As a final part of our kids’ Christmas presents, we took them to see the Transiberian Orchestra at Nationwide arena Sunday night. It was their first concert ever, and it was a great introduction to a live show for them! We bought them t-shirts, a few snacks, and then settled into our seats for a nearly 3-hour show.
The first half of the show consisted of TSO’s version of a “Christmas story.” It was really like a rock opera, complete with a narrator, choir, string section, keyboards, and of course, thunderous guitars and booming drums. The second half of the show started with a few songs from their latest release, Night Castle, and the ended with a reprise of some of their Christmas classics and a rousing take off of Beethoven’s 5th as a finally.
It was a marvelous show – complete with fire, pyrotechnics, lights, a platform stage from which portions could be raised or lowered with hyrdaulics, and video screens. It was highly choreographed and executed without a hitch. It seemed much more structured than your standard rock show. And, it wasn’t quite as loud as a “normal” rock show, which was fine by me, since I had my kids there. Polished is the word that comes to mind, and the quality of the musicianship and vocals was top notch. TSO puts on quite a show!
The crowd was interesting. It was mostly families and older folks – I’m sure there because they’re familiar with some of TSO’s more popular Christmas offerings as heard on the radio or in television commercials. I wonder how they felt when TSO slipped some heavy metal into their Christmas set! I was watching for reactions, and didn’t see too many people cringe or get up and leave. That was kind of funny, because under other circumstances, I don’t think they would’ve been so appreciative of the music! TSO was founded by former members of the 80′s heavy metal band Savatage, and their show rocks pretty hard.
Overall, we all enjoyed ourselves very much. It wasn’t the best concert I’ve seen – nothing has topped the Queensryche show I caught at the Richfield coliseum, when they did the entire Operation Mindcrime set. It’s in the top 5 or 10 easily, though. It was well worth the price! I’m not too old to rock and roll – yet, at least.