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Trans-Siberian Orchestra will put on livestream show starting Dec. 18 RICHARD DUCKET T
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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
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t has become a tradition in recent years that the TransSiberian Orchestra comes to the DCU Center in Worcester every holiday season to put on one of its “prog-rock” spectacles as part of a 60-plus city November/December itinerary. Last year there were two shows at the DCU Center the same day. For TSO drummer Jeff Plate, the visits here might elicit a “full- circle” type of feeling back from when he was trying to get himself established. Speaking about Worcester during a recent telephone interview, Plate said, “I actually used to live there in the early ‘80s.” Remembering when the DCU Center was the Worcester Centrum, “I went to quite a few shows there,” he said. Locally, he played in a cover band. This year, however, he won’t be going to the DCU Center with TSO, as COVID-19 has shut down the group’s traditionally massive holiday tour. But there will be another case of full-circle as TSO puts on a livestreamed show Dec. 18 with a revisit of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories,” the band’s 1996 rock-opera debut album which got the whole TSO phenomenon started almost 25 years ago. Plate’s been there from the start. “I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in front of this show from the beginning,” he said. The Dec. 18 show will be a spectacle in the tradition of TSO live concerts, Plate said, while at the same time adhering to social distancing and other health measures. It will be performed and livestreamed live at 8 p.m. Dec. 18 from a sound stage in Nashville and offered as a “family-friendly” $30 allin ticket. Special pre-show content will include behind-the-scenes footage and interview segments. For those unable to view the livestream’s debut on Dec. 18, TSO will make the performance available for streaming on demand through midnight on Dec. 20. In addition to purchasing the stream, there will be the option to purchase gift packages, including T-shirts, or-
Jeff Plate of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. SUBMIT TED PHOTO
naments, and masks, plus livestream tickets can be sent digitally to friends and family as presents. For more details and to purchase tickets and packages, visit www.trans-siberian. com. The 1996 album “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” with Plate on drums, went triple platinum with tracks such as the song “Ornament,” and compelling instrumentals of “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo” and the traditional “O Come All Ye Faithful.” The album would become part of a Christmas trilogy. In 1999, TSO embarked on its first live tour with a stage adaptation of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories.” Plate can recall opening night at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. “It (‘Christmas Eve’) had already been a hit. I remember being very nervous. ‘Wow, what did we get ourselves into?’ “ The audience may not have known what to expect. One man was dressed as if he was going to see an orchestra, while another looked ready for heavy metal, Plate said.
“I knew we had something. How it translated live was the key.” At the end of the concert there was a huge standing ovation. “Honestly, Paul O’Neill just struck magic when he wrote that story. It really laid the groundwork for TSO,” Plate said. Since that touring debut, TSO has played approximately 2,100 concert dates for more than 17 million fans and has sold in excess of 12 million albums and DVDs. O’Neill was the TSO founder, composer and lyricist whose presence remains large even three years after his sudden death at the age of 61 in 2017. His family is active with management behind the scenes, and band members such as Plate speak of him with awe in their voices and sentiments. “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” centers on a young angel sent to Earth on Christmas Eve to bring back what is best representative of humanity. When O’Neill founded TSO he had Christmas in mind from the very beginning, as he had
recalled in prior interviews ahead of TSO holiday tours. He was obsessed with Christmas. Meanwhile, “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” gave birth to the unique format O’Neill called “Rock Theater.” The band toured with “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” for 12 years through 2011. Then in 2012 and 2013, TSO staged its 2004 album, “The Lost Christmas Eve,” and in 2014 hit the road with 1998’s “The Christmas Attic.” From 2015 to 2018, TSO featured an adaptation of its 1999 TV special “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve.” But last year “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” made its return to stages and arenas. “It went great,” Plate said of last year’s tour. “It was really quite refreshing for all of us. It was also something Paul had been thinking about (bringing the show back on tour). It’s a great show. I think it went off great last year. We were definitely going to do this show live (again) when we were going to tour. I was not in the room when the decision was made (about the live stream) but
I’m sure that had something to do with it.” Noting that next year is the 25th anniversary of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories,” Plate added, “I think it’s very appropriate we’re doing the stream.” According to Billboard, TSO grossed $46.8 million and sold 706,000 tickets between Dec. 1 and Dec. 30 last year, with $20 million in November, making 2019 a record year. Forbes reported that “In 2019, armed with 250 organization members and $1 million in pyrotechnics, the East/West TSO teams crisscrossed the country on the Christmas Eve and Other Stories tour with 40 trucks and 20 buses and 18 musicians per team. With a large team roster and local hires, TSO hit 66 cities within a seven-week window where it was never unusual to clock two performances a day for three straight days.” As the pandemic hit in the spring, Plate could see that this year’s tour was in trouble. “The final decision (to cancel) I think was a couple of months ago. When this occurred in the spring it kind of put us on notice that we would not be touring. The streaming show was obviously on the back burner,” Plate said. TSO members have watched other live-streamed shows from bands, but “we are such a different animal. We are around every year. We have become for a lot of people — this is their Christmas get-together. People say Christmas just doesn’t start until we see TSO,” Plate said. The Dec. 18 live-streamed show will be “on the grand scale” of TSO, Plate said. Since 2000, TSO holiday shows had been divided up to be performed by West and East touring groups. Dec. 18 will bring them together. Bryan Hicks will narrate and Al Pitrelli (guitar) and Derek Wieland (keyboards) will serve as musical directors. The band will feature Chris Caffery (guitar), Mee Eun Kim (keyboards), Johnny Lee Middleton (bass), Asha Mevlana (violin) and Plate (drums). Vocalists will be Russell Allen, Nate Amor, John Brink, Erika Jerry, Chloe
