Show Dates
Thursday - Sunday June 26 – July 26 (June 25th is Member Preview)
Show Times
8:30 PM
Location: Royal Palace
Kinetix: A New Generation
- Thread starter Nicole
- Start date
Show Dates
Thursday - Sunday June 26 – July 26 (June 25th is Member Preview)
Show Times
8:30 PM
Location: Royal Palace
I have a lot of thoughts, but I think the most pressing for me is how dumbfounded I am at their choice to open and close the show with a song about people dying in WWIII.
For those who are unfamiliar with Alphaville’s Forever Young, it isn’t exactly subtle:
Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men
Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the, the mad man
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young
Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later, they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We'll let 'em come true
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young
I wanna be forever young
Do you really want to live forever? (Forever)
To be clear, I love this song. I’ve even posted the video before. It just doesn’t belong in a theme park show.
Post in thread 'What are you listening to?'
https://parkfans.net/threads/what-are-you-listening-to.76/post-335267
For those who are unfamiliar with Alphaville’s Forever Young, it isn’t exactly subtle:
Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men
Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the, the mad man
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young
Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later, they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We'll let 'em come true
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young
I wanna be forever young
Do you really want to live forever? (Forever)
To be clear, I love this song. I’ve even posted the video before. It just doesn’t belong in a theme park show.
Post in thread 'What are you listening to?'
https://parkfans.net/threads/what-are-you-listening-to.76/post-335267
I don't know that I gave ever heard the full lyrics and would never have made the connection if you hadn't posted it
A lot of songs throughout various music genres during the 70s and early to mid-80s were inspired by the Cold War. Many of the upbeat beautiful sounding songs had the most somber, hopeless and depressing lyrics.
Here's a partial list...
List of songs about the Cold War - Wikipedia
In all seriousness, "Kenetix: A New Generation" was actually a really good nighttime show and a nice welcome back to a BGW classic. The only note I have for it that it lacked a live band like the original show had, but other than that; the singers, dancers and cirque performers were firing in all cylinders. A complete HUGE improvement over "Spark" from a couple of years ago. I'll miss "All For One" for its high ambition and actually matching the Aquitaine hamlet, but I'll gladly accept this over nothing.
My takeaway was very mixed. On one hand, it feels like a good, fairly impressive, high-budget Cedar Fair show at one of their flagship parks. On the other hand, it feels like a good, fairly impressive, high-budget Cedar Fair show at one of their flagship parks.
There are legitimately impressive numbers. The aerialists in particular are ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. Best aerialist act I've ever seen in any park anywhere. I would tell people to go see the show just for that one small portion, frankly. Top notch stuff. That said, most of the acts feel like well-executed examples of what you'd expect to find at most any nighttime circus/stunt-y amusement park show.
I really wouldn't have a problem with that at all if there were something about this show that was identifiably Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Maybe they could have used exclusively Europop? Maybe they could have stuck to some sort of French rave vibe? Maybe there could be like a psychedelic flower/garden aesthetic? Maybe each segment could have represented one of the park's countries? I don't know. I'm not demanding some grand work of theater here—I'm not demanding it fit with its hamlet or within the timeline of the park—if they want to have a fairly generic party show during the summer event, whatever—I've given up on caring this time of year broadly. That being said, no one is ever going to be able to convince me that Katseye's Gnarly belongs at BGW any time of the year. It will simply be impossible. Sorry.
If a show is just "generic-good-amusement-park-show-good," that's not good enough for me at BGW. This show needs something more—something to make it a Busch Gardens Williamsburg show, not something I'd be fine watching at Cedar Point or Hersheypark.
There are legitimately impressive numbers. The aerialists in particular are ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. Best aerialist act I've ever seen in any park anywhere. I would tell people to go see the show just for that one small portion, frankly. Top notch stuff. That said, most of the acts feel like well-executed examples of what you'd expect to find at most any nighttime circus/stunt-y amusement park show.
I really wouldn't have a problem with that at all if there were something about this show that was identifiably Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Maybe they could have used exclusively Europop? Maybe they could have stuck to some sort of French rave vibe? Maybe there could be like a psychedelic flower/garden aesthetic? Maybe each segment could have represented one of the park's countries? I don't know. I'm not demanding some grand work of theater here—I'm not demanding it fit with its hamlet or within the timeline of the park—if they want to have a fairly generic party show during the summer event, whatever—I've given up on caring this time of year broadly. That being said, no one is ever going to be able to convince me that Katseye's Gnarly belongs at BGW any time of the year. It will simply be impossible. Sorry.
If a show is just "generic-good-amusement-park-show-good," that's not good enough for me at BGW. This show needs something more—something to make it a Busch Gardens Williamsburg show, not something I'd be fine watching at Cedar Point or Hersheypark.
Last edited:
Not sure what you are asking?
WWIII (if it were to happen) is generally expected to be a massive nuclear exchange. This was a central fear during the Cold War and, as @Unagi mentioned, a huge theme across the arts (including music). Alphaville’s Forever Young is obviously about people dying and thus never aging (“Let us die young or let us live forever“).
These lyrics are hardly subtle:
Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
That is exactly why I did.
That said, BGW did know the lyrics and chose to use the song, regardless. Perhaps they didn’t think that anyone else would notice? Somehow?
Last edited:
My bad. I took it as you were saying it as in WW3 has already happened and I was confused. I see now
After watching this video, you hit the nail on your head with your review. It looks very much like a show at a flagship Cedar Fair park.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
And I agree that the Aerial Straps duo is great but I have one major gripe about it (at no fault of the acrobats of course) but the staging is constricting and many times they were too close to the stage. Having seen various Aerial Straps acts from many circus companies it's sad to see these performers do their act in a limited space. And it's not like the park could've staged this better as the Aerial Silks duo in Imaginque had their rigging set up where they were able to fly higher and even partially over the crowd sitting close to the stage.
Also, this show focuses a lot on musical theatre style singing and dancing as well, which is what you don't usually see in a circus-type production.
And I agree 100% with @Nicole about the use of Forever Young as the opening and closing number – it's bizarre.