TORONTO: For the first time, Yonge-Dundas Square, known as the centre of Canada’s universe, witnessed a laser light show by Vikas Kohli’s Monster Rock Orchestra (MRO)- the like of which has never been witnessed in the heart of Toronto!
As people danced to the tunes of one hit pop song after another hit rock song, there were “enough lasers to bring down the starship Enterprise”, as boom 97.3 (a very popular mainstream Canadian radio station) put it.
Opening up the show at around 7 pm was the Mississauga Pops Concert Band treating the public to Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and more, all done by a 50 piece orchestra conducted by Amy McLennan.
They were followed by the head banging rock group ‘Last Bullet’, who provided original material to a very appreciative crowd with frontman Bryan Fontez continuously sticking his tongue out à la Gene Simmons of the rock band KISS and the rest of the band showing off their wizardry on the guitars, bass and drums. The show finally rammed into the superlative Monster Rock Orchestra.
The MRO, who have in the past thrilled audiences in Mississauga to the bone, comprises a keyboards player, drummer, guitarists, two lead singers Mike Ferfolia and Leah Daniels and an orchestra consisting of strings and horns sections. The horns and strings are what add magnificent grandeur to the hit songs that are played live.
They started off with the theme song of the extremely popular 60s TV series ‘Star Trek’, paying tribute to Leonard Nimoy, who passed away earlier this year in February and who played the character Spock who made a huge cultural impact worldwide.
They then rocked the square with dynamite covers of hit songs after hit songs by Michael Jackson (Billie Jean), Carly Rae Jepsen (Call me maybe), Maroon 5 (Move like Jagger), Guns N Roses (November Rain, Welcome to the Jungle), Stevie Wonder (Superstition), Lorde, Bon Jovi and umpteen more well known artists. All the while, there was an unpatrolled and preeminent laser light show going on even as plumes of smoke engulfed the performers, totally wowing the revelers!
Says Mark Garner ,executive director of Business Improvement Area for downtown Yonge and one of the lead sponsors of MRO: “Yonge/ Dundas Square is the mecca of music and this amazing show by Monster Rock Orchestra, comprised of totally Canadian talent, kicks it up a notch!”
In the middle of the show, the band took a short break from performing and kicked huge beach balls into the crowd for them to ‘have a ball’, which they definitely did as they tossed them around from one person to the next having great fun and “bringing everybody at the show closer together” as Neetisha S., a reveler in the crowd remarked.
The MRO show lasted for about 1 ½ hours.
And needless to say, the MRO was treated to a standing ovation as the crowd shouted out for more and they came back with superb encore set blowing away the thousands in the square.
As producer Vikas Kohli said, “It was truly a face-melting experience!”
