It’s that time of year again! Time for the lights, the trees, the sounds, the smiling faces, the sometimes kind gestures and of course it is the time of year for the annual Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert! Last night with family in tow, we traveled to the city that never sleeps, New York City to the ‘world’s most famous arena’, Madison Square Garden. This was my fourth year seeing the show, 5th show all together, and I swear it keeps getting bigger and bigger each year.

For those of you who haven’t seen a TSO show yet, and may be skeptical, I tell when you can…GO! The show will not disappoint you! The show started off with selections from their debut album “Christmas Eve & Other Stories”. The different sounds and voices bring the album to life, with a massive light show that includes lasers, strobes as well as the fog machines and light rigging moving all around. It is amazing. From instrumentals like “O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night” to the raspy vocals of “Old City Bar”, to the massive hit “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24”, this album is brought to life with the narrative part giving you the insight to the story being told.

Once the story is over, main man Chris Caffery takes center stage to introduce the 11,000 strong concertgoers to the singers and musicians. After the intros are done, the show then turns into a creative effort of fun and surprise! They play hits from their other two Christmas albums, “The Christmas Attic” and the most recent “The Lost Christmas Eve”. Showing the wide range of their talent from jazz blues to operatic, to rock and roll the show is nearly untouchable by any other concert seen by my eyes. And speaking of ‘rock and roll’, the first tune played ends in a cover of Led Zeppelins’ “Rock N Roll”! It should be noted that the second lead guitarist on the East Coast tour is non other then Alex Skolnick of Savatage & Testament fame.

If you have any of the CDs you can just imagine these songs brought to live. They are traditional songs we all grew up on and with a twist make them even more memorable. Toward the end of the show, Chris introduces us to a new tune they performed last year as well, and again this year letting us know that the songs will be on the NEW non-holiday Trans-Siberian Orchestra album “Night Castle”. The tune is ‘O Fortuna” by Carl OFF. And it is a blend of large guitar, chanting vocals in Latin, and builds on a steady progression to a loud end! Amazing! After that one the bane rips through a few songs off their “Beethoven’s Last Night “ album with “Beethoven”, “Mozart” & “Requiem (The Fifth)” medley. Here TSO show off their new light show and pyro show! Which lite the area brightly!

After the Beethoven medley, Chris introduces one of the TSO creators Paul O’Neill to the stage, who gives everyone thanks and then says they are about to bring out a special guest to the stage! New York City being where the main core of the band is from, we are all wondering who is coming out??? Paul says the person was part of one if not the first all girl rock bands and then went on to have a successful and still active solo career, and with that said, he introduces Joan Jett to the stage to thunderous applause! Joan comes out and straps on a guitar, as does Paul, and every musician and singer hits the stage for a loud rendition of “I Love Rock N Roll”! The audience ate this up! Everyone sang every lyric to the song! One of the loudest things I ever witnessed!

The song ended with the band breaking into the encore version of “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24”. It is slightly longer, more rocking version then the first part of the show. During the song, Chris Caffery and bass player David Z., run into the audience to center arena and climb a few stairs and get strapped in as the solo comes on. During the solo the stage lifts to about 30ft in the area, with lights and smoke bellowing out from underneath it! It was extremely cool! The lift lowers and the two make their way back to the stage that is not illuminated in every laser, strobe colored light, house light and fog machines to a climatic finish!

The second part of their concert as I stated just keeps getting better and better, and I really really urge anyone, to get tickets, bring the family of all ages, by the cheap seats to get the full effect of the laser light show! You will walk away with an ear to ear smile and a memory of a lifetime!

Official Trans-Siberian Ocrestra website: www.trans-siberian.com