Whatever happened to Savatage? They really weren't half bad.
Somewhere between their 1995 album
Dead Winter Dead and the light bulb that lit up in producer Paul O'Neill's head in 1996 and told him to create the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a metal-lite equivalent of Mannheim Steamroller, something went tragically awry. Not surprisingly, Sunday evening's TSO performance at Toyota Center was barely half good.
As Thora Birch says in
Ghost World, "This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again."
Most of the crowd seemed to care little that what they were watching defied any notion that quality beats quantity. On the contrary, the TSO is a touring extravaganza that has no qualms about admitting to having been influenced by the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Since the radio success of "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" - originally recorded by Savatage - the TSO has become a commercial brand name synonymous with perennial Christmas. And lights. Lots and lots of lights.
The Toyota Center probably has never been bedecked with as many lights as it was during this show. There were robotic lasers. Diamond-shaped light riggings on the ceiling. Scaffolds of more lights and television screens that changed formations while displaying news reels of Americana and wartime footage. There was snow - yes, snow - falling onto the audience from above. There were platforms that elevated and emitted bursts of fire.
Epileptics should never go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
All these visual extravagances (which were often painfully blinding) accompanied a small string section, two guitarists and a bassist (Al Pitrelli, Angus Clark, Chris Altenhof), two keyboardists (one with a strange, floppy wrist technique), vocal soloists, dramatic recitations, synchronized head-banging and violin-bow-throwing choreography and a drummer with a mullet.
According to audience member Rich Zwelling, "The lights are there pretty much to distract you from how bad the music is."
And, oh, how bad it was. Christmas carol rearrangements were interspersed with forgettable original songs and melodramatic storytelling. A
Nutcracker Suite medley and variations on Mozart (also adapted from the Savatage version) attempted - unsuccessfully - to add classical legitimacy to the relatively simple melodies.
