Trans Siberian Orchestra - Anyone Seen This Year's Tour?

[SteveSly]

Just curious if anyone here has seen TSO’s “Christmas Attic” tour this year? It has been quite a few years since I have seen them, but my 83 year old father wanted to go so we are taking him on Sunday. Unfortunately I have been reading reviews of the current tour on ticketmaster and the show is getting reamed for being really bad (all 1 and 2 star reviews out of 5). In fact there is not a single positive review posted. I have enjoyed them when I saw them before, but as mentioned it has been at least 5 or 6 years ago. Just wondering if anyone here has seen this year’s tour and what you thought? I trust the critics here more than the general public.

[Wah3]

I saw TSO East last Sunday and enjoyed it. Great singers (multiple male and female leads and backups). Great FX (lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, rising and extending platforms and walkways, and video). Great sound. Not amuch in the way of solos except from the 2 guitarists but they had bass, drums, violin, 2 keyboardists and a string section.

I like the Christmas Attic album, there are a couple songs like 3 Kings and Music Box that veer more toward blues rock than their usual kind of grand pompous rock with metal influence. They've downplayed the Christmas carols compared to earlier years, usually sang just a few lines before getting back to their own stuff. Also played a couple of new songs. It was over two and a half hours total.

[Dan Roth]

I saw it a few weeks ago - and have seen the tour each year since 2006. As usual, the lights and fire are the real stars of The Show. There is also a gigantic trunk or chest that dominates the stage - at one point the lid opens and the drummer, 2nd keyboardist and acoustic string section rise out of it. The inside of the lid are very large video screens - they help enhance the story that the narrator is telling. If you haven't seen them in 5 or 6 years, you will notice that the dancing girls have gotten a bit out of hand - they bring out these ladies during many of the instrumental rockers and they do the hair-whip-arounds and other cheerleading-type moves.

Musically, it's solid. They are doing The Christmas Attic this time around, which is the least selling of their 3 Christmas albums. Not as many familiar tunes to folks, and more slower songs. The show is about 30 minutes shorter than the old days - but its still 2 ½ hours. The entire show is now set to a click track and there isn't much in the way of spontaneity included.

They still hire incredible talent though - I see the East troupe which includes theater vet Rob Evan who is a powerhouse and Symphony X/Adrenaline Mob front man Russell Allen on lead vocals for many of the songs. The West has veteran rock vocalist Jeff Scott Soto and a simply incredible show-stopping female vocalist named Chloe Lowery. I still enjoyed it - just listening to the talent up there is worth it to me - but do miss the days when it wasn't quite so scripted.

This is review of the recent TSO West show in San Diego - this sums it up really well. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...s-rock-review/

[SteveSly]

Cool, thanks for the information. A lot of the critiszm on the ticketmaster reviews was people complaining that there was not enough Christmas content and that they were unfamiliar with a lot of the music. I don’t have the Christmas Attic album. There is also a lot of criticism of the girls you mention and that the band seems to be stuck in the 80’s with the hair whip around and stuff. I will be seeing the east version with Russell Allan (one of my favorite singers) and Plate / Caffery from Savatage (one of my favorite prog metal bands).

Did they do any material from “Beethoven’s Last Night” or “Night Castle”? Also, was there an intermission?

As mentioned I am taking my 83 year old father and his female friend. He has never been to anything like this before, so I think he is either going to love it or hate it. I’ve been trying to tell him this ain’t Manheim Steamroller, but not sure he understands exactly what he is getting into. The other day we were talking about it and he said "they have a fiddle player don't they?".............. We’ll see how this goes...........

[Scott Bails]

As mentioned I am taking my 83 year old father and his female friend. He has never been to anything like this before, so I think he is either going to love it or hate it. I’ve been trying to tell him this ain’t Manheim Steamroller, but not sure he understands exactly what he is getting into. The other day we were talking about it and he said "they have a fiddle player don't they?".............. We’ll see how this goes...........

Have you played their music for him? Maybe try showing him some YouTube vids?

[SteveSly]

Yea, he is familiar with some of their music......he's just never been to a rock concert before.

[Dan Roth]

Did they do any material from “Beethoven’s Last Night” or “Night Castle”? Also, was there an intermission?

They do "Sparks" and "The Mountain" from Night Castle and "Requiem" from BLN.

There are 2 short breaks when Caffery introduces the singers and narrator and then later when he introduces the musicians.

Russell Allen does a really great job with the material though. Years ago they used to do "3 Kings and I" and vocalist Michael Lanning used to do this improvised scat thing with guitarist Pitrelli, and then they would launch into a few measures of "Kashmir". They brought all of that back this year with Russell Allen singing, except that all of the back-and-forth scat thing is scripted. Still entertaining though.

[Wah3]

No intermission although it does take a few minutes to introduce the band in the middle. They played Requiem (the Fifth) off the Beethoven album, Sparks and The Mountain off Night Castle and 2 new songs, 1 quite metallish with a female singer.

[miamiscot]

Who would have ever thought that Savatage would turn into this?

I wish I would have thought up TSO. Brilliant!!!

[marltonfan]

It saw the show in Hershey Pa a few weeks ago. It definitely would help if you are familiar with the Christmas Attic.
The show was very entertaining with all of their stage effects. While they do ham it up a bit, it's reminded me of a circus.
It's an all ages show from crying babies to Tweens to 90 yr olders. They know what they are doing to haul that equipment all over the country!

[SteveSly]

I will throw together a review of the show when I get some time, but I did want to post here that I took my 83 year old father and he totally dug it.

My dad has been going on and on all week about how great it was and how he has never experienced anything like that before. He was totally blown away. My dad has always been somewhat into music, but he was always more of a Big Band / Classical / Bluegrass guy for the most part. He even took banjo lessons when he was in his mid 40’s, but he is just old enough that rock n roll was a little bit before his time. When I was growing up he basically hated the music that I listened to, but as he has gotten older he has decided that he actually likes some of it. He had never been to any kind of rock concert before, and nothing even close to the type of circus TSO puts on. I honestly think that Palladia and Axis TV have turned him on to a lot of stuff as he tends to sometimes catch parts of concerts while channel surfing (He still does not understand AC / DC though…). As we were walking into the arena TSO had around 20 semi-trucks and at least 6 tour buses lined up behind the arena. He made a comment something along the lines of “what the hell do they need all those damn trucks for?” After the show he says “Now I understand why they need all those trucks”. As we were leaving the venue there was a poster for an upcoming Fleetwood Mac concert at the same arena and he says “Ya know I kind of like them too”. So what the heck, I bought him tickets to go see Fleetwood Mac with me today.

It is kind of cool at both our advanced ages to be able to share something like this.

[marltonfan]

Very cool story about your dad! Rock on!

[Scott Bails]

After the show he says “Now I understand why they need all those trucks”. As we were leaving the venue there was a poster for an upcoming Fleetwood Mac concert at the same arena and he says “Ya know I kind of like them too”. So what the heck, I bought him tickets to go see Fleetwood Mac with me today.

It is kind of cool at both our advanced ages to be able to share something like this.

That's awesome, Steve. Glad to hear that you two had such a great time together.

[lwpmedia]

OP -- you should lay off the eggnog.... there's over 28,000 TSO reviews on Ticketmaster and the average rating is 4.5 out of 5

what am I missing?

http://www.ticketmaster.com/TransSib.../artist/780815

[SteveSly]

OP -- you should lay off the eggnog.... there's over 28,000 TSO reviews on Ticketmaster and the average rating is 4.5 out of 5

what am I missing?

http://www.ticketmaster.com/TransSib.../artist/780815

Yea, I am not sure to be honest. I remember googleing TSO Tour reviews and it came up with all 1 star reviews from Ticketmaster. I must have hit some kind of filter or something because as you mention there are a lot of positive reviews on there.

[dgtlman]

There were plenty of negative reviews there. Ironically enough, many were from my area. Lol!!!

[lwpmedia]

Hey Steve -- you caught me on a rare bad day, wasn't feeling so well and the ONE THING ABOVE ALL I'm looking forward to this month is the TSO show...

But, you are right ... there's a filter and you can find some poor reviews on the the TM page if you search for the most recent ones...

I could use a cup of the nog myself right now!

Still, I expect to be blown away when they come to town!

[SteveSly]

Hey Steve -- you caught me on a rare bad day, wasn't feeling so well and the ONE THING ABOVE ALL I'm looking forward to this month is the TSO show...

But, you are right ... there's a filter and you can find some poor reviews on the the TM page if you search for the most recent ones...

I could use a cup of the nog myself right now!

Still, I expect to be blown away when they come to town!

You will ove it. The first 90 minutes is all the "Christmas Attic" album which is good (but a bit long in the tooth). The last 45 minutes they pull out the really good stuff.

[Plasmatopia]

It is kind of cool at both our advanced ages to be able to share something like this.

That's really cool! Hopefully you'll enjoy many more shows together.

I'm pretty sure my father will never be interested in anything like that. I remember hearing once after practicing scales and soloing along with some music (as a teenager) that my father had been saying "what is he doing? why does he do that?" He just didn't get it. I did take my mother to a Yes show about 10 or 11 years ago and she seemed to like it well enough.

My father and I bond while cutting wood instead (which he still does at 78).

[lwpmedia]

you get your money's worth with this show.... Russell Allen really was a show stopper this year....

http://www.soundpress.net/files-feat...-12-23-tso.php

[SteveSly]

you get your money's worth with this show.... Russell Allen really was a show stopper this year....

http://www.soundpress.net/files-feat...-12-23-tso.php

Nice review.