Once again the Punjabi American Heritage Society [ http://www.punjabiamericanheritagesociety.com/index.html ], put on a show for the ages. Held in Yuba City for the 13th consecutive year, this year’s festival included Top US and Canadian Bhangra and Gidda teams, along with local High School and junior teams. The headliners of the show were UK Bhangra sensation Sukshinder Shinda and Punjab legend Pammi Bai.

After all of the local teams and sponsors got their recognition it was time for Pammi Bai to hit the stage. He was accompanied by a full live band, along with his team of background Bhangra and Gidda dancers. [4 men and 2 women]. Pammi was astonished by the size of the crowd. In my own estimation I would say close to 5,000 people. He thanked the crowd for coming and then started the show. He began by doing tracks from his last album [Nachde Punjabi]. He sang the tracks Jatt Punjabi, Rangla Punjab, Allah Jane and Nachde Punjabi. Then he pleased the crowd by doing the tracks Pagg, Putt Punjabi, Lalakara from his new album [Son of Punjab]. He performed for about an hour and time was running short, so the MC’s tried to get him to do a last song, so instead he brought his dancers back out on stage and began to sing some old skool Boliyan as the team broke out into some Malbai Gidda.. Before leaving the stage Pammi properly introducing each one of his band mates and dancers and thanked them individually.

As the stage folks were setting up for Sukshinder Shinda’s band, they brought out this young up-n-coming singer from Yuba City. Even though he looked like he was only about 17 years old, this kid had an amazing voice and could be someone to watch out in the future. Too bad I couldn’t remember his name? LOL…

Ok, now was the time. After about 15 minutes of some sound problems while setting up the band, it was time everyone was waiting for. Sukshinder was about to hit the stage! As they were introducing his live band, we were shocked to see that on one side of the stage Shinda had Bhuta Jagpal [of B21 fame] as one of his keyboard players and on the other side; he had the one and only Aman Hayer as his other keyboard player!! Are you kidding me? That’s when you know you’re rolling big time when your competition is willing to play background for you! Since Aman Hayer was there, his Dholi, Kaka Rupowalia got onstage to sing his track, “Oh Kuri” from the 2 Much Glassy album. My cousin Raj and I were really into it, but I don’t think a lot of the crowd knew who he was, so we felt bad for him up there on stage.

After all of the anticipation Sukshinder Shinda finally came out. He began by thanking the crowd giving everyone a blessing. He started with a new track from his “Living The Dream” album which will be releasing on June 23, 2007. It is a religious track called Singh Sardaran. The crowd got a taste and was ready to explode when he began singing the next song, Phul [Flower]! What he did next was sing his duet with Jazzy B called “Oh Na Kuri Labdi”. He sang both verses. Then he did the international hit Collaborations, all-the-while singing his verse, as well as Gurdas Mann and Abrar Ul Haq’s verse! Track after track his voice stayed on pitch, sounded sweet and got the crowd into every song by doing Bhangra onstage and reaching out to touch all the fan’s hands. The show continued on for at least another hour, as he did Oh Ho, Punjabi Clap, Shoulder Surf, Sohni Lagdi, Pyar Hogaya, Akhiyan, along with a new track from Living The Dream called Chitiyan. The MC’s were saying that this is the first year where there were more ladies upfront dancing Bhangra and going crazy for Shinda instead of the usual guys. Then he was supposed to end it with Khushian, but after he did that, the crowd still wanted more, so he did Wanga [new track], Hasdee and ended it with Balle.. The Music Man went non stop for about 1 hour 45 minutes. The only reason I believe he had to stop is because it was getting too dark to see, because the crowd was still craving for more!

All in all, it was well worth the price of admission. From what I could see there weren’t many problems, fights or hitches in the show, so hats off to Yuba City committee, the Punjabi American Heritage Society and to all of the people that helped make this show a success. I don’t know how they’ll be able to make next year’s show any better, but if I could make a couple of suggestions. How about a lineup of Bikram Singh, Nachhattar Gill and Malkit Singh? Just something to think about…………….

- Reviewed: Neetu Samra ( Sun Jun 3 17:03:48 2007 )