Trans Siberian Orchestra

Last Tuesday, my husband's work's Christmas party for the employees, were tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra.  I wasn't terribly familiar with their music.  I only knew a couple of songs.  If you aren't familiar with TSO, they are kind of an electric guitar rocking band.  They have an electric violinist, two pianist, a drummer on a huge set, and a small string ensemble.  They really rocked the house!  I'm not a head banging, electric guitar rocking fan, but their music was quite awesome.  I had a fun time.  The show lasted for about three hours.  The first half of the show they told a sweet Christmas story with the spoken story being in prose and inbetween the storyteller's tale, they had their music.  Some of it was original music and some was new versions to old tunes like Carol of the Bells (one of their more famous songs.)  The second half of the show was their own oringinal music and showing off their tremendous talents.

The light system was incredible and their were lights in time with the music, laser show, pyrotechnics, and everything you would expect of a rock concert. It was a lot of fun.

Sadly for me, that's the night I got sick, so I was cold, achy and not enjoying the experience nearly as much as I might have otherwise.

I was really amazed to see, among the concert goes, a lot of gray and white haired people.  I was kind of surprised to see so many older folks at the show.  I mean, this was head banging, loud electric guitar music.  But then I got to thinking about these gray haired folks.  These guys were teens or young adults in the 60's and 70's.  This was the generation that went to Woodstock.  This is the generation that saw the Rolling Stones and The Who.  They were the first to go to ear-bleeding, head banging concerts.  Why wouldn't they still enjoy it now? 

This is my 3rd concert I've been too.  If you know anything about me, you might be able to guess who two of my favorite bands are.  Can you guess?  The Monkees and The Beatles.  I was a kid when the Monkees had their 20th anniversary tour and I got to see them when they went to Dallas.  I sat out in the grass for hours, drinking Gatorade and being so excited I could hardly sit still. Then the thrill of seeing Peter, Micky and Davy was beyond anything I had ever experienced. The funny thing about that concert was "Weird Al" was the opening band.  At the time I didn't know who Weird Al was, but it was not a full year later that I was introduced to his music and became a big fan.  All I remember of Weird Al's part of the concert was the "Addicted to Spuds" song.  He had people dressed as potatoes dancing on the stage.

My other favorite band, The Beatles, broke up before I was born, but in the 90's, Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band came to Dallas and I went to see him.  Awesome!

Now I can can Trans Siberian Orchestra to my list of concerts.  It was so much fun.  Next time, though, I need to remember ear plugs.  It was a little louder than I was comfortable with.  I'm such an old fuddy-duddy.

If you've never heard any of TSO before, I recomend this - Carol of the Bells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vNcGlM8O3I

if you like that, you should also listen to Wizards in Winter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFLOh44P5z0&feature=related