Post your reviews of the American display here!

I just got back from the Jacques-Cartier bridge, where I attended the most beautiful display so far this season! Fortunately, we got just a few raindrops....we could almost count them, so it was a very enjoyable evening. Before the show, I was afraid that there would be smoke build up because of the humidity, but gladly, the smoke was washed away by the wind, leaving us with a very clear display Elvis Presley was in the spotlight musically.......and the display was great! It was full of energy, colors, originality and very well synchronized. One segment that really stood out, was when they played "All shook up"......the fast expanding shells in the lower part were really well in synch with the music I also loved the fireworks in shape of dices during the song "Viva Las Vegas"....how appropriate. During the display, I thought that we would "really get it" during the finale....so my expectations were a bit high, I must admit. Well, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of intensity and length of the finale! Way too short and not enough action either! That's not how you end a beautiful display like the one we witnessed this evening. Nonetheless, I was really impressed with tonight's show and even though England's finale was much better, I must put the USA first in my personal ranking.

I hope you all had a wonderful time watching this display.....Travis, Fred, Enkil, Paul, etc......I am sure you did!

1. USA
2. England
3. Spain
4. China
5. Mexico

Pierre

Good evening,

Well, this was by far the most exciting performance we've seen this season so far; most of the time my jaw was left hanging by its strong activity. I honestly haven't felt so excited for a long time.

The show itself was very nicely designed and the tribute to Elvis Presley and the corresponding music choice made the show as robust as it was. The design of the show was very nicely done and the quality of the products used was fantastic and quite diverse. I was quite impressed with many of the effects, particularly the perfectly sequenced candles and the low level dancing red flares.

I personally enjoyed the American show, but I found that a lot of it was simply too abrupt, especially in firing between music where segments started off nearly instantaneously one after another. Synchronization was fairly well done, though there were one or two parts where I noticed that music kept going and the fireworks halted, and there were plenty of, again, nicely sequenced pieces. The show was also quite balanced from top to bottom and left to right, but there was a lot of repetition with many of the effects, particularly those very loud cracklers seen after bursting from those ball stars of red and green. I enjoyed the shell of shells, multi-breakers, variation of salutes (or all 3 combined), three-dimensional cubes (dice in this case) and those gorgeous girandolas of silver and gold. There were a lot of patriotic colors, but these began to be a little redundant at some point, not to mention firing scheme in some parts.

The finale was surprisingly weak and I thought it was the faux finale! It started off grand, but it ended too fast and there was a lack of increasing pace towards the climax. In fact, there were moments during the display that were more intense than the ending itself! I thought the Ferris wheel didn't even turn on because it was covered by dense smoke from my viewpoint, but it was really over, sadly enough.

In any case, I thought the show was pretty well devised, but it lacked originality and was a little too repetitive in some pieces. The theme was nicely chosen and the effects that were seen were equally in strong connection with it. However, I did find the display creative in some sense with respect to each segment, in which case, each segment was creative according to the essence of each soundtrack used.

I'll have more details later on today, but thankfully all that smoke drifted off (some parts were often blocked to the left hand side, though) and the rains backed off during the fireworks period (a little bit of drizzle seen, however). Though it was clearly humid, we had just enough wind coming from the Southwest to move any accumulations of smoke away. However, not long after 10:30, rain came down heavy on the way back to the West Island. We are quite fortunate this year.

And yes, Pierre, I had a great time this evening. I'm certainly glad you did as well, my friend.

Trav.

This was an excellent display from Pyro Spectaculars by Souza. It reminded me of many other great American displays I've seen in the past. I liked it; I liked it very much! It's definitely the best one I've seen so far, aside a "small, but big" problem.

The thing I liked about this one was that the entire display was quite intense and loud as hell! The crowd around me were very impressed and enjoyed it just as much as I did. There were so many great effects. Each segment were well done, and you can see that the Americans used all their imagination and resources to present us such a nice and exciting show.

My minior criticism is the music which consisted of Elvis songs. I'll be honest and tell you that I find Elvis' music very annoying, but listenable. However, this didn't stop me from enjoying the show. I know that many people around me were delighted by the songs. The synchronization was almost perfect.

There is one effect that I really enjoyed. It's like a candle that explodes and spreads stars at a low level. That effect gave a real nice impression to the display. We usually see some defective shells explode before heading to the sky, but these ones hardly made any noise. They were really kewl.

Another criticism is about the so called "rainbow." How many times have we seen this? Three times already? To be honest, the first time I saw it from an Italian display, I thought it was nice, but I personally don't like this effect anymore. Why is it so popular? And it didn't fit well with such a great show.

So again, this is the type of show that I truly like, despite the fact that it felt a bit anti-climatic because of the weather. Thank God the rain didn't screwed it up. But I would have loved to watch this show on a very hot evening. It would've been the perfect evening!

Finally, the biggest problem I see is the finale! I was actually wondering whether or not the Americans would treat us with a great finale after witnessing an intense and exciting display. I thought they would, but it turns out that I was wrong. The actual finale we saw should've been used for a faux finale. It's not suited for a real finale. I really liked all the salutes, but overall, the finale wasn't intense and won't get praises from me. Give us a REAL finale. Period.

Nevertheless, I place this display at the #1 spot. It came with power and left us amazed.

My Rankings - Rated from Notre Dame street

1. USA
2. England
3. China
4. Spain
5. Mexico

Yes Sir! The US of A offered up a superb show for those not scared off by the threat of rain tonight - it's incredible what luck we've had this summer with weather at 10 pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

As for the show, I will agree with Salutes Lover in saying that so far this summer it was the most beautiful presentation I've seen. In other words, it oozed with a "wow factor." The fireworks themselves could stand alone - without the soundtrack - and leave Montrealers gleaming with joy. It was colorful, loud, fun, very well synchronized and close to moving at times ("My Way" and "Kentucky Rain" come to mind). All in all, it was certainly a captivating display.

With that being said, as mentioned above, the finale left most attendees wanting more - some legitimate closure to a truly spectacular display. The finale wasn't on par with what we've come to expect, and have seen, from most of this year's competitors. Also, if you permit the expression, the finale wasn't "Elvis." I can picture Elvis Presley closing a show, strumming away on a guitar - around and around and around... when will it end? But the finale in honour of The King didn't do him justice.

Now the hard part, which I was debating in my head on my way back to the West Island: how to rank the United States? I'm not sure that there will be any consensus among those who visit this forum, but I thought that among the two countries in contention for first place through five displays (England and the States), that England put on a much more ambitious display. Hear me out. The United States really didn't do much more than synchronize many elegant fireworks to one man's toe-tappin' music and throw in a hefty dose of patriotism for good measure. England however, they told a story - I felt as though I was being taken through time during England's display. Considering England also offered great synchronization, an enjoyable soundtrack and at least 3 portions of "segment finales" or "faux-fianles" which blew the USA's finale out of the amusement park, I'm giving the edge to England over the States.

I should mention - I would not be displeased at all if in the end the USA does finish ahead of England. A bravo to both firms. You've gotta love this city!

T Rae's rankings thus far:

1. England
2. United States
3. Spain
4. China/Hong Kong
5. Mexico

Country participant: United States
Company: Pyro Spectaculars by Souza
Date of presentation: July 14th, 2007

Moderate rains and embedded thunderstorms associated with a pesky slow moving low pressure system coming from the Southwest were the backdrop for the latter part of the day and throughout the night. However, once again, our seemingly weather proof barrier at 10-10:30 p.m was most prevalent, leaving us with dense humidity, occasional light drizzle and a fair amount of wind that moved the smoke from the South towards the North and somewhat East. Though there were some smoke accumulations from my viewpoint looking towards the area near the Ferris wheel, everything could still very well be visible from low to high level. Making an appearance after 6 years, this firm was set to show us a promising powerful and fortifying performance dedicated to an American Idol: Elvis Presley.

Once about 4 seconds of the countdown were left, the show started off with graceful candles, powerful shells consisting of patriotic colors, bright scintillating mines in conjunction with some of the loudest crackling star (I think these were titanium salutes) and salute combinations I have heard in a long time. Not being discontinuous, this pattern and sequence of volleys of salutes and massive shells of crackling stars at mid level to somewhat high level remained constant for a good while longer leaving everyone, including yours truly, with their mouths left hanging and cheers of strong delight after a good first impression of a robust and exciting display. Not long after this, repeated sequences of the shell of shells were introduced to the chaos, while other shells of multi-breakers were also quickly integrated to enhance the effects. Following this throughout the display, we were treated with many other wonderful effects! These included farfalle shells of double rings with either purple or green stars, Saturn shapes, shells of hearts, smileys, shells of serpents/screaming serpents, shells of swirls, crackling pistils (a lot of this at one point), lasting kamuros, weeping willows, bright white shells (looking like a fan as they drooped), rapidly spreading scattered shots of red and green stars at mid level that became quite ubiquitous upon spreading (this was really cool), shells of cube shapes of green stars, and then my personal favorites, the silver and gold double-ascension girandolas.

Low level effects included beautiful sequenced candles near ground level (this reminded me of 2003), gorgeous illuminating red flares that danced from the left to right (also indirectly made a nice distinctive blood-red effect on the dense smoke seen), mines of a variety of colored stars that sometimes made its way near mid level, mines of screaming serpents and salutes, dazzling fountains of gold glitters, and of course the rainbow effect.

Synchronization was excellent all the way through, safe for a spot where music kept going and nothing was happening for roughly 5 seconds in the conclusion of that particular segment. Much of the effects were wonderful with the music itself and seemed to me that they were carefully chosen for each piece respectively. Again, the lower effects were definitely something to behold with the synchronization criterion; mines and candles, for example, were often nicely demonstrated and flawlessly on cue under every respect. Turning focus to the choice of music, as expected, it was practically a careful selection of some of Elvis Presley's greatest hits. My personal favorites were all present, including "Viva Las Vegas", "Don't Be Cruel", "All shook up", "Hound Dog", Jailhouse Rock", and especially "Suspicious". The music was very well connected to the show the entire time, besides the concluding segment, and I really enjoyed most of the fast paced music since it made things so exciting and nearly having non-stop activity (almost like Australia 2000).

The design was simply wonderful and the way this show revolved around the principles of the thematic framework really made this display as successful as it was. The quality of the products themselves was excellent. I think I managed to point out a lot of Spanish and Italian shells, which always is a great pleaser! The display was actually very well balanced from low to high level and from the left to the right accordingly; very symmetrical for most of the time. I also noted that many of the high level shells made their way to the highest altitude compared to the other displays (most notable with the weeping willows). The rainbow made a nice appearance, but it didn't stand out to me like it should have. However, it was a great addition to this sort of display along with the soundtrack it was involved in.

The colors were in adequate variety and a lot of the patriotic blue, white and especially red were usually apparent. Personally, this show had some of the best color transitions I've seen so far this season, but it would have been nice if there was a little more of it to replace the excessive use of the patriotic colors. However, the use of these colors, to me at least, really enforced the theme among other things.

I'm more than certain that everyone can acquiesce with their high level of expectations for a possible grand finale. The finale was disappointing, especially compared with the power and vehemence witnessed throughout pretty much the entire display. Truly, as others mentioned already, I and others around me literally got the same impression; a feeling I can sympathize with greatly. I did stick around for something else to happen in hopes that it was indeed the faux finale, but I could then see the lights turned on with the Ferris wheel through the dense smoke to the left of my viewpoint. The finale had a lot of shells of the once again patriotic American colors, bursts of multi-breakers and many double ringed farfalle shells of purple stars, too, but then the pace slowed some to a level that seemed as if this was a formal faux finale. The show then reached its climatic point with a great deal of salutes supported by two high level shells way at the top. A surprising way to finish off such an exciting overall performance!

Trav's personal rankings:

-Synchronization: 9.6/10-The sequencing was apparent and the music and fireworks were often in very strong and unique connection. A couple of points were a little off between music and fireworks while at one point, nothing was happening for nearly 5 seconds at one segment in its concluding component.
-Colors: 9/10-Some nice color choices and some of the best contrasts I've seen this season. However, the reds and blues became a little too common for my tastes. Thankfully, these were interspersed by other colors most of the time.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 8.8/10-The show wasn't totally original, but I found the concept very interesting, especially the complexity of the combinations of effects used in response to each soundtrack. The design of the show was interestingly developed, while there was a good diversity of effects to support that. The quality of the products used were very good. Perhaps a little more transition distinction in pace would have been appreciated.
-Choice of music: 9.2/10-A very good selection of some favorites from Elvis, which I enjoyed very much. Of course, the music was suitable for the theme, but because most of it was relatively fast paced, it sort of left out some room for effective transitions. However, there were some good pieces in between, particularly with the girandolas and fountains representing the more tranquil moments.
-Finale/Overall appreciation: 8.7/10-Though the ending was less than expected, the show still had a nice conclusion followed by loud roars of approval from the audience. This show was so truly exciting and complex that it deserves recognition.
-Overall: 9.1/10

^^^
Again, I'll probably have to adjust scores later on to accurately compare the participants, but this should still serve as an idea of where I stand with each display in terms of rank. *These are also my personal rankings based on my viewpoints via De Lorimier and Notre-Dame streets.

This was a tremendously enjoyable and well choreographed performance from the American team and they really knew how to excite the audience. A great benefit of this performance was the actual fluidity of the fireworks throughout each segment; each segment was usually very well connected to the music, rhythm and pace, but more importantly, they took advantage of the several factors that made up the music altogether, typically with the key fundamental elements of each soundtrack. For example, besides the synchronization aspect, in the soundtrack of "Viva Las Vegas", many shells of cubes often made an appearance to represent dice, which I thought was quite captivating. Another example was the use of the rainbow effect and the associated wavelength colors of the visible portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum during the song, "Kentucky Rain". The show was well sequenced and personally, some of the most enjoyable effects in terms of sequencing made most of their appearance at low level, particularly with the mines and candles and espcially flares in combination. Indirectly related, as Paul also mentioned, I also noticed that the moist and humid airmass served to enrich many of the selected colors, but most predominantly with the crimson red flares at ground level.

Besides a couple of minor defective shells exploding at low level, my criticisms relate to a variety of things. First and foremost was no doubt the finale. As pointed out already amongst many of you, I just simply found it much less than what was initially expected, especially considering that this was a theme dedicated to a tribute to Elvis Presley. Funny enough, there were a few points in the show that were already a little more powerful than the ending itself.

Outside the finale, I found that the fireworks started too abruptly after each segment one after another most of the time, which didn't leave much room for breaking (not to say that I didn't enjoy that ). Though the colors often times had some of the best mixtures and contrasts seen, I found there was simply too much use of the blues and particularly reds. The firing scheme and use of effects were at times a little redundant as well, especially with those stars that transitioned into those loud titanium salutes. I also equally found that there wasn't too much in the way of dramatic transitions in between pieces compared to other performances we've already seen, though this is perhaps due to the fact that most of the display was generally fast paced anyway. Finally, I thought the show wasn't totally original when compared to what a performance like England had to offer. In addition, the rainbow effect, or at least the idea, was already commonly seen in recent years. Of course, this performance was really well built around a good, respectful and entertaining theme, but England, for example, was just more organized in the sense that they gave us the apocryphal feeling of a journey though time within the confines of a solar day, which was very inspiring.

All that said, this was a powerful, exciting and truly magnificent display from the American team. Most of my criticisms are relatively minor considering that I enjoyed this performance so much because of all the excitement throughout, regardless of the repetition that I noted above. To date, I still regard England as #1 in my mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S ends up there as well, in which case, I still won't be disappointed since I very much enjoyed both displays. Thank goodness the weather did not ruin any of these wonderful shows, considering both conditions involved!

Next up is Canada.

Trav.

Comme la plupart des spectateurs, j'ai beaucoup apprécié la performance de Pyro Spectaculars by Souza, mieux réussie à mon avis que celle (tout de même excellente) réalisée en 2001. Le concept du spectacle d'Elvis Presley était excellent, la synchronisation était parfaite et quelques bonnes idées ont eu beaucoup d'effets sur l'auditoire, par exemple les cubes évoquant des dés sur la musique de Viva Las Vegas. Comme en témoigne le rapport écrit par Paul à l'époque, de tels cubes étaient apparus dans le feu de Sunny en 2004 (tableau 4). Les immenses go-getters en basse altitude, appelés "scramblers" par Souza, étaient également impressionnants et bien synchronisés, mais un petit peu redondants.

Je suis d'accord pour dire que l'arc-en-ciel commence à être réchauffée. Une séquence identitique avait été présentée par Parente Fireworks en 2005 et Flash Barandov en 2005. Quelques connexions étaient également erronées: un "smiley face" a éclaté sur la musique de "My Way", alors que des chandelles de comètes électriques roses sont entrées en action du côté gauche de la rampe 3 pendant le dernier tableau, alors qu'on assistait à une envolée de soucoupes à double ascension. En outre, la qualité du son laissait par moment à désirer: les basses étaient très fortes, ce qui rendait l'audition de la musique par moment désagréable.

Cet excellent spectacle sera possiblement récompensé par un prix Jupiter. D'autres prétendants se manifesteront dans les 10 prochains jours et ils s'ajouteront à une course qui, en ce moment, se fait probablement entre l'Angleterre et les États-Unis.

Mon rapport sur ce feu et quelques images sont maintenant en ligne sur http://www.pyroplanet.com .

Fred

When I first heard the USA theme was elvis, I was kinda dissapointed. I felt like all of the music from the same artist, would be boring.

When the show first started like 4 seconds early, I was like, "oh no", I hope this doesn't mess everything up...

But as soon as I heard the zarathustra, I knew it was going to be cool. I think it started off awesome, and continued to be awesome the whole way through.

The colors were amazing. I particularly liked the two different color blues, on blue suede shoes. There was both the typical blue, and a lighter, almost cornflower blue that I never really saw before. The rainbow fountain, or whatever you call it, was really cool, but I know I saw that before.

The variety was amazing. Lots of unique and interesting shells. I'm normally not big into "gimmick" shells, like hearts and happy faces. I always think they are kinda cheesy. But I thought the dice, during viva las vegas amazingly cool. It was funny, the first time those shells exploded, you just heard the crowd react. It was almost like you heard everyone smiling.

I thought the display also conveyed opulence at parts, which definitely reminded me of elvis. It sort of had both sides of elvis. The younger spunkier elvis, and the older, more opulent elvis.

The music also, was great. I don't know why I originally thought an almost full elvis soundtrack would be a bad idea, but it was really good.

Some criticisms of the show. As I mentioned, it started a few second early, which was kinda weird. A few of the shells looked like they lit at the wrong time. I remember one time in particular, a smiley face shell lit, and it seemed way out of place. So, either the wrong one was lit, or the wrong shell was loaded, or it just didn't fit to me.

There were alot of ground effect, which I love, but some of them seemed to be mis-timed. especially during the middle part of the program. It's tough to determine sometimes which beat they meant to have it start, but it felt off quite a few times.

But other than that, this program WOW'd me. I kept turning to my brother and saying "holy crap!" It was awesome. I loved it, and it was totally worth the trip up. Can't wait until next year.

As I mentioned, it started a few second early, which was kinda weird.

Several people in this forum talked about this early start. The show didn't begin before the end of the countdown. Nautical flares were launched from the third ramp to the lake 3 or 4 seconds before, in order to lit up right on time. The same thing happen, sometime, when shells are fired from mortars a couple of seconds before the end of the countdown, to burst in the sky at "zero".

Fred

TRae,

I noticed that your order of rankings is probably identical to my own. Similarly, when I was heading back to the West Island, I was also very well debating on where to place the U.S, but as stated in my report, I still have England in first place so far. Of course, if the next 3 displays are also well presented, it will be even harder to judge everything by the end of the competition.

Fred,

Thank you, as always, for clarifying things. I really thought that the show started well before the countdown was over! Of course, I still love to hear that launching noise right at 0 seconds since it feels more grand.

Trav.

Hi Trav,

So much for debunking the myth that us West Islanders don't all think alike!

And you are right - if the next 3 are well presented, everyone will have a tough time with their final rankings. Here's to hoping for an excruciatingly difficult next couple of weeks!

Hi TRae,

I'm indeed hoping for a strong performance from our already last 3 performers. However, it's a possibility that one, or all of them can be stronger than the U.S or England. That said, the stronger these remaining participants are, the more interesting and challenging it is for us!

I was actually thinking the same thing: West Islanders rooting for England! I live in Dollard-Des-Ormeaux, near Kirkland, by the way.

Trav.

A note abbout the finale. I've been a fan of of Pyrospectaculars by Soza displays myself. Anyways I've had the opportunity to go to a few of their displays here in California this year and watched other displays put on by them around the country via youtube videos and have noticed this years Finales were quit disappointing. The only exception this would be the displays designed by Eric Tucker(ex: Boston Pops Spectacular).

On most of the displays they used a technique of using small finale chains in spurts separated usually in 1-3 sec intervals ending with one large shell exploding at the end. As many here have mentioned it seems like a faux finale.

In years past I can remember them doing massively intense finales that made your jaw just drop and left you with ringing ears. I'm wondering what made them change tactics. My feeling is that either they are trying to come up with something unique to end a fireworks show by live experimentation(something they should not being doing at big displays) or its because of safety/possible equipment loss concerns. With all those shells exploding at once theirs a potential for things to go a rye. After all this is a company that places safety as its top priority and helped set many state/fed safety regulations.

At any rate I really hope they will do something about the lackluster finales because the current offering is not cutting it.


*Side note* does anyone have a good decent quality video of their performance this year? I've only been able to find a montage and a few small clips on google/youtube so far

mrweirdo,

The finale by Pyro Spectaculars by Souza was very disappointing. It also possibly felt like the most surprising of all the competitors that presented so far since about 80% of the show was so active and intensified that everyone's natural first gut instinct directly pointed to an automatic grand finale as part of their high expectations.

I do recall their performance in 2001 and I rememeber their ending being a little bit better than what we saw this year. In hopes that they do in fact return to Montreal in the future, I equally hope that they bring back a strong elongated finale to go along with a hopeful raging overall show!

I must concur about finale intensity presently versus in the, say, 90s. In that decade, I remember endings that were out of this world, especially in terms of Panzera. In this decade, Spain (Igual) in 2001 had an extraordinary finale, as was Spain (Caballer) in 2004, not to mention Italy (IPON) in 2004. I could actually name some of the biggest finales from 1990 till now.

In any case, despite the finale, Pyro Spectaculars did an incredible job and they are certainly in contention for a prize so far. Personally, I very much enjoyed the show and I sincerely look forward to witnessing their prowess in the future.

As for the video clip, I'm not exactly sure where you can find any videos of the full performance (if any exist). I saw the ones on YouTube, but I'd also like to get another image of the full performance myself.

Trav.

I bring back this topic because I just realize that a nice video (with behind-the-scenes pictures, and the dramatic pre-fireworks music!) is available on the homepage of PyroSpectaculars website. I suppose that it is sincer a long time, but I just find it:

http://www.pyrospectaculars.com/

Fred