TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA
By Lynn Ramage'

I have one word to describe this rock Opera and that is, “Spectacular!” As I sat in the second row at the “Lost Christmas Eve Tour” by the ever amazing Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Wachovia Center, I mused to myself when watching guitarist Chris Caffery (WWW.Chriscaffery.com). The last time I saw Chris was hanging out with him and TSO’s other Guitarist and old friend Al Petrelli on the Savatage tour bus. Savatage was playing at the Troc and even though they were very good, the house then was anything but packed. I recall Al rubbing his chin (what he does deep in thought) and off the cuff asking me back then what I thought of this TSO idea (in it’s infancy and I had no idea mind you of what was in store) and I thought in dismay; “well Al, I don’t know if there really is a market anymore for stuff like this.” Wow! How wrong I was! All the shows at the Wachovia which is 20 times larger then the Troc were sold out for TSO! The force is amazing, similar to that of Savatage housing most of it’s members from that band. Who would have ever thought we would see music in the sense of this art catapult like this and to this caliper? Bravo!

The brain child for Trans Siberian Orchestra starts with Paul O’Neil who collaborated with Robert Kinkel and Jon Olivia to form the core of writing. Trans Siberian Orchestra got it’s name from a trip Paul had to Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is the only thing that crosses Siberia relatively safely as Siberia as beautiful as it may be can also be a severe fierce country. Paul is also noted for liking the unit to just be called TSO. He then recruited many area’s of talent from Rock to Broadway to the Blues. I sat and interviewed the lead Violinist Mark Wood (www.MarkWoodmusic.com <http://www.markwood.com/> ) right before the show and Mark also explained to me; “ that since TSO’s success is based on a Christmas theme there is an East Coast and cloned a West Coast TSO and the reason was because for touring purposes during the busy holiday season it was impossible for the one unit to get across the whole country to perform to everyone!” This year’s Christmas tour is to promote the new CD “The Lost Christmas Eve” on Lava records. It has 23 wonderfully orchestrated rock tracks that you see performed at the show. Mark is an extremely talented violin player if you have not had the opportunity to see him perform by all means do! I asked Mark to describe TSO to someone who had never seen them. Mark’s response was; “It is a rock and roll band with a string section and we explore rock versions of classical pieces and great Christmas classics! And on top of that we have a light show that is on the level of a Pink Floyd show with Lasers and we have a multi million dollar rig and ten trucks and about 100 crew people and we even bring our own caterer, and masseuse. We sold out in Cleveland to over 40,000 and it just very interesting how this thing has grown so much! Paul O’Neil really invests so much time and effort and money into getting this spectacular visual show. The second part of the show is my favorite where we have an incredible pyro and fire and lasers. It’s like the highest grossing tour in this particular season year after year. We do projects together throughout the year. We work on albums, but the tour starts in November. Right after Van Helsings Curse in October.” Now I met Mark and his lovely wife Laura Kaye at Van Helsings Curse and besides them both being so talented, they are just super people! Mark also makes his own violins and has a special electric violin called the Viper. If you go to Marks website you can check that out!

The show lasted about three hours and there is a narrator who explains the segments of the pieces presented! Both young and old alike were simply amazed at this performance, it’s incredibly intense! If you aren’t particularly in the holiday spirit before you see a TSO show, trust me you will walk out the door after the show feeling touched and excited for the holiday season! A must to see for the next time they visit Philadelphia!