From his seat in the Calgary Flames organ loft, Warren Tse has a panoramic view of the Scotiabank Saddledome, and of the followers beneath.
He screens the vibe of the crowd as the gamers skate, and when the whistle blares, he will get to work.
Fingers smacking the keyboard in entrance of him, an organ model of Bad Medicine by Bon Jovi rings out over the enviornment’s audio system. Seamlessly, Tse transitions to a refrain of Let’s Go Flames earlier than the play begins once more.
“One of my favorite issues to do is to slide a bit one thing into the organ program, if you’ll, simply to see who’s paying consideration,” he says.
“Friends who have been large hockey followers would let me know if folks caught the newest Cardi B track that I dropped or possibly the newest meme that was blowing up.”
Tse is the new organist for the Calgary Flames. He’s a few month into his new gig, and as each a musician and a Flames fan, he is fairly pumped.
But alongside together with his adrenaline comes some bittersweet reminders of what led him to this function.
Behind his keyboard, a big sign identifies the sales space as ‘The Joos Box.’
To his left hangs a framed ‘Joosen’ jersey with a plaque slightly below. It reads: “Willy Joosen, March 23, 1956 – July 1, 2022. The recollection of his smiling face and his stunning music will reside eternally in the C of Red.”
Joosen began as the Flames’ organist in the 1988-89 season — the first and solely 12 months the Flames took dwelling a Stanley Cup — spending the subsequent 34 years riling up audiences at the workforce’s dwelling video games.
He died in July at the age of 66. Tse, his protege, stepped as much as fill the function.
“It’s tremendous thrilling in fact, nevertheless it’s additionally a bit sophisticated,” he mentioned in an interview with The Homestretch earlier this month.
“Willy was my pal for one thing like 20 years, and he was the grasp. I used to be the apprentice.”
‘It’s a practice’
Tse first met Joosen at a Calgary Stampede occasion.
As “two nerdy guys on the keyboards,” they grew to become quick mates, Tse defined. In their spare time, they’d attempt to musically one-up one another taking part in online game theme songs, whether or not or not it’s Ms. Pac-Man or Super Mario Bros.
Soon sufficient, Joosen requested if Tse had any curiosity in filling in at Flames video games.
“I mentioned I’ve by no means performed something like that in my life, however OK.”
For about 15 years, Tse labored as Joosen’s understudy, spending most of his time taking part in at Calgary Hitmen video games.
After dropping Joosen in July, the workforce launched their seek for a new organist, somebody who might keep it up his legacy and excessive stage of musicianship.
Manager of recreation presentation with Calgary Sports and Entertainment Steve Edgar says it grew to become clear that particular person was Tse.
“He’s a really passionate particular person about the job, and he is bringing new concepts to the desk of the way we will incorporate that instrument and that place into our run of present, and that is actually thrilling for us,” he mentioned.
Edgar says organ music is a staple at a hockey recreation, and the group plans to maintain the place working for “a really very long time.”
“With a reside performer, we’re far more adaptable,” he mentioned. “We imagine it is a custom that also is efficacious, and there’s a number of nostalgia.”
‘Uniquely Warren’
Tse is now just a few video games into his new function, and he says there’s nothing prefer it.
He performs into these nostalgic emotions, main raucous choruses of the basic cheers and chants.
“These followers are like a residing respiration instrument that I’m taking part in with,” he mentioned at a latest recreation. “The complete job is to see how a lot vitality you could get out of the crowd.”
Between whistles, he is on his cellphone taking requests from the viewers.
It’s a part of a new program the group is working. At the begin of each recreation, a graphic on the big video board invitations followers to Tweet their track decisions to @FlamesOrganist.
He is aware of quite a lot of them by coronary heart, but when he is unfamiliar, he simply pops in his earbuds.
“I’d simply hearken to it and sort of work it out at the identical time that I’m listening to it, get the chords and all the things and deploy it in the subsequent interval,” he mentioned.
“Nothing’s past the pale for me.”
Choosing which songs, and when to play them, is a difficult process. Tse says he is continually gauging followers’ feelings, anticipating what piece of music will elicit the finest response.
“Nothing lights up a crowd like pucks in the internet, however you need to do your finest,” he mentioned.
Tse says he believes the proper track — and the corresponding viewers response — can strengthen the Flames’ dwelling workforce benefit.
It’s one thing Joosen believed too. And Tse is proud to proceed in his footsteps.
“Willy was a certainly one of a sort expertise. He was a mad genius on the keyboard, and no one will ever be capable of substitute him,” Tse mentioned.
“If I attempt to play precisely like Willy, I’ll fail. And that is what’ll make the music that I play uniquely Warren.”