Saturday night Kim and I headed down to US Bank Arena for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. This was my first show of theirs so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. The moment the lights dimmed I knew we weren’t in for atypical Christmas show. I was already aware that their music was more rock-based that most holiday music, but it seemed that the rock aspect of their music was even more dominant live in concert.

Pyrotechnics

Besides the metal style instrument solos, their show was complete with a very impressive light show with loads of video boards, lasers, and even pyrotechnics! I think at one point there were even women dancing on stage similar to what you would see at a Mötley Crüe concert. I honestly didn’t expect it to be this over the top.

Impressive Light Show

Mixed between all the rock music was a narrator who was trying to tell some sort of “Lost Christmas Eve” story. However, I felt the story was more depressing than anything and wished they would have just stuck to the music.

Choir

Throughout the night, the band was joined by various singers and even a choir. The string section orchestra was on stage for most, if not all, of the performance. We later found out that the members of the orchestra were all local musicians who were selected to perform with the band during this tour stop.

Moving Trusses

At one point in the show, two of the musicians started rising up over the crowd on these really long trusses. Once the trusses were fully extended, each of the moved in opposite directions away from the stage. The violinist on the truss nearest to us eventually was over our section and I was looking straight ahead to him just feet away from us!

Well Hello There

After a couple of hours on stage and at the end of the story, the band and other musicians were introduced and then we were told that it was time for the second act of night. In the second act, the band performs a mix of songs from their catalog that had not been featured in the story. It was getting late for us and we still had to pickup Trey from the other side of town, so we called it a night shortly into the second act. Even though we had to cut the night short, I felt that I had experienced enough of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show to leave a lasting memory.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra “Wizards In Winter” from Ed Paff on Vimeo.