MUSIC: It's time for pyrotechnics of sound and light

By Jack Hill

Photo by Media press release

Maestros of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show are (from left) Bob Kinkel, Paul O'Neill and Al Pitrelli.

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — It's the annual return of the band with the funny name.

"Funny" not as in "ha-ha" funny, but in peculiar and odd funny.

When the Trans-Siberian Orchestra burst on the scene in 1996, some people expected to see sturdy wind-swept peasants, pulled by sled dogs, playing tubas and balalaikas.

Come to find out, the outfit was actually the dream job of some heavy metal rockers, tired of incessant touring all year 'round, with a new idea about touring hard for just two months out of 12.

Thus was born the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and if any Russians or Soviets were involved, no one was ever the wiser.

Fans have evidently figured it all out. In 2007, the orchestra played to some 1.2 million patrons in more than 90 cities, raking in nearly $45 million in sales of tickets and merchandise - and that's for work done between Nov. 1 and Jan. 1. Two separate orchestras tour the country, playing two shows in most towns.

Here in central Arkansas, the orchestra chose the day after Christmas for its two shows in one day, blending Christmas music with other loud, symphonic, adapted traditionals, plus some original sounds and a light show into what is reportedly a three-hour show.

(The other group will be doingshows at 3 and 8 p.m. today in the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario.) A press release says $2 million a month is spent to create pyro material; 136,000 pounds of lighting equipment is used to illuminate some 70 group members, 18 of whom are lead singers.

Paul O'Neill and Al Pitrelli came up with the idea for the Trans-Siberian approach, aided by Jon Oliva, who had founded Savatage, a Florida-based heavy metal outfit, with his brother.

Pitrelli had been a member of Asia and Alice Cooper before joining Savatage, and O'Neill had been the band's producer during its most successful years, the late 1980s, when he decided to incorporate symphonic instruments into the Savatage attack. Pitrelli later left the group to join Megadeth.

The recordings began in 1996 with Christmas Eve & Other Stories, then followed with The Christmas Attic in 1998 and The Lost Christmas Eve in 2004, along with a 2001 DVD, TheGhost of Christmas Eve, which became a popular fundraising tool on public television. A new album, Night Castle, is reportedly due for release in the summer.

O'Neill explains that the orchestra's approach is all over the map.

"On stage, we have prodigal teenagers playing alongside longtime pros in the 20s, 30s and 40s," he says in press materials. "You have the guitarists from Kool and the Gang and Megadeth alongside the cellist from the New York Philharmonic. One of the guitaristswill play a metal or funk riff and the guy from the Philharmonic gives it a classical flair. We have opera singers rubbing off on the R&B guys rubbing off on Broadway folks.

"For the musicians, this is the greatest kind of continuing education and inspiration."Trans-Siberian Orchestra 3 and 8 p.m. today, Alltel Arena, East Broadway and Interstate 30, North Little Rock Tickets: $52.75, $42.75, $32.75 (501) 975-7575 or www.ticketmas ter.com or all Ticketmaster outlets

Weekend, Pages 55 on 12/26/2008