The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
It can’t be Christmas season in Cleveland without blast of TSO
Fans still can’t get enough of TSO, which is revisiting beloved debut album
Early on, veteran rock drummer Jeff Plate knew there was something special about Trans-Siberian Orchestra. That thought was later confirmed by his peers, including Dream Theater co-founder Mike Portnoy.
“Mike is a world-famous drummer. We’ve known each other for a lot of years, and last year he came to see TSO,” said Plate, calling from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “He said, ‘Jeff, you have the best gig in the world. You can play up there with this production and this amount of talent on stage in these venues. Your gig is just awesome.’
“Mike Portnoy is one of my influences. I look up to that guy, so to have him sitting in the audience being on the other side and saying that makes me feel good.”
The allure of TSO can be traced back to late founder/composer/lyricist Paul O’Neill, who Plate said was adamant about never presenting the same thing twice to audiences. It’s that continual evolution or rediscovery of the material that is also buoyed by a seemingly never-ending use of cutting-edge special effects.
“In all honesty, I was talking with our lighting designer, who said next week he was going to have to start thinking about next year,” Plate said. “So these changes and new set designs take months of planning to put together.
“There’s a lot of work involved but, again, it goes back to Paul. He insisted on doing something different every year for the fans.”
TSO’s current tour, which comes to Northeast Ohio for two shows Dec. 27 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, finds the group returning to its debut, “Christmas Eve and other Stories.” The outfit will play the album in its entirety for the first time in nearly a decade.
“Having lost Paul a couple of years ago threw things off,” Plate said. “However, at that time Paul spoke about coming back to the original story, so this has been in the works for a while.
“This is the story that put us on the map. It’s our most popular CD, and it’s honestly my favorite. This is a good time to do this and, so far, it’s going really well.”
Released in 1996, the triple-platinum “Christmas Eve and other Stories” includes the hit holiday song “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24.” The highlight of TSO returning to the album is the act has reworked some of its tracks, providing a new take for audiences.
“One song is ‘Ornament,’ which has always been one of my favorites,” Plate said.
“It connects with me emotionally. It’s a ballad, and it’s really pretty heavy.
“The other song is the acoustic ‘Old City Bar.’ It’s interesting to hear how other people put a different spin or inflection on words and phrases. That really brings some of this stuff to life.”
That life for TSO in many ways began in Northeast Ohio exactly two decades ago, when a then-fledgling act discovered a hungry classic-rock audience looking for a prog-rock-meetsChristmas show.
“It was like half our first tour was based in Ohio,” Plate said. “We couldn’t book enough shows. It was awesome, and that still holds true — Ohio is our best market still. It’s that Midwestern thing. People talk about it, but when you play there you kind of realize what they mean — the audiences are great.”