Shakti Strings rocked and JMC3 Veni brought it, but it was the Karma band that seemingly emerged the ‘titan’ when the much anticipated ‘Clash of the Titans 2’ was held on Saturday last at the National Stadium.
The show, which finished around 4:35 am on Sunday, was dubbed a mega success with over 50,000 persons in attendance and all of the bands performing to the best of their abilities to entertain the huge crowd of hungry Chutney/Soca lovers.
The bands were well organized and the crowd enjoyed every rendition they played. The first act was that of Guyana’s number 1 crossover band the Shakti Strings, with front liners Prince JP, Amir and Pooran. They gave a powerful performance of a medley of songs. Prince JP rocked the crowd with his original composition “What Kinda Life”, which was well accepted and many were left wondering whether it was really a Guyanese band performing.
The performances ranged from Soca to chutney and R&B as Shakti Strings showed its range and capabilities, which were comparable with foreign artistes and bands.
To many, the band outshone some of the regional ones slated to perform that night and among the comments heard from those in attendance were “I’m proud to be Guyanese” and “Shakti Strings rocked”. So it can be safely said that the band gave the crowd more than they expected.
As the night progressed the Beemers Band came on stage and gave a fairly good performance. Though their hits were not well known by those in attendance, as their 25 minutes went by the main singers Anil Bheem and Stinky mashed things up with their renditions of Trinidadian Group JW Blaze’s famous carnival song “Palance”. The band had the audience gyrating to the beats of their hype songs but lacked energy in bellowing their lyrics or maybe the microphone was too low.
Throughout the night it seemed like the bands were given a list of songs to perform which ranged from “Vibes can’t done” and “Palance”, among other compositions by regional chutney/Soca artistes.
The Melobugz Music Machine is dubbed as the Best International Crossover Band, but lead singer Artie Butkoon failed to impress the audience once again. To many she killed the atmosphere created by the band and co-singer Rishi in the opening of their 25 minutes act. The vocalist failed to pitch some of the lyrics of the songs she undertook. Many were expecting Artie to drop her most popular tune “Yeh tu Bata” but unfortunately she didn’t.
Nevertheless the band gave its best.
The ‘Heartbreaker Ranjeev’ and his band the G6 Revolution was indeed a heartbreaker and had all the ladies thirsty for more as he left the stage; his melodious voice having soothed the crowd with the renditions of his Bollywood tracks. The band, though fairly new, gave a superb performance.
Veekash Sahadeo and Avinash Maharaj both had a great time on stage but Maharaj failed to entertain most of his fans and many thought he sounded a bit off key at times.
Organizer of the show Mahendra Ramkellawan came on stage and got the crowd hyped with his original songs. The singer gave them what they were waiting for when he dropped his hits like “Dem ah Watch Meh”, “Catfish Curry” and “Daub de Battam House” among others.
Coming on stage next was a fairly new band led by Raymond Ramnarine. Dil e Nadan was a band worth waiting for. In typical Guyanese terminology it can safely be said that ‘Dem boys mash it up’, with the energy and hype they incorporated in their performance. What was amazing was that it appeared as though they made no effort to captivate the crowd but rather knew that the crowd would be drawn to them. Their medley included a variety of music of different genres which surprised the audience who mostly thought the band’s genres revolved around Bollywood and Chutney music.
Rick Ramoutar did exceptionally well with a very good coordination on stage, he had the crowd screaming as he dropped his tunes.
Ravi B, Nisha B and Gregory and their band ‘Karma’ came on stage at around 1:50 am. Lead vocalist Ravi B, dressed in a navy blue suit that glittered, made his entrance from a ‘Crane’ with fireworks blasting in the air that had thousands of fans screaming and instantaneously set the bar higher for the next performer. The trio and their band Karma gave patrons a performance that was worth their money and stole the show from the much-vaunted ‘KI’ and his band JMC3Veni. During Karma’s approximately 1½-hour performance the stage was equally shared among the trio and at one point a young lady was called up to represent Guyana or to be more precise ‘GT Girls’, after she was teased by Ravi who said he had heard that GT girls can’t dance. She went up and proved him wrong, sending her shoes flying on the stage in the process. Later, they were joined by Rikki Jai who had the crowd on their feet palancing as they paved the way for KI and JMC3Veni.
JMC3Veni finally appeared at approximately 3:25 am and first KI dropped his newest track “Single Foreva”, which had the ladies screaming for more but as his performance progressed he got a bit boring to some in the crowd or maybe those in the crowd were already tired by the time he came onstage. But he captivated the audience and fulfilled their thirst for more as he gave them his all. KI along with Nishad M both performed their best and had fun with the crowd.
KI had been declared the inaugural Clash of the Titans champion but it seems as though this year the title was stolen by the veterans Ravi B, Nisha B and Gregory along with their band Karma.
The only glitch in the otherwise smooth show was when some patrons turned up with tickets they had earned through spending approximately $1,800 and buying 6 Banks Beer and those tickets were not honoured, Sources from Firefest Productions said they were legitimate tickets that were given to Banks DIH and a contract was signed by the organizer to honour them. But that was not the case and those patrons were forced to spend an additional $2,500 to enter the show.
