Bohemian Rhapsody Night Show Spectacular

[coastered]

This week Hard Rock Park announched it's night time show.

Everybody allready know that it would be a fireworks show on the music of the famous song by Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody.

 

 

Cool facts:

• Can Be Seen on Scheduled Evenings

 

• Length of Show: 6 minutes

 

• Venue: 9 acre lagoon viewed 360 along the water’s edge

 

• Audience Capacity: 10,000

 

• Illuminated Gibson Guitar Icon: Specially programmed neon and strobes.

 

• Fireworks: 1000+ pieces of multicolored pyrotechnic product positioned on 3 center barges and 40 perimeter pylons

 

• LASER: An intense green 50 watt “YAG” Laser (Nd:YAG [neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet; Nd:Y3Al5O12] is a crystal that is used as a lasing medium for solid-state lasers.)

 

• Show Fountains: 11

10 Fountains reaching up to 60 feet in height

1 Featured Fountain reaching up to 80 feet in height surrounded by concentric 20 foot and 40 foot fountain rings

125 supporting fountains

 

 

And for everyone who can't wait to visit the park, a preview video of the show.

 

Source: http://hardrockparkblog.com/

[Team Thriller]

Hey, thats my favorite song...

 

--James

[Wes]

Does anyone else have this weird reaction to this park...like it's taking something sort of pure in its rebellious and completely un-family friendly and turning it into an easily digestible white washed product? Like the Nirvana quote that's up at the entrance ("Here we are now entertain us"), it's using a line out of context of the song, and out of the context of the band's depressing but important and powerful history.

[BeemerBoy]

^ You're just upset there's no Radiohead or Prince coaster yet.

 

Nah, I hear what you're saying. A small part of me agrees if I were to really give it some hard thought. Instead, I'm currently forcing myself to look at it from a purely "whimsical" or "toungue-in-cheek" viewpoint. Real music afficionados will understand what the music still means, and the GP will just take it whichever way they chose. Happens with everything else already anyway, I guess.

 

Another way to look at it is this. Anytime good classic rock can be showcased in an era of craptacular radio-friendly garbage, it's a good thing; whether you're being locked in for a "non-forceful" B&M ride, or jammin' to Freddy while watching a pre-packeged light show. Thinking of it that way makes me feel slightly better anyway.

[cfc]

^Sad to say, Wes, but rock music hasn't been "pure" for a helluva long time. The existence of the Hard Rock Cafe chain itself is but one symptom of that. And if any band just loves to be commercialized, it's Queen.

 

Today's rebellion is tomorrow's soap commercial.

[jackskellington101]

Does anyone else have this weird reaction to this park...like it's taking something sort of pure in its rebellious and completely un-family friendly and turning it into an easily digestible white washed product? Like the Nirvana quote that's up at the entrance ("Here we are now entertain us"), it's using a line out of context of the song, and out of the context of the band's depressing but important and powerful history.

 

I see Hard Rock Park as a weird sort of immortalizing rock. It's taking the already classic nature of these songs and translating into a new medium that it very rarely touches. The same argument could be put to Rock N' Roller Coaster. I hear all the time "Aerosmith and Disney don't seem to be the greatest fit for each other", but it happened to work. I see this as the same deal. If anything, using the quote will take people who don't know the history of the band and of the song to go out and find it and educate themselves.

 

Today's rebellion is tomorrow's soap commercial.

 

Or Cadillac commercial. Or musical after musical.

 

Another way to look at it is this. Anytime good classic rock can be showcased in an era of craptacular radio-friendly garbage, it's a good thing; whether you're being locked in for a "non-forceful" B&M ride, or jammin' to Freddy while watching a pre-packeged light show. Thinking of it that way makes me feel slightly better anyway.

 

That's my thinking too. I may be considered "young" for this music, but it's the music I've grown up listening to as well and music that's a million times better than most anything that comes out today. It's when the music had heart to it. But to refrain from waxing nostalgic, using mediums like advertising campaigns, musicals, theme parks, etc. causes the public to actually know the song in a time where it is getting harder to hear different music in a public forum and practically impossible to avoid it in a private. There was a significant boost of Zeppelin record sales when the Cadillac ad ran. It's the way of bringing these artists and this music back in a time where music has shifted from being the product of a group of people to being the service or advertisement for a group of people.

[cosmic hearse]

I enjoy fireworks, lasers and a fair share of Queen but this didn't mesh well at all for me.

 

Does anyone else have this weird reaction to this park...like it's taking something sort of pure in its rebellious and completely un-family friendly and turning it into an easily digestible white washed product? Like the Nirvana quote that's up at the entrance ("Here we are now entertain us"), it's using a line out of context of the song, and out of the context of the band's depressing but important and powerful history.

 

I completely agree! Especially with that Nirvana quote, it is so out of context.

 

^ You're just upset there's no Radiohead or Prince coaster yet.

 

.

Speaking of Prince he was just added to the saturday line up for Coachella! Portishead, Kraftwerk and Prince OH MY!

[Groteslurf]

The show is great and it's a beautiful song. Very nice synchronized. I expected more at the Wayne's World moment though.

[CoasterEricHP]

I completely agree Wes.. there's always been something that has struck me as being really "off" about the park. I think you hit the nail on the head.

 

Its taking a very Disney-like approach to Nirvana and who knows what else. Kind of like Wal Mart!

 

I'll feel better once they add the Marilyn Manson themed kiddie area.

 

I might make a lot of people hate me.. but does anyone feel like the park as a whole is kind of.. uninspired? I dont want to judge too harshly yet, and I think in a few more years the park is going to be amazing! But I think there's a lot of unfilled potential as of right now.

[larrygator]

^Sad to say, Wes, but rock music hasn't been "pure" for a helluva long time. The existence of the Hard Rock Cafe chain itself is but one symptom of that. And if any band just loves to be commercialized, it's Queen.

 

Queen is the Big Mike of the music world!

 

I hear what you are saying Wes, but agree with Chuck and Scott. I view Hard Rock Park sort of like the Hard Rock casino in that at the least I'll enjoy the music while I'm there.

[Gsus]

I was expecting a big bang at the beginning of the head rocking and was quickly disappointed when there wasn't one.

 

However most of the synchronization was very good and I loved the kite at the end.

[Meteornotes]

I've found "artistic integrity" goes right out the window when money is tossed around. And I don't really blame bands, since this is how they make their living. I am often amused by how songs are used, though, like when I heard "We're Not Gonna Take It" in a tampon commercial the other day.

 

I'm kind of "meh" about the whole Hard Rock Park concept, as it seems a bit cheesy to me, but I'll keep an open mind until I actually visit the place. Though seeing how I rarely go to US parks outside of Orlando, this could take years. Of course, if they added an attraction based on "The Final Countdown", I'd go immediately...

 

dt

[mcjaco]

^ I'm trying to come up with a concept on "Built This City." Or perhaps "Proud Mary."

[Ccron10]

I think either the park didn't use enough fireworks or they chose the wrong song to do a fireworks/laser/water show with it.

 

Hate to say it, but my neighborhood fireworks show did better than that.

 

Don't get me wrong, Queen plays good music and that is a great song, but it just doesn't seem like the right song to use.

[TheRapidsNerd]

I like the park because it's different. Hearing a Rock N Roll park described in wordy, redundant, corporate speak by execs in khakis and monogrammed polos, made my skin crawl.

 

Maybe this is supposed to be a charcature of the musical movement, or a new means for bands to connect with future generations, but it just feels counter to the "buck the establishment" sentiment of Rock music.

 

It feels kinda funny, but not like when we used to climb the rope in gym class.

[TheDumbFairy]

I think it sounds like fun. I mean, especially because its not right next door, its not like the novelty will wear off right away.

 

Too many parks for me to be all to skeptical of one

[Wes]

To be fair, I also have the same homogenizing issues with what Disney does in areas like World Showcase and Animal Kingdom. I think trying to distill an entire country, culture, or continent down into cookie cutter cliché's (lots of c's there) is a little bit off-putting thematically. The whole "realism" angle tends to only capture broad strokes of any particular aspect, and I prefer representations like Frontierland or Main Street, where the area's feel has a root in reality but is given a more fantastical angle. I also think its easier to digest an idea like "the old west" versus Morocco.

 

Hard Rock obviously is a celebration of rock music, but rock always has obvious overtones with realistic issues like drugs, poverty, controversial issues, etc. Rock NEEDS those elements, because that's what makes the music and culture as interesting as it is. To either ignore it or to cover it up in some type of sterilized family friendly angle is doing a disservice to the music and the message.

[TheDumbFairy]

I feel like thats a part of the theme park experience. Any 'themed' section is going to be focused towards family to a point. And they cant cover all basis.

 

Like DC superheroes at SF. I adore the teen titans but are they mentioned (besides robin?) nope. Come on, dads would love seeing starfire walk around just as much as wonderwoman. And wiggles. of the how many albums they play like ten songs.

 

Disney... of what I can remember at three years old I laughed at the haunted mansion. I wanted to be scared... and I wasn't. : ( I was sad.

 

Or at Universal when they theme a ride, its impossibe to get the whole story....

 

I mean. I like the sugar coating and the simplifying. Its just what I expect when I go.

[shepp]

Today's rebellion is tomorrow's soap commercial.

 

Well, I'm an old codger who saw Janis, Jimi, and Jerry when they were still alive. But for me, the absolute endpoint was when the Clash popped up on a Jaguar commercial. Shameful. Just shameful.

 

Running a close second? The Beatles hawking Target. I'm pretty sure even my worst acid trip back then wasn't that bad...

 

Oh, and then there's Iggy Pop selling cruise ships.

 

Oh my god, I'm getting so depressed...

[TheRapidsNerd]

Ok, I just watched the show over on hardrockparkblog.

 

Some of the elements were extremely well timed with the lyrics, while other elements were cool, but didn't quite fit. The two comets that fly around the lagoon were a good surprise and caught me off guard. Nicely done there. The lighting on the giant guitar synced to the guitar solo was also well done. Would've liked to have seen more done with the big guitar other than just the solo and shimmering lights in the beginning.

 

The fountains were ok in places and the different laser effects were well timed. Of course, they're much more impressive in person.

 

Over all, enjoyable and entertaining. Not a jaw dropper, but it doesn't have to be. Whenever I visit, I'll go see it (and I'm not much of a fireworks fan.)