TSO This Year

Amazing.
Probably more amazing than last year.
It's obviously fresher in my mind, but I do think they made some serious improvements.

The first hour and a half was the same as last year - music-wise. They went through the story from "Christmas Eve and Other Stories", which the entire album is a story about an Angel coming down to earth on Christmas Eve and visiting different places, and observing people and how they spend their holiday. The black gentleman who was the narrator (I don't know if it was the same one as last year) was AMAZING. The guy from last year was too, and they might be the same person.

I liked the set up of the lights better this year. It's hard to explain, in a way the vertical pillars had lights attached to them that came down diagonally and sort of resembled Tree branches. The over head light contraption was very similar to last year's in that it was (I think) 10 separate square light fixtures that moved basically 270-degrees in every direction.

The pyrotechnics were VERY increased from last year. Including much more fireworks during the regular show, and some pretty huge burst of flames that I could feel the heat from in me seat. And in addition to the rising stage in the middle of the audience, they also had a rising platform that had three "torches" on it, that they used. This year, the rising platform for the performers was directly in front of our seats (we were three rows up off the floor, directly in front of the stage) so we got to see the guitarist and violinist up close - following their rising stage performance, they continued playing their instruments as they walked up and down the aisles at Conseco - it was AWESOME. They would stop here and there to put on an extra display. The rising stage was also used by the lead singer in "Queen of the Winter Night" - which it is AMAZING what she can make her voice do.

This year they had dueling guitarists. Which was pretty cool. And luckily, they still did the dueling pianos, at one point including "Greensleeves" (which I don't know if Vince Guaraldi wrote or not, but I do know he has played the song on a Peanuts album) and the room (once again) ERUPTED (myself more than anyone) when they broke out with "Linus and Lucy" and used it as a segue into their Finale Medley. Amazing, amazing.

There were lasers.

There was snow.

It was amazing. It's a show that I am sad only happens once a year, here in town. I would go much more often, if I could. It AMAZES me what these people do with their hands, and the music that is made on their instruments. The way these guys play their guitars, and the way they blend guitars, strings, pianos, etc... all together to make these amazing sounds, just blows my mind. And then you couple that with their AMAZING visual light shows at the concert - it's just phenomenal.

I was able to track down a couple of videos on YouTube. This first one is cool because it begins with "Linus and Lucy" and then allows you to hear the different songs they strung together for their finale. it ROCKED!!! ENJOY:



This video is REALLY GOOD to show you the overhead lights, and how they moved:



This video gives you a good look at the "snow" coming down, as well as the video curtains that were on each side of the stage and going across the top:



Finally, this video just gives you a good overall feeling for how the stage looked, and all of the different lights that were used.



The best place to learn more about TSO is THEIR PAGE ON WIKIPEDIA.