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GILBERT SUN NEWS | NOVEMBER 28, 2021
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FuelFest celebrates cars, revs up the Valley BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GetOut Editor
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ody Walker and Tyrese Gibson were catching up at Red Lobster when the conversation turned to Cody’s late brother, Paul, of “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. “First, I was so offended that he had never been to Red Lobster,” Gibson said with a laugh. “Cody said, ‘I don’t know what to order, dude. What are the hits here?’” After a little ribbing, Cody told Gibson about he and Chris Lee’s plan to host festivals surrounding all-things cars called FuelFest. Gibson said count me in. After a pandemic-dictated halt to the 2020 event, FuelFest is coming to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports in Chandler on Dec. 4. They want it to succeed so much
Cody Walker is flattered that Tyrese Gibson is joining him in FuelFest. (Special to GetOut)
that Gibson said he feels vulnerable. “I’ve only said this to a chosen few,” Gibson said. “Cody and I are very vulnerable when it comes to this whole thing about FuelFest. We were talking about Paul and to have this idea and to put this idea out there, we don’t want it to fail. We want this to be successful. We want people to know about this. “We want to get the word out so people can show up. We want them to hit the road and come out to a really legendary day that you won’t forget.” Now in its third year nationwide, FuelFest blends the enthusiast’s passion for the automotive world with celebrities, live music, food, drinks and art. The show features more than 600 top custom, exotic, rare and exclusive cars and trucks. There are car and drift exhi-
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FUELFEST page 30
‘Christmas Eve’ is the star of TSO’s show
BY ALAN SCULLEY GetOut Contributor
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ast year, Trans-Siberian Orchestra was forced to cancel its signature annual project – the holiday tour of U.S. arenas that typically draws more than 1 million fans. To help fill the void, the TSO team put together a livestream concert. Scaling the show from an arena where TSO deploys a spectacular light show and all manner of pyrotechnics and special effects to something that works on a TV or computer screen was a challenge, but the livestream, which featured the 1996 “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” album, went over well. And in a way, the livestream took TSO back to its beginnings, before founder/ songwriter, the late Paul O’Neill, was financially able to create the visual concert extravaganza fans now know and
Jeff and I, I think we had, I don’t know, seven or eight cities on the tour,” Pitreilli said. “We had a box truck, two buses and a fog machine. The curtain came up, the lights went down, and we played the songs from top to bottom. It wasn’t the sensory overload that The Trans-Siberian Orchestra offers a feast for the ears and eyes in it grew up to be. It their Christmas show. (Special to GetOut) was a beautifully written story that love. The livestream also revealed an Paul O’Neill put pen to paper back in ‘95, important truth to Al Pitrelli and Jeff and we started recording in ‘96. Plate, the musical directors for TSO’s “The people fell in love with the chartwo touring ensembles. acters. They fell in love with the story,” “If you go back to our first show in ’99, he continued. “They fell in love with the
sentiment of it. Because at the end of the day, at the center of Paul’s story is about missing somebody, and everybody misses somebody, especially around the holidays. “I think during the livestream, it showed me, in particular, two things,” he said. “One is that people, they love the story. It didn’t have all the special effects. There’s no physical way we could do that. But the band played amazing. The singers brought the characters to life. I heard after the fact that we sold almost 250,000 of those things. From a financial standpoint, I could care less. It didn’t matter to me. What really made me emotional is that people wanted their tradition. Albeit virtually, we were all joined together.” Now, Pitrelli and Plate are taking the two touring ensembles of TSO back to
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TSO page 30
