December 1st, SaveMart Center, Fresno, CA
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is out there again this holiday season doing a much-needed service to us rockers and everyone who appreciates good will and holiday cheer. I’ve seen this outfit multiple times and it probably isn’t possible for the show to get much bigger year-over-year at this point, but something about this show was better than any of the great performances I’ve seen in the past.
The show has two main segements, the first hour being a Christmas story and the rest of the way a run through songs from their various albums. The story this year is The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve and they got into it after blasting the house with the visual spectacular of dropping the screen to reveal the massive screens and lights and setting the stage with “Fate”, “Promethius” and “The Lost Christmas Eve”.
As the story began they played “O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night” and Al Pitrelli’s lead is a thing of beauty that absolutely knocks me out every time. The show follows the story seen in the 2001 DVD about a young girl who is separated from her family on Christmas Eve, wanting to go home and be with her family. She stumbles into an old theater and a caretaker helps the see her way back home.
T.S.O told this story with eye-popping presentations of “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” and “Christmas Canon Rock,” as well as poignant solos from numerous wildly talented singers. “First Snow” produced a flurry over the audience and the story concluded with a celebratory rendition of “This Christmas Day.”
Pitrelli addressed the audience and the jackets came off as the second half of the show began. They presented 11 songs from throughout the band’s history and all the while, more lights, more lasers, more fire. Pitrelli, Angus Clark and Andrew Ross played masterful guitar throughout. Everybody on stage engaged the audience and every so often some ventured onto platforms that rose up in the back of the arena or above the floor to get everybody in the house a close-up look at one point or another.
The 10 vocalists were all elite in their various singing styles. If I had to pick favorites, they would be Jeff Scott Soto from the male singers and Chloe Lowery from the women. None of the rest were very far behind.
The magnitude of this show requires an astounding amount of commitment from a lot of people and I feel fortunate that the desire is there to put this thing on the road every year. I didn’t shoot any videos of entire songs at this show but I caught the blinding fury of the last 30 seconds here: