TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, E Center, Tuesday.
Those who didn't attend the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert in the E Center on Tuesday night missed out.
On the surface TSO, as it is known by its fans, could pass for a progressive metal band, but there is more to TSO than its first impression. The band — featuring guitarist Al Pitrelli, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton, drummer John O'Reily, guitarist Angus Clark and keyboardists Carmine Giglio and Jane Mangini (Pitrelli's wife) — is a travelling musical production. It's musical theater, with laser-light shows. An array of lead vocalists — Jill Gioia, Bart Shatto, Guy Lemonnier, Michael Lanning and Tommy Farese — took turns at the microphone singing their parts while a string octet, lead by violinist Lucia Micarelli, backed the band and filled out the orchestration.
The yuletide-rock production, narrated by Anthony Gaynor, told the story of an angel on a mission to find good in the world. The subplots included a bartender paying a runaway's ticket back home and a man hearing her story from a mysterious stranger.
The sound system's mix was clean. Combining rock, blues, gospel and classical, the band cranked out "An Angel Came Down" and "A Mad Russian's Christmas," which was a rocking version of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker." It also performed its breakthrough instrumental, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24."
TSO also performed the climactic "This Christmas Day" and the reverent "Christmas Canon," based on Pachabel's "Canon in G." The music was played with heartfelt emotion, causing some audience members to cry.
The second half of the show was a good ol' rock concert, with a classical flair. The band performed a metalized version of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," paid tribute to the trio Emerson Lake & Palmer with "Nutrocker Suite" and rocked out to "Requiem," the TSO version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
Lanning and Pitrelli tipped their hats to Led Zeppelin, before cranking into a bit of LZ's "Kashmir." And Gioia's voice thundered from her 4-foot, 11-inch frame and added some soul to the energetic show.
E-mail: scott@desnews.com