THE TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA AT TINGLEY COLISEUM CONCERT REVIEW ON ROCK N ROLL UNIVERSE

It was a relatively balmy December evening, in the 40's, not quite Christmas weather, when The Trans Siberian Orchestra hit town, landing at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not quite a sell out,(around 8,000 from this guesstimate) but for Albuquerque it was a fantastic turnout. The sound, especially for this venue, a large, cavernous building more suited to rodeos during fair time than rock shows, was surprisingly clear and undistorted, a fact which shows the attention to detail put in by all around. I'd have to say that having seen hundreds of shows at Tingley back when the major rock bands still played there frequently that this was one of the clearest sounding I've ever heard there, so major kudos to the sound crew!

The first half of the show was pretty much the same as always, the majority devoted to the 'Christmas Eve & Other Stories' album, with a few extras thrown in as well. A nice touch was had by TSO intro-ing with 'Silk & Steel' from Savatage's 'Gutter Ballet,' morphing into the sounds of the orchestra tuning up, before launching into a strident "Wizards In Winter," one of the few not from the first album featured in the first half of the show. Syncopated perfectly with the lights, this was a wondeful beginning, and a slight taste of what was to come. All the musicians as usual were first rate; as it was the West Coast tour group, the core consisted of Music Director Al Pitrelli (Savatage, Megadeth, Alice Cooper) and "new breed of American guitar hero" Angus Clark (Kitaro) on guitars, Johnny Lee Middleton (Savatage) on bass, John O' Reilly (Rainbow) on drums, with Pitrelli's wife Jane and Derek Wieland on keyboards, along with incredible lead electric violin courtesy of String Master Anna Phoebe. Vocals were also handled amazingly well by Kelly Keeling (MSG, Baton Rouge, George Lynch, Heaven & Earth), Tommy Farese (Jack Starr, Johnny Gale) Maxx Mann and Bart Shatto, and the female vocals from Kristin Gorman, Steena Hernandez and Erin Henry were exemplary.

The interplay between the musicians was seamless; with Phoebe joined in with Pitrelli and Clark, the sounds flowing from her pink 6 string Violectra electric violin were not unlike a wailing electric guitar, effectively giving this unit a powerful three axe attack. Other highlights of the first part were incredible vocal performances courtesy of Shatto on "Old City Bar," and Farese on "Ornament", both of which were huge crowd pleasers this night. Guitarists Pitrelli and Clark fed the audience searing guitar solos throughout, while Middleton stayed mostly in the shadows, combining with O'Reilly to form a rock solid rhythm section over which the others could shine. There was talk earlier concerning a long drum solo on previous dates, but there was no evidence to be found this night, which is fine with this writer as it would've disrupted the flow of the presentation in my opinion.

The second half, which was more instrumental in nature, consisted of more rocked up versions of Beethoven (Requiem), Liszt(Wish Liszt), Rimsky-Korsakov (Flight of the Bumblebee) and Carl Orff (Carmina Burina), from the upcoming 'Night Castle' album amongst others, all accompanied by one of the best light shows around these days. Lasers, swirling fog, sparks, huge fiery flames of orange, green and red pyro (So hot, that from my vantage point, the heat came so sudden and strong it actually made me break out into a sweat - any closer and I probably would've been leaving the venue with no eyebrows!), snow falling, risers hydraulically taking guitarist Clark and violinist Phoebe 30 feet above the crowd after venturing throughout the crowd previously -.you get it all, resulting in one of the finest spectacles one is liable to see these days in a live setting.

If you think it's just a Christmas show, you'd be wrong, it's a full blown rock extravaganza, not just exclusive to the season. The main difference program- wise from last year was the exchange of Layla" during the jam portion in place of last year's "Rock & Roll". Everything else was pretty much the same, with a few different vocalists, as well as a keyboard "duel" between Jane Pitrelli and Derek Wieland, leading into a jam on the "Peanuts" theme, which was fun. During the 'jam' portion, after the requisite calls for "Freebird!," someone yelled out, "Play some Savatage!", whereby Pitrelli shot back, "Yeah, we'll play some...but just not tonight". The levity of the previously mentioned "Peanuts" jam was replaced by the ominous opening chords of "Wish Liszt(Toy Shop Madness)," which combined with the use of swirling fog, pyro and the heat emenating momentarily gave the feeling one was witnessing the gates of Hell, albeit briefly, and was a definite highlight of this second part of the show. Also, a moment which was in sharp contrast to the otherwise uplifting material assayed throughout the rest of the show. The evening finally wound down (if one can call it that) with the second version of "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12-24," during which the aforementioned rising of the players above the audience occured, blazing lights and lasers beaming, which at the culmination a rousing standing ovation was to be had, capping off an enchanting, thunderous evening of classically bent heavy theatrical rock which has no equal. Such was the intensity of the light show I was seeing spots in front of my eyes for around 20 minutes afterwards!

One thing which always amazes me about these shows are the types of people who attend, who normally wouldn't dream of going to see a heavy rock show, when the second half is very heavy, and they actually enjoy it! Try taking them to an Alice Cooper, Megadeth or Dio show and they'd most likely run screaming from the venue, hands over ears. The age of the audience ranged from a few months old, all the way to people in their 70's at the very least. A young girl who appeared to be around the age of 5 or 6 was nearby, headbanging during certain portions! I only saw a few people leaving after the first half, which is less than in prior years, when they think it's over after the first hour and a half 'Christmas Stories' portion is finished. All in all, TSO played for nearly 3 hours with no break, which is a great value for the price. If you haven't seen them yet, and they're coming to your town, definitely go, you'll have a great time, and be certain, whichever version is coming to the venue, of having a rockin' yule time!