I didn’t grow up in the ’70s or ’80s. I grew up in the 2000s, but I still feel like I grew up with rock-and-roll, listening to CHOM 97.7 on the radio in the car with my dad. I always wished I had grown up in the ’70s and lived through the rock-and-roll era, going to every concert I could possibly go to. I finally experienced something very close with Rolling Stone presents: AMPLIFIED at the Oasis Immersion in Montreal. Through archive photographs, audio clips and music that I couldn’t help but dance to, Amplified took me back in time, amidst roaring crowds with rock-and-roll hair and makeup and even backstage with the stars before a show.
“Rolling Stone AMPLIFIED brings five decades of music and cultural history to life through the eyes and the voice of Rolling Stone,” says Camille Gervais, director of partnership at Rolling Stone Canada. “It’s our archives, our stories, our legacy transformed into an immersive experience that invites people not just to see music history but to feel it.”
60s posters at the Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified in Montreal. Photo Emma Silverman
AMPLIFIED has successfully played in Las Vegas, New York, Houston and Toronto, and is now opening in Montreal at OASIS immersion, which bills itself as “Canada’s Largest Immersive Destination”. Located on the ground floor of Palais des congrès de Montréal, AMPLIFIED uses cinematic sound and giant images and video to tell the story of how the rock-and-roll revolution shaped pop culture.
Visitors enter through an alley, into what feels like an unkept backstage area with speaker cases and sound equipment, then progress through a door into the artists’ lounge. Before even entering the main room for the show, you feel that you are somewhere you are not normally supposed to be, making it feel like you are about to live something different, something special, a VIP experience that takes you behind the scenes of rock-and-roll to uncover its roots, its magic.
Backstage room with sound equipment at Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified in Montreal. Photo Emma Silverman.
Then you transition into the main room of the show.
Alan Greenberg, CEO of Illuminarium in Toronto, explains, “You will experience something you haven’t had the chance to before. You will be right in the middle of this pop culture revolution. You will be surrounded by thousands of photographs. There are hundreds of archival video clips, posters, back scene images that you’ve never seen before.” All of which is set to music and the sound of crowds cheering all around you – I challenge you to not start cheering and dancing as well!
Drummers and music in the immersive Oasis room at Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified in Montreal. Photo Emma Silverman
Oasis and Rolling Stone have done a magnificent job, making people live something truly special and leaving them with a feeling of nostalgia and wanting to come back again the next day to relive the experience and notice something new. If you love rock stars, you will see hundreds of them at AMPLIFIED from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie all the way to contemporary stars Beyoncé, Shakira and Chappell Roan. This is truly a unique experience and definitely somewhere you want to go whether on your own or with friends and family to dance with.
Rolling Stones: AMPLIFIED is playing June 20th to August 31st at Oasis Immersion. Find tickets HERE.
