TSO...

Sensory Overload...

We watch for tickets to events that might be fun for us. An alert came from one of the places we follow that the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was coming to Rupp Arena in Lexington. We have one of their Christmas CD's from several years ago. Claude thought it sounded interesting. I thought it sounded interesting. So I purchased two tickets. Thursday, November 30th, we made our way to Rupp Arena after a nice dinner on the town. 

We entered Rupp just before start time. The man sitting next to me asked if we had ever seen Tran-Siberian Orchestra before. I replied that we were just discussing that. We knew we saw Mannheim Steamroller at least once but we weren't sure we ever saw TSO. He assured me that if we had, we would remember it. Then he explained that they started out as a hard rock band and there is still that in their program. He and his wife attended the year before. While she enjoyed the program, she did not feel a need to return. He, on the other hand, was very anxious to experience this group's performance again. I turned to Claude and shared this with him just as the program was about to begin.

What a program it was. They must bring all this staging with them as well as all the lights and fire, etc. It is a full blown sensory experience from beginning to end. They did begin with a Christmas song. Then they opened a story about a young girl who ran away from home and was trying to find shelter from the snow and cold for the night in an old dilapidated theater. As she dozes, an older man comes in and finds her and starts the lights and a program unfolds for her. This is all around great music. When this part of the program is over, TSO just plays music for the remainder of the evening. 

Here are a few pictures I was able to get. The four stages off the front of the main stage that each go up and down. There was also a stage in the center of the back of the arena that raised and lowered with band members playing on it or fire flaming coming up from it. The laser lights were amazing and there were many, many of them. There was a U-shaped cat-walk that came down from the ceiling and the entertainers would get on it and it would raise them up above the audience as they performed walking around the cat-walk. There were screens all around the cat-walk that showed what was being shown on the main stage. All the screens in Rupp around the bottom of the box seats also showed the same scene as the main screen on the stage. 

I couldn't get over the use of fire. I commented to Claude that it must have been fun to get all the permits needing to be cleared for just this event. 

The band has huge energy and were often walking down the aisles and up into the stands.  

It was a one of a kind experience for Claude and me. Well worth the price of admission. But, if you go, be prepared for lots of volume, lots of lights, lots of fire, and the list goes on. Wow!!