The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been traveling across America since 1999, serving up heavy-metal thunder every holiday season in almost every market that has a decent-sized arena.
After almost a quarter-century, is it safe to say that the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has reached the status of being a Christmas tradition?
“It’s a pretty heavy statement to say that we’ve become a holiday tradition,” said drummer Jeff Plate, who has been part of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra – TSO, for short – since its inception. “That carries a lot of weight. But that’s true. We’ve become something that a lot of families attend every year. A lot of families look at this as their family get-together.”
Indeed, in the period between the turkey-carving on Thanksgiving and the ball dropping on New Year’s Eve, the TSO is as ubiquitous as mistletoe, eggnog, Rudolph and Burl Ives. The orchestra’s fiery rendition of “Carol of the Bells” is a staple of holiday radio formats and in-store sound systems, and albums like “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” and “The Christmas Attic” get played in some homes the way holiday discs by Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra once were (and, in some cases, still are). Launched by the late producer and manager Paul O’Neill in 1996, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was originally conceived as an amalgamation of classical music, progressive rock like that created in the early 1970s by bands like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and the crunchiest hard rock.
It has strayed from the Christmas format occasionally, with the prime examples being “Beethoven’s Last Night,” a saga that combines the classical composer with the “Faust” legend, and “Night Castle,” a rock opera released in 2009. Still, the TSO is inevitably bound up with Christmas.
Anyone attending a TSO show can expect plenty of pyrotechnics, lasers and lights, along with reworkings of “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “What Child Is This?” and original material like “Wizards in Winter” and “The Lost Christmas Eve.” According to Plate, “It’s quite the spectacle when we get this thing fired up.”
Considered one of the most durable acts in the concert industry, there are two versions of the TSO on the road during the holiday season – one company covers the West Coast and parts of the South, while the other journeys through the East Coast and Midwest. It’s the latter company that will be at PPG Paints Arena for shows at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17.
Plate, who is 60 and a former drummer of the metal band Savatage, explained over the phone from a tour stop in Schenectady, N.Y., last week, “When we started this in ‘99, it was obviously just one band. Then, in 2000, we split the group into two. I’ve always been on the East Coast.”
He continued, “We try to hit all the major cities across the country. And there are smaller markets, too, that we do very, very well in. When we’re doing two shows a day in a smaller arena, that still adds up to a lot of people.”
In 2020, the TSO was forced off the road due to the pandemic. In 2021, the show was back on the road, though with an abundance of precautions. Plate said, “Last year, at the end of the tour, was probably the biggest sense of relief I can recall in a long time. Just having gotten through it, without getting sick and without canceling any shows. It really was quite stressful.”
If there’s a downside to being in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, it’s being away from family and friends during the holidays, Plate explained, particularly for the musicians with young children at home. Still, he says being out with the TSO is “one of the best tours, period.”
He continued, “I have a real sense of pride in being here from the beginning and being a part of this as it has grown over the years. Every year is a huge success.”
