ROCKIN’ TRADITION
Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual visit makes the holiday season complete
Trans-Siberian Orchestra has a long history of bringing fans back to its holiday shows year after year. The same could be said for its musicians.
“For me, this is what I do for two months out of the year, every year,” explains Joel Hoekstra, a guitarist with TSO — which performs Thursday, Dec. 29 at Little Caesars Arena — since 2014. “It’s become my holiday tradition, as it has for so many families who come out to see it every year, for so many years. I love everyone in the band, and there’s such a tremendous amount of talent. Everybody’s also great people; a lot of them are my best friends, year-round. So to hang with them for two months, and we feel the same way about a lot of the fan base after all these years.
“We’re like the Grateful Dead of Christmas; so many people come to multiple shows every year, so there are fans who become your friends when you see them ever year like that.”
The symphonic-leaning hard rock troupe, founded by the late Paul O’Neill during the mid-90s, has been doing that since 1999, when a show at Detroit’s State Theatre (now the Fillmore Detroit) was one of TSO’s first seven shows. Since then TSO has played more than 2,000 special effects-laden shows for more than 18 million fans, ranking high on yearand decade-end reports each of the past 22 years. The group’s 2020 livestream during the pandemic lockdown set records, and last year’s return to the stage brought 767,000 fans to 98 shows by TSO’s two companies (East and West).
That’s on top of selling more than 12 million copies of its nine albums and DVDs.
“Last year was a home run,” notes guitarist and TSO music director Al Pitrelli, who’s been part of the group since its inception. “We finished the tour, crossed the finish line, but it took a little extra effort to say the least. It was definitely a nail-biter for a little while; every day you’d wake up and people were testing and you’re like, ‘Please, I hope everybody’s healthy and we can get through another day…’
“Paul O’Neill and his family told us years ago you adapt, you overcome, you improve, you figure it out ’cause people in the audience deserve nothing but our very best. That’s the credo we live by.”
This year TSO, which features an entire album during the first part of its shows, has returned to “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” playing the entire soundtrack from the 1999 Fox Family TV special that starred Ossie Davis and Allie Sheridan, with guest Jewel and Michael Crawford. It’s the fifth time TSO has trotted the story out and, according to Pitrelli, is part of O’Neill’s desire “to put on a different show” at least every couple of years.
The story, about a runaway who holes up in an abandoned theater and is inspired by specters of the venue’s past, was subsequently released on DVD as well. “It’s a movie people fell in love with,” Pitrelli says. “It became like ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ or ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ or ‘Rudolph’…,” holiday go-to’s. So it’s a no-brainer to do it live, and it keeps us on our toes ’cause it’s not the same thing we did last year. Same with the audience; it keeps them on their toes, too.”
For Hoekstra — who’s a regular with Whitesnake and Cher when they tour — “The Ghosts…” stands out as one of TSO’s most music-centered stories. “It’s the one that has the least amount of dialogue in the front end, the least amount of storytelling,” he explains. “So it’s a little bit lighter than some of the others. It’s still a beautiful story, but it feels like a lighter, happier TSO show — that’s something that’s unique to it.” Pitrelli, meanwhile, understands the enduring connection the story has with TSO’s audiences.
“At the center of Paul’s stories they’re always about missing somebody,” he says. “Everybody in the audience relates to that sentiment; everyone has an empty chair around their table. Everybody’s missing somebody. Paul’s stories always have happy endings, but that’s not necessarily true in life.”
Or in TSO. O’Neill died suddenly five and a half years ago at the age of 61, and Pitrelli says his absence is felt as keenly now as on the tour TSO did later that year.
“We’re under Paul’s tutelage,” acknowledges Pitrelli, who started working with O’Neill in the band Savatage. “His wife (Desi) was there from the first moment, from the day
“We’re like the Grateful Dead of Christmas; so many people come to multiple shows every year, so there are fans who become your friends when you see them ever year like that.” — Joel Hoekstra, a guitarist with TSO