The Lost Christmas Eve - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

I don't often get out to concerts as most of the bands I've got on my "wish to see live" list don't come any closer to where I live than New York City and often at an awkward time (like the first week of school or the week after Christmas when travelling is almost impossible), however I was very, very happy to be able to attend the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Winter Tour this year in Albany where they performed their Lost Christmas Eve.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra during their Encore performance

I've been to a couple of concerts before TSO, but they've all been outdoors at fairly small venues. (The largest would be KROCK's Dysfunctional Family Barbecue with Flogging Molly in 2012)

TSO definitely took the cake as my favorite concert experience yet. I know some people don't care for extravagant light shows or pyrotechnics in their music concert experience, however I thought the whole thing was absolutely captivating, well done, and beautifully done. The energy of the band matched the music and performance wonderfully and the story that they told through the music and story-teller (Bryan Hicks) was enchanting.

I went to the concert with my mother and grandmother and we had awesome seats with a great angle to the stage (view above photo). The sound was great and the stage presence of the musicians was definitely there-I didn't know if their presence would be overwhelmed by the lights and music but it really wasn't.

My grandmother bought me a program which contains the music from the show which I've been listening to today for most of the day. As a symphonic music fan, TSO is definitely near the top of my favorite band list of the genre (near Nightwish, Tarja, After Forever, and all those other good ones) and as far as newer Christmas music, they've got my vote for favorite.

I can't really pick out my favorite performance of the evening from them as it was all so beautiful and enchanting, but Erika Jerry's performance of "For the Sake of Our Brother" certainly stands out, as does TSO's performance of Carol of the Bells (my personal favorite). They even threw a Vince Guaraldi piece into their mix which was fun and executed well.

I never knew having so many people out on the stage at once would work and not rise to a clamor, but I suppose that is why they are the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The signing session after the concert was nice and they seem to be quite down to earth and appreciative of their fans.

Overall, the concert was a fantastic experience and I definitely would recommend it to anyone who likes their music and a good show.