Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Honda Center - Anaheim, California - 11/30/24

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a rock band formed in 1996 by composer, producer and lyricist Paul O’Neill. TSO primarily features members from the heavy metal band, Savatage. Some of those members include Al Pitrelli, Chris Caffery, Johnny Lee Middleton, Jeff Plate and Zak Stevens. Sadly, O’Neill passed away in 2017. TSO has continued to tour in his honor. TSO is most widely known for their Christmas music, live performances and most importantly, their heavy use of lights, lasers and pyro. This year, TSO is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their fourth album, The Lost Christmas Eve. The theme for this year would be that they would be performing all the songs from that album in its entirety. The tour is so big that it’s impossible for one band to make a full tour run during the winter. Instead, TSO breaks up into two bands with one half covering the west side of the USA and the other half covering the east. This review will focus on TSO West. The stop in Southern California was the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Like a lot of their stops on tour, they would be playing two shows in one day for this stop. A Saturday night was perfect for this show and with a packed venue, it would make a show like this all the better.
The lights went out and the packed venue cheered with excitement as the curtain lifted to reveal the entire band on stage. The first song performed was a Savatage cover of “Welcome” which is appropriate in order to welcome everyone to the show. Right away, TSO made use of their strobe lights and fog as a huge sign saying “Welcome to the Show” lit up above the stage. The next song was “Moonlight and Madness,” a reworking of Mozart’s Symphony No.25. Now, it was time for the first half of the show to start where the entire The Lost Christmas Eve album would be played. First, the band’s narrator Phillip Brandon came out to introduce the album’s story. Up first was “Faith Noel” and made for a nice instrumental to start the album. Next up was the title track “The Lost Christmas Eve” and featured Dustin Brayley who also handles guitar for TSO. The next song performed is one of TSO’s most famous songs “Wizards in Winter” and is the first song of the show where pyro is used in unison with strobe lights to match the rhythm of the song. One of the best songs of the night performed was “Queen of the Winter Night” and it featured TSO veteran singer April Berry inside a snow globe while singing the song. She sang the song flawlessly and the song itself is a reworking of the opera song originally by Mozart. A Christmas show wouldn’t be right without the Grinch joining, and so the next song played was “What Is Christmas?” which is sung by newcomer Daniel Emmet who sang the song graciously. Another one of TSO’s most beautiful songs was about to be performed and it was “For the Sake of Our Brother.” The song is sung by TSO veteran Chloe Lowery. As always, she sings her songs to perfection and this song was no exception. The venue was in complete silence as all you could do was stare and listen in awe as her voice filled the venue. When she finished, the venue cheered and applauded her amazing performance. She also has her own music which is out now on all streaming platforms. After a few more songs from the album, it was time for the final song on the album. The song was “Different Wings”, and it featured Moriah Formica who is on her third TSO tour. She also fronts her own band, Plush. The show was now halfway done, and the band’s narrator Phillip Brandon came out to close out the album and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. The band took a quick break so band leader Al Pitrelli could speak to the audience. One of his favorite things to ask is the show of hands of new attendees versus the repeat offenders. The second half of the show would be a best of TSO set. As the band prepared to play the first song, Pitrelli dedicated the song to former TSO keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij who sadly passed away earlier this year. The first song played for the greatest hits set was a medley of “King Rurik”/”Mozart and Madness”/”Tracers”. During the song, guitarist Angus Clark and violinist Asha Mevlana were attached to pedestals that stretched out into the crowd above their heads so everyone could get an up-close look. For the performance of “The Three Kings and I,” vocalists Rosa Larricchiuta and Lorea Turner were brought out to sing. This was the first TSO for Turner, so this was her chance to shine, and she did very well for her first tour. The song “First Snow” is one of TSO’s most popular songs performed live as, during the song, soap that mimics snow is dropped onto the unsuspecting audience below. Another one of the best songs performed is a Savatage cover of “Believe” that is sung by Nate Amor. He puts his own spin on the song, and it came out beautifully. The crowd joined in and flashed their phone flashlights around the venue. The song was dedicated to the memory of O’Neill. Sadly, nearing the end of the show, it was time for TSO to bring out the big guns. The next song performed was Requiem (The Fifth). It is a reworking of Mozart’s Requiem. Lots of pyro went on giving the song an even better look. Even in the middle of the venue, TSO’s logo was set ablaze. The second to last song was “This Christmas Day” and all the vocalists were brought out as a chorus while singer Jeff Scott Soto fronted the song and kept hyping up the audience and even had everyone stand up on their feet to sing along and clap their hands. The stage was covered in traditional Christmas red and green lights. To end this amazing 2.5-hour show, TSO saved their best song for last. It was the Savatage cover of “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24”. TSO brought out all their tricks for this last song which included a huge background screen, lights, pedestals, and lots of pyro. Everyone in the band was out for this song and it’s one of the best sights to see. As the song was ending, fireworks were going off in all directions as well as pyro. They emptied the tanks when it came to the fireworks and pyro. The show came to an end and the band came out to bow to the audience and thanked them for coming out. TSO always puts on one of the best shows of the year and they only come around once a year, so if you see them coming near you or even if you have to travel a bit for a show, do it because it’s well worth it.