature of its shows, the band's focus is still the music.

"It's a lot of fun for the band to learn these songs. They're really well-written," Kennedy said.

McCarthy said that the band chooses which games to play based on the quality of its sound track.

He said that games with very repetitive sound tracks don't work for the band because they can become boring for the audience.

"The music has to be really good," Kennedy said. "It's not like when you're at home, you can't just ignore a loud-ass rock band playing video game music."

Luke Fields, a former University student from Lawrenceville, was added as the band's bassist following Kennedy's move to guitar in late December.

He said that the adapted songs the band plays are a lot more than just beeps and clicks.

"It doesn't sound like it would be that hard as far as bass, but it's all programmed in a MIDI-like format," Fields said.

"It's all sequenced notes and they're all very fast, and they're all acrobatic, and it's not really meant to be played on a regular bass guitar."

The band also claims "Ninja Gaiden" and "Megaman 2" in its repertoire, and are continually learning new sound tracks.

"Every performance that we do, the music, and the game play for (McCarthy), increases pretty substantially," Kennedy said.

The band will perform "Megaman 2" tonight at the Georgia Theatre in another of its incarnations, Megaband.

"We have a new screen we've gotten in the last few months, and we have a brand new projector too," said Scott Orvold, who manages booking at the Georgia Theatre.

"It's going to look really good - it's close to high definition."

Fields also plays in We Versus the Shark, which will play tonight as well.

"We're a loud, fun band. Kind of weird, kind of wacky, kind of creepy," Fields said.

Local indie/powerpop band The Buddy System opens the show at 10 p.m.

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