Pyro Spectaculars made a bold move designing an entire show based on heavy metal music for its fourth appearance in Montréal (third time competing). This highly aerial performance featured great pyrotechnics and must have delighted the audience scattered among the various viewing points on the island of Montréal and the South Shore. From La Ronde, where I was present for the 250th time to watch an official display of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition, the perspective was different. This GOOD show seemed to have been designed without considering, to a certain extent, several of the competition's evaluation criteria.
The pyromusical design was a success on
Rainbow in the Dark, perhaps the best
tableau of the show, with the colors of the rainbow displayed in a wide range of products. While the musical rhythm was generally intense, it became serene with the third song,
Planet Caravan, which paired well with candles of crackles and shells of falling leaves above. However, these moments were not representative of the display. I felt less like I was watching a pyromusical show and more like I was watching fireworks accompanied by music. From the very first seconds, at the start of
Crazy Train, shells burst independently of the many elements of the soundtrack. The second part, set to
Iron Man, began with a sequence of small, crackling white clouds from left to right of the third ramp. This sequence would have best illustrate the «crazy train» of life from the opening segment. Why not use bell-shaped shells or some kind of proximity special effect to illustrate the bells when they rang out in
For Whom the Bell Tolls? As the tempo of the music slowed at the end of
Epic, why not highlight the horsetails shooting up into the sky instead of adding loud shells that ruined this quiet moment?
The lack of harmony between the soundtrack and the pyrotechnics was also obvious in the imprecise synchronization. Most
tableaux ended with the soundtrack gradually fading out. This should have been synchronized with products whose brightness decreased simultaneously. However, this was not the case. On numerous occasions, a final salvo of three or four shells was launched. Those ending with small clouds of falling leaves at the end of
Panama overlapped with the beginning of
Thunderstruck, as did the horsetails from
Epic, which overlapped with
Cult of Personality. At the beginning of other songs, the pyrotechnics were slow to start (there was a notable delay of about 12 seconds at the beginning of
Symphony of Destruction). The last pieces launched at the end of
Ace of Spades did not match the final notes. To close the finale, the ultimate volleys of whistles and shells occurred after the music had ended.
With a line-up of 19 songs, the design surely required careful selection of sound clips. My limited knowledge of the genre prevents me from fully appreciating it. However, with so many parts, I would have expected more varied transitions than fade-outs. Four of the songs were devoted exclusively to lasers, which were presented without integration with pyrotechnics this time. As with the Italian entrant's extravaganza, it would have been interesting to use some of these laser moments to guide the audience through the chosen theme. In this case, for example, they could have navigated through the subgenres or eras that have characterized heavy metal music.
In terms of technical design, it is paradoxical that Pyro Spectaculars did not use the fifth launch ramp. In 2001, the debut display of this competitor included, according to my notes from that time, fountains lit up from a rope stretched across part of the width of the lake, very close to the spectators. Paul's
report mentions «
fans of short duration gerbs, stretched out across the lake» in the 11th part (for the same
tableau, the late journalist Georges Lamon described on his former webpage a «quai sur l'eau crachant ses feux»). Paul also reported that «
a line of gold horizontal wheels close to the audience in the lake started to rotate and shoot up tourbillons» in the 15th part. This setup appears to be the precursor to the current fifth ramp! (The 5th ramp as we know it today was more clearly introduced by Atlas in 2003, but the idea to bring some pyrotechnics closer to the audience was there.) This year, without additional nautical products or small ground effects, such as fountains, gerbs, flares, or flames, the depth of the firing area was not emphasized. Several scenes featured candles, mines, and other products that lit up as soon as they began their ascent at a low altitude. However, it was essentially an aerial show in which two, three, or four specimens of a given type of shell burst before moving on to another type.
The American team seems to me to have been most successful in terms of the quality of the pyrotechnics. Although the patriotic blue-white-red trio was repeated, the colors were varied and very bright, especially in the rainbow-themed segment. In particular, the song «Caught Somewhere in Time» ended with several barrages of mines with three color changes. The shells varied in size and effect, including a few multi-break types. However, there was a lack of diversity: the electric comets, crossettes, and crackles, among others, were a bit repetitive.
My personal ranking so far:
1. PyroItaly (Italy)
2. Sugyp (Switzerland)
3. Great Sky Art (Japan)
4. Blue Star Pyrotechnics (Canada)
5. Pyro Spectaculars (United States)
It was a busy evening, with the largest attendance so far this summer. Traffic, including public transportation, was disrupted on Sainte-Hélène Island due to a concert by The Weeknd at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Environment Canada issued a warning about an hour before the show due to the risk of severe thunderstorms in the area. The death of Ozzy Osbourne, which occurred two days prior, was briefly acknowledged a few minutes after the Pyro Spectaculars crew was introduced and the U.S. national anthem was played. During this time, a larger proportion of the audience appeared to remain seated, though there were no audible boos where I was sitting. The lights on the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the Ferris wheel did not contribute to the countdown, probably due to the ongoing labor dispute between La Ronde and the stage technicians.
Fred
