never thought i’d get the chance to see two of my favorite movies live in concert in hollywood AND in the same year but here we areeee. DANIEL PEMBERTON WAS THERE??? SO WERE THE DIRECTORS????? AAAAND LORD AND MILLER—uh…..ANYWAY THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!! just like with the batman in concert, i got a t shirt! that’s cool. i think i’m gonna start collecting them like infinity stones. maybe i’ll talk about the orchestra itself first? sorry, the ALL-WOMEN, MAJORITY POC ORCHESTRA?? LIKE??? THEY INVENTED FEMINISM??? THE DRUMMER WHO ABSOLUTELY WENT OFF DURING THE END CREDITS??? THE CONDUCTOR WHO WOULD STEP OFF THE PODIUM FOR A MOMENT TO PLAY THE PIANO SOLOS DURING MJ SCENES??? absolutely incredible. hearing those piano solos live was a sight to behold because “for the love of mj” and “mj in the restaurant” quickly became two of my favorite tracks from the score in recent months, and i actually taught myself a part of one of them completely by ear a day earlier! mr. pemberton please drop the sheet music, i beg.

i just can’t get over the fact that daniel FREAKING pemberton was there. i’ve fallen in love with his work because of the score for across the spider-verse this year so when they announced him on stage, i had a full-body reaction and almost jumped out of my seat. he actually was on stage during the entire movie which was awesome, either playing piano accompaniments, or even pen clicking during kingpin’s flashback and keyboard clacking when peter b. was “hacking” into doc ock’s computer. he also encouraged people to cheer whenever they pleased, like if a favorite character of theirs showed up, which led to people going W I L D when spider-gwen and the rest of the gang showed up. everyone was either dying laughing, whooing, clapping, or all three every couple of minutes. it was glorious. there were two different times when some people in the audience yelled something like “i love youuuuu” or “i love and appreciate youuu” and it was so sweet. i was absolutely engrossed alongside everyone else, as well as mouthing half the dialogue and mimicking some of the hand gestures. contrast all of that with the guy sitting next to me who i don’t think he clapped a single damn time. his funeral lol. also the way the stage was lit was SO cool. the lighting matched the color palette of whatever scene that was playing, such as when the collider was turned on or when the spider-people were glitching. even the super bright headlight of prowler’s motorbike during the scene when miles discovers his true identity was awesome. and the CLIMAXXXX AHHHHHH.

just…so, SO many memorable moments of everyone being so invested. the bagel effect. what’s up danger. daniel’s name showing up in the end credits. people laughing at the mere size of kingpin. everyone giving a standing ovation at the end…and a single person whooing just before news breaks that the spider-man from miles’s dimension died?? the list goes on. there were laughs and cheers here and there for the batman concert and it was great, and it may have been quieter because of the darker tone and that we didn’t get that encouragement to be rowdy, but spider-verse truly felt like a celebration of animation and cinema. the fact that we cheer and holler for miles morales, a middle schooler, a 3-d computer model, a fictional character, as if he’s the star athlete of an irl world championship game is immensely powerful.

this is what cinema’s all about.

and thank you greg for coming with me <3