TSO updates the show without giving up the ‘Ghost’
It used to be, a generation ago, that the same schmaltzy Christmas pageants could be played year after year on stage and TV and people still would flock to watch them.
But there’s a reason those same Christmas specials aren’t on TV anymore, and TransSiberian Orchestra helped update the formula with its 1999 TV special “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” introducing dramatic prog-rock songs into the holiday canon.
But now Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been on the road 20 years. And without change, it, too, was at risk of stepping into the tar pits of time
The troupe’s show Saturday at Allentown’s PPL Center was the third year in a row that it presented “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” but there were enough changes to keep it fresh, yet at the same time keep enough of the old show to satisfy longtime fans.
During the first of two nearly sold-out shows, TSO added a few new numbers and freshened others, upped the show’s pyro and techno quotients — it made it snow indoors twice — and even added an “American Idol” winner to its cast.
The nearly 2 ½-hour show of 25 songs still was grandiose; the eight-member band was joined by a 10-member chorus and seven-member local string section.
Its staging was even more massive than in years past — it spilled off stage this year, with TSO’s iconic rising-arm perches with guitarists and violinists (and even a singer) atop them moved to the back of the crowd.
After opening the show with “Night Enchanted,” the drama came early, with three players descending from the ceiling and playing on suspended platforms over a stage full of flames.
And lots of lasers crisscrossed the stage as snow — yes, actual wet snow — fell from the skies on “The Lost Christmas Eve.”
The middle section of the show again offered the 10-song soundtrack to “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” but it, too, was tweaked. An upgraded, highdefinition screen flew the audience over the city to an updated version of the story’s theater set, but the story itself seemed downplayed.
It still was narrated by toodramatic storyteller Brian Hicks, but the few scenes shown from the TV production were on smaller screens, easily overlooked in the corners of the set. Instead, the show focused on the musicians — and the music.
It still was largely the music TSO does best: a mash-up of “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Holy Night,” ending with a solo on which guitar player Joel Hoekstrea held his guitar aloft, and a prog-rock combo of “Good King Wenceslas” and “Joy to the World.”
The night’s best still was “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/ 24),” TSO’s first charting song (and only hit) from 1996. It was during that song that the repositioned risers first were used. Meanwhile, on stage, there were towers of sparks and bursts of flames.
“Christmas Canon (On This Very Christmas Night),” with three female singers, again was elegant, and effective. And “Promises to Keep,” one of the better songs in past years, was given more prominence, and its restrained presentation — different from most of the show — made it one of the night’s best.
The snow fell again during “First Snow,” and Hoekstrea stepped off stage to play in the nearly sold-out crowd. (The band’s dollar-per-ticket donation to The Children’s Home of Easton totaled $8,148 for the first of two shows, suggesting the crowd’s size.)
It was after the “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” part of the show that Caleb Johnson, who won the 13th season of “American Idol” in 2014, was introduced. He took lead vocals on “Three Kings and I,” and after his recent Meat Loaf tribute tour, still sounded very much like Meat Loaf.
The show’s second half also included a version of “Tracers” that had snippets of Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” and the risers in the back returned, and were joined by risers on stage, as well as tons of lasers. For “Carmine Burana,” the TSO logo atop the risers burst into flames.
This was the first year TSO was doing a tour not designed by founder Paul O’Neill, who died last year, and it paid tribute to him with the song “Someday” — and the crowd joined in, waving lighted cellphones, and then with a dramatic nineminute centerpiece of “Chance,” a song from O’Neill’s pre-TSO band Savatage.
The show closed with a reprise of “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24).” It was a reminder that even if TSO changes, its heart still is in the prog rock that won its first fans.
Entry into the early performance was far easier than last year, when what PPL Center called a “perfect storm” of a sold-out crowd, late arrivals and a then-new ban on large purses caused lines to stretch around the building and some people to miss part of the show.
This year, PPL Center added more entry lines, though there still seemed to be a lot of late arrivals, with large crowds outside 15 minutes before showtime. That could have been caused by still-snowy streets from Thursday’s storm, and a traffic gridlocked by people seemingly eager to get out after the snow.
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