Trans-Siberian Orchestra (West) – December 20th – American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX
I’ve been wanting to experience the Trans-Siberian Orchestra since it began almost 20 years ago & my time had finally come.
My friend Ryan has gone almost every year since it’s inception – raving about it, we both love Metal & Christmas so this would be right up my alley but for some reason every year I’m so busy it has always passed me by.
It almost happened again this year – Like most people caught up in the holidays & currently Star Wars furor – A close friend & I took our families to see The Force Awakens earlier in the afternoon, I get home to relax and talk about the movie when I realize I have to be at the arena in less than 45 mins!
I somehow make it right as the curtain opens:
If forced to give an immediate brief description, Trans-Siberian Orchestra felt like watching KISS meets Yngwie Malmsteen at Christmas. That could sound dismissive but trust me it’s definitely its own, original thing. Very Broadway but very Metal.
Ridiculously entertaining, a pop-cultural crossover phenomenon marrying two seemingly disparate concepts – holly jollies and the heaviest of musics – and lasting far beyond mere novelty. Finding the median between Hallmark-card holiday sentiment and shredding guitar solos, blending warm, schmaltzy storytelling with classic Christmas carols, rearranged, augmented and amplified via the tools of Metal. To be accessible to the wide audience it draws, the music is played at a moderate, pleasing volume, not up to 11, but absolutely in the holy spirit of going to 11.
This was the second of two shows today – a pair of local concerts is customary – and, according to guitarist and frontman Al Pitrelli, part of eight-shows-in-five-days run. It’s a massive production: a five-panel digital screen, nine-piece choir, seven-piece string section, a regular shuffling of lead vocalists and dancers, the world’s most athletic (& hottest) violinist in Asha Mevlana, flames and fireballs, rising platform stages, a large pyramid prop spinning out from behind the soundboard and more lasers than the Star Wars film I saw that afternoon.
Two of the female singers pictured above – Chloe Lowery & Gabriela Guncikova, threatened to steal the entire show when they took leads as they both were just phenomenal singers
For me personally the musical highlight was when vocalist Guncikova, a finalist from the Czech Republic equivalent of American Idol, took center stage & just killed – For me she represented everything great about this production & looked like a total badass doing it.
Part of TSO’s annual onslaught is a holiday tale, narrated by live storyteller Phillip Brandon. This year, it was Ghosts of Christmas Eve,a revamped version of the television special I had just watched for the first time the previous week.
The narrative took flight with Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24), the track that launched TSO. Originally by Florida metal group Savatage – the group turned one Metal track into a full-blown sensation, the most popular holiday tour on the arena circuit. (So popular, two fleets run simultaneously on the East and West Coasts, so demand can be met, this was the West version) The song, is so key to the TSO experience, they play it twice, resprising it at show’s end, as sparks shower and pyro pops and guitars wail and stupid grins spread across our faces. Good times.
Setlist –
Set 1: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve
Time and Distance (The Dash)
Winter Palace
The Lost Christmas Eve
O Come All Ye Faithful / O Holy Night
Good King Joy
Christmas Dreams
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)
Christmas Canon Rock
What Child Is This?
Music Box Blues
First Snow
Promises to Keep
This Christmas Day
Set 2:
Wizards in Winter
A Mad Russian’s Christmas
For the Sake of Our Brother
Christmas Nights in Blue
Madness of Men
The Mountain
Forget About the Blame
Not the Same
The Night Conceives
Find Our Way Home
Requiem (The Fifth)
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) (Reprise)
