Concert Review: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

What an awsome show!

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (wikipedia) (home page) played to a couple thousand here in town two years ago; nearly three times that many last year (a show at which Southern Man and his ex had lucked into third-row floor seats directly across from the keyboards); and sold out the venue this year. Indeed, Southern Man was a bit tardy in procuring the tickets and the show actually was sold out, but the venue had opened up a few more sections literally moments before Southern Man arrived at the box office. Thus, our tickets ("us" being Southern Man, his two older kids, Southern Man's gf, and her two kids) were directly across from the left side of the stage; not bad seats at all, but a bit oddly sited. The only downside from my point of view is that the keyboards were on the other side of the stage.

The band opened with my favorite TSO tune - The Wizards In Winter, a song so cool it has its own wikipedia entry and which is featured in (among other places) an amazing Christmas-light show constructed by electrical engineer Carson Williams, who gained sufficient notoriety through the videos of said show and its sequels that he was able to go into the light-show business for himself. Sorry, no links to the videos but you have more than enough information to hunt them down if you desire. Trust me, it's worth the effort; they are extremely cool.

TSO then worked into their well-known Christmas story, which ran for about half the show. The second half was mostly classical (or at least quasi-classical) selections. Surprises included an outstanding cover of Eric Clapton's Layla (another song so cool it has its own wikipedia entry and, yes, Southern Man would just about kill for tickets to Clapton's upcoming show) and (like last year) just a teasing little bit of Yes, one of Southern Man's favorite bands of the past. All of it rocked! And of course the accompanying light show was absolutely state-of-the-art. TSO has definitely earned the Southern Man^TM Seal of Approval^TM and hopefully will continue to be a regular part of his holiday celebrations.

And the very, very best part of all was that all the kids absolutely loved it!