Brampton: On Friday Aug 18, 2017, Brampton’s night shrouded skies came alive with the most stunning and vibrant laser show ever!
The evening started off with Stephanie Braganza, winner of the Toronto Independent Music Award for best live artist and several other awards. She and her band set the mood by singing her own compositions and famous covers like “Eye of The Tiger” and “Barracuda”.
After that warm up, Parvaaz, a rock band from India, staged their debut performance in Canada. Kashif, Fidel, Sachin and Khalid, the four members of the group, enraptured the audience with their soft, melodious and beautiful tunes sending the audience to sweet nirvana. Khalid’s vocals were exceptional and enhanced by his own handiwork on the guitar and the prowess of the other members on their instruments.
Following that captivating performance, Sumo Cyco, fronted by vocalist Skye Sweetnam, the best female fronted new punk metal band, took centre stage and blew away the crowd. Their performance was so high octane that it seemed like a flaming red Ferrari was running amuck in Brampton’s Garden Square. The crowd went crazy, screaming and banging their heads.
During the intervals from one band to the next, master of ceremonies, Randy Persaud kept engaging the crowd on various rock music topics asking them to cite their favourite bands, singers and a variety of other material.
Then came the ultimate moment as Vikas Kohli, producer and organizer of the whole show, came on stage to recognize his crew and give the people a taste of what was to follow!
And boy he wasn’t kidding! The Monster Rock Orchestra came on with a bang slamming into Journey’s “Don’t stop Believin’!”, running into the famous song “Superstition” and then ramming into Bon Jovi’s “Livin’on a Prayer!”. All this was fronted by a dynamic duo, backed by an incredible orchestra on strings, keyboards, guitars, drums, horns and you name it!
But wait, that wasn’t just it! There were piercing lasers to go with it all! A humongous number of dancing and colourful lasers, all synchronized with the awesome music, added to the wizardry! Yes, there were enough powerfully intense lasers to bring down the infamous Death Star!
More hit songs followed including Triumph’s “Lay it on the Line”, Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ‘69!” and Maroon 5’s “Moves like Jagger”, accompanied by amazing laser lights. A monster moment followed when the organizers threw huge beach balls into the crowd for them to play with. Both adults and children alike had a ball playing with them, all to the tunes of music and lights of lasers. A truly magical moment!
Then came the song that took it all away- Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild!”. That was it! The crowd went wild singing along, prompting one of the vocalists to extend the mike to the patrons to chorus “Born to be Wild!”.
Forget the flaming red Ferrari! It seemed that there was even a flaming Lamborghini and Corvette running through the square as this kaleidoscopic bukkake of multitudinous musical instruments, abundant lasers, loud rock music and resounding chorus splashed the heavens!
There were many more songs too numerous to name, with Guns ‘n’ Roses “November Rain” bringing the fabulously unprecedented evening to a close!
To use Kohli’s favourite phrase, it truly was a “facemelting” event!
Report by: Lachman Balani
