Last night I had the pleasure of experiencing a night of geek culture at the Distant Worlds: The Music of Final Fantasy concert at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, IL. Of course, as a Final Fantasy fan, I had a blast, and the music was superbly performed by the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra.

One of the most exciting moments of the night came when the crowd was given a world premiere performance of two songs from the upcoming MMORPG i. Along with the music, fans were shown footage that had premiered at the Tokyo Game Show earlier this year. Fans of the series will be happy to know that longtime series composer Nobuo Uematsu (who was also at the show and performed during the concert’s finale) will compose all the music for the new game.

If you’re a fan of the game series and you also want to see the music preformed live, you will want to keep an eye on the Distant Worlds site for upcoming tour dates. The group will spend the first half of the year in Europe recording a new CD with the Stockholm Symphony, and will then return to North America to play dates across the country including a return date to Chicago, two nights in San Francisco, and a concert with the San Diego Symphony in time for Comic-Con 2010 in July.

If you’ve played the game series as much as I have, you will get a kick out of the concert. Plus, it’s a good excuse to get dressed up and expose yourself to some culture.