Marianas Trench Stunning Performance in Kelowna

Last night's performance at Prospera Place by Canadian band Marianas Trench was such a visually and aurally stunning explosive experience that it will have left most, if not all, of the gathered masses talking about it for days to come.

This concert event was a masterpiece of conception and design and production hitting a zenith in the moment of live execution. The ultra sparse stage setup with the massive behind the band screens served as the perfect canvas for this artist to captivate and enthrall in a way that drew into the ever unfolding moment the senses of sight and hearing and feeling from an audience that was totally caught up in the 90 minute moment.

This band has won numerous awards for it's videos and cinematography. This reviewer has seen more lights and rigging at a concert but cannot recall a show that used light and space and video and all the other special effects that went into this show so well. It wasn't understated. It wasn't overstated. It was a perfect coming together of creative elements that delivered a well paced concert experience that breathed well and filled everyone up to that place where any more might have been too much, but where they took it and how long they held it there and what that did for the audience was a thing of beauty.

The show started with the title track from their latest CD, "Astoria" and shifted back and forth between newer and older material that included some of their biggest hits such as "Stutter", "Cross My Heart", "Fallout" and others. "One Love" was performed by Ramsay on a Piano on the arena floor near the back of the bowl, which brought him much closer to those fans who were further back from the main stage. He would also fly above the crowd twice during this show, once during "Stutter" and then again for the encore finale "End of an Era".

This concert was a brilliant melding of minds and bodies and souls that removed any sense of separateness between the perfromers and the audience, removed any awareness of time, and instead created a shared experience, an artistic event, an amazing rock concert.