Transformative Night: An Unforgettable Experience with The Cybertronic Spree at Lee's Palace

jaybroderick
Aug 29
3 min read

By: Michael Drukarsh

Toronto, Canada - Working with LoudTO over the last few years has afforded me the opportunity to see some incredible bands. I have been reliving my teen years shooting artists and bands like King Diamond, Sebastian Bach, and Lee Aaron and being introduced to new artists like Nicole Haber and Rarity, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could prepare me for what I experienced on August 22, 2025 at Lee’s Palace.

Let's start with the crowd. In my experience with bar or small club venues, the crowd usually doesn’t start to fill out until much closer to the headlining act. This was definitely not the case Friday night. Shortly after doors opened and a good hour before the warmup act, Lee’s Palace was packed with a very eclectic crowd. As the seating and then the pit in front of the stage filled, music lovers of all ages (well, 19+) mingled together donning everything from Megadeth shirts to foam masks and costumes (you’ll see why soon). It was truly wonderful to see different people coming together for one night to escape into a world of music and fantasy.

Wordburglar

Wordbuglar took the stage first to get the crowd warmed up. A freestyle rapper, actor and artist, Wordbuglar (AKA Sean Jordon) delighted the crowd with rapid fire rhymes from his album along with incorporating suggestions and fun details he took from audience members. In line with the theme of the night and keeping with the spirit of Fan Expo going on this weekend, Wordburglar rapped about comic books and video games while accompanied by Transformer’s very own Soundwave queuing up the backing tracks. The crowd loved it and while the genre is not my usual choice in musical style, I couldn’t stop smiling and admit his final song, "Your Friend’s Brother" is absolutely brilliant.

Dragon Sound

There have been many fictional bands in the history of music based on TV shows. Joey Jeremiah’s Zit Remendy, The Archies, The Zack Attack, but nothing prepared me for Dragon Sound. Modeled after the band of the same name from a pretty obscure yet classic 1987 B-movie martial arts film titled Miami Connection (and yes, as a lover of this particular genre, I have seen the movie), Dragon Sound brings the movie sound track to life along with other tunes and theme songs featured in classic fight movies and sci-fi tv shows like Rocky IV and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You know things are going to get crazy when there's a keytar on stage along with a lead guitarist dressed in a karate Gi and sporting his black belt. With an incredible 80s sound, Dragon Sound had the crowd rocking to Miami Connection’s "Friends", "Tae Kwon Do Family" and the awesome "Against the Ninja" featuring special guest security guard Hot Rod.

The Cybertronic Spree

When headliners The Cybertronic Spree took to the stage, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’ve seen bands dressed in costume (GWAR and Lordi come to mind, and with them, it’s pretty easy to tell what you're going to hear), but when you’ve got larger than life members of the 1980’s Transformers world taking the stage, unless you are a fan, which I would say the entire club was, you really aren’t sure what is coming next.

What did come next was a mix of kick ass metal, rock and roll and a hell of a lot of fun. Exchanging lead vocals, Acree also on keyboard and Hot Rod also on guitar belted out tunes from the original Transformers movie along with other cartoon theme songs like Power Rangers and original tunes from the band’s album Ravage. Joined by fellow Transformers, Shockwave, Bumblebee, Quintesson, Soundwave, and Unicron, Cypertronic Spree delivered a performance worthy of any hard rock band with wailing guitars, solid backing from bass and drums and an incredible vocal performance by female lead Acree who took the more metal leaning songs while Hot Rod, also giving an amazing performance, tackled the lighter edged tunes for the night.

When you can walk into a venue and immediately start a conversation with a fan wearing a foam dinosaur mask complete with crown and glowing chest light, you know you are in for, at the very least, an interesting night. There was something very special happening at Lee’s Palace that night as the jam packed crowd along with Wordbugler, Dragon Sound and Cypertronic Spree definitely offered "More Than Meets The Eye"!

Concert Photo Gallery (all photos by Michael Drukarsh)