Soundtracks have always been an integral part of the video game experience, and few are as iconic as multiplayer racer Mario Kart.
Anyone who has played the game will know the music in Mario Kart responds dynamically to in-game events; each track has its own theme, using certain items introduces different melodies and the tempo increases when the race leader hits the final lap.
What could be better than playing the game accompanied by a live eight-piece band that reacts similarly to the race, with the added bonus of a huge crowd cheering you on?
That is the experience on offer when the Barwon Club Hotel hosts Mario Kart Live this Saturday, September 14 at 8pm.
Melbourne jazz bassist and Mario Kart Live bandleader Jack Dobson said the idea came to him in the depths of COVID-19 lockdowns.
“I saw a copy of Mario Kart Wii for like eight bucks on eBay, and I was like, I’ve got to get this and relive my eight-year-old days,” he said.
“So I played a lot of it – a lot – in the lockdowns, and around that time a band called the 8-Bit Big Band was playing big band and orchestral arrangements of game music.
“So it was a combination of seeing them pop up in my feed, studying jazz and improvisation and playing a lot of the game that kind of naturally led me down the path to think, you what, we could do that live.”
The Mario Kart Live show, which began in 2022 and has since spawned imitators around the world, features a “mini big band” with a full rhythm section and four-piece horn section playing along to punters competing against each other.
Dobson verbally conducts the band while playing the bass parts, which he has memorised in their entirety so he can keep an eye on the action and direct the changes when someone uses an item or hits the final lap.
“You’ve got to focus a ton while you’re up there… you have to see what each player is doing in their quadrant of the screen, what place they’re in, if they use an item,” he said.”
“It’s stressful, but it’s really fun. It’s a pretty unique gig, I think, and worth the effort.
“People are pretty excited to get in the room when we’re playing the title theme… but the first time someone gets a star or crosses the finish line and we do the first reaction to the game they get pretty hyped.”
