Touring with the emotional The Lost Christmas Eve, TSO evokes the varied emotions found in the Christmas Spirit
Trans-Siberian Orchestra dropped into the Sweetest Place on Earth for two shows at Giant Center. The Hershey, PA stop is part of TSO’s 25th year of winter touring.
This year, the group is presenting the full album, complete with narration, of The Lost Christmas Eve. Against a chapel-like backdrop with portholes for projection mapping, the massive band worked their wizardry to create the world of the album. Set in a nightclub dripping in “electric blue” and taken over by a mysterious Lost child, TSO tells her story in a riveting fashion.
Transported to a toy shop for “Wish Liszt,” two players dueled it out on the same set of keys. A female singer took us to church in “For the Sake of Our Brother,” and a grieving widower entered the club to ask of the Christmas season to find him a reason to go on in “Back to a Reason.”
TSO rocked out with lasers and fireballs on a double-header “Christmas Jam” and “Siberian Sleigh Ride.” If there were a Guinness World Record for most laser blasts per second, surely this band would win the award. And the spot from the frequent flames coated the marble-white staircase center stage.
After the band introductions, the Orchestra delivered some of their best-known songs. This included high-octane Mozart and Beethoven interpretations and of course their biggest hits “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” and “Mad Russian’s Christmas.”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra is full always full of surprises and long on tradition. And the 2024 tour is as awe-inspiring as any before it. Like many others there, I was raised on Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s music.
To hear their music start permeating from the radio every November is to be back in front of my Mom’s tape deck listening to a cassette and letting the Electric Blue wash over me, making me more eager for Santa’s arrival with every note. And 25 years later, sitting next to my Mom, that Christmas feeling is not Lost at all.
