Wife sang the National Anthem for the finale this year

[gecko2015]

My 2nd "pyromusical" for our July 4th show. I put pyromusical in quotations as I didn't plan on doing a show this year due to price increases and supply, but friends and family convinced me to at least do something. So I put a show together, but I wasn't able to get my hands on special effects like comets, mines, slices, etc. due them being sold out. So I instead just created the show on my computer, pairing the fireworks with the music.

The finale starts at 9:44 and my wife sang the national anthem. Even though she just started getting sick that day, I was super proud of her :D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sInhoilxyro&t=602s&ab_channel=Tyler

I had a 50ft HDMI cable break 1hr before the show so I had to very quickly move my speakers (as well as all my other equipment) to the front of the audience, which caused some feedback with her microphone.

Also, sorry the video starts about 40 secs into the show, I forgot to press record on the camera

Firing system
Cobra 18r2
2x 72m (onboard cues)

Fireworks

3 Minute Time Bomb
3 Minute Time Bomb
1 Minute Madness
American Bad Ass
Savage
The Mad King
By Land
Star Spangled Swagger
3 Minute Time Bomb (FORCED END)
3 Minute Time Bomb (FORCED END)
Royal Thunder
Cobra Skai
Neutron Bomb
Mammoth Ring of Fire
Nuclear Fallout
Midwest Storm
Final Notice
200g Lace Combustion
Neutron Bomb
Hawaii Dream
The Mad King
Angry Pandas
Flying Proud
Sons of Liberty
Make America Great Again
Patriotic Waves
Focus
Glory to America
Blue Dragon
Final Notice
Final Notice
Iron Throne
Hawaii Dream
Iron Reaper
Wanderlust
Mortar
Mortar
Mortar
Mortar RACK (43s) Slow to fast
Patriotic Waves
Freedom Keeper
Route 66
Route 66
Final Notice
25s Red Strobe Finale
25s Red Strobe Finale
25s Brocade Finale (Refused)
25s Brocade Finale (Refused)
Mortar RACK INSTANT

[Engineer Cat]

Great show. Nice usage of effects. Your wife did an excellent job of singing the national anthem. She can open for a Yankees or Mets game anytime! :p

[ssmith512]

Very cool!!

Wife has one HELL of a voice!

[Mattp]

Wow,, that was great!!! Love that new lee greenwood with the military version.. almost used it myself this year,,, and ya ,, wife’s got some pipes on her,, kudos to her too,, was she live or pre recorded ??? I could imagine, knowing how many times I run through my script,, if it was live how many times you made her sing it for timing…. LOL ,,,, some great effects in there too!!

[PYRODAN]

Wow, your wife can sing! Nice show also!

[Birdman]

I have to admit when I read "Wife sang the National Anthem for the finale this year" the first thing that came to mind was Roseanne Barr. Well done by both. Love the originality of having the anthem sung live. It's used so much and this was a great way to keep it fresh and new!

[gecko2015]

Love the originality of having the anthem sung live. It's used so much and this was a great way to keep it fresh and new!

I really appreciate it! I think the same, as far as trying to keep things fresh. It's hard to keep shows "patriotically" fresh due to the limited patriotic songs to choose from (that's not overly played elsewhere). But that said, where I live in the south, man ol' man does the audience MUCH prefer songs/shows that stick with patriotic themes. And funny enough, no matter how much I hear them, when they're combined with good fireworks they still give me chill bumps at times.

Last year, I tried to keep things fresh by opening with a non-patriotic song. My audience reactions to that significantly higher coordinated song last year using 1.4 pro individual special-effects were surprisingly low. Don't get me wrong, I got tons of compliments on it after the show. But as far as claps, whistling, or other audience audio cues directly after that song ended was almost nothing.

Meanwhile, I could simply play any patriotic song and shoot off any 200g cakes and the audience would cheer LOL.

I could be wrong...and maybe it's not just a regional thing. But I definitely get a better audience response when I stick with patriotic songs.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Way to go Gecko! Great show. Proof that you don't need to have a case of something going every second to do a great show. You made great use of the effects you had, and your wife singing the national anthem was a great way to capture the audience attention as you closed out the show. Well done!