TSO keeps holiday spirit rocking

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By David Burke | Saturday, December 30, 2006 1:13 AM CST | () comments

Photo by John Schultz/Quad-City Times A light show opens the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s performance at The Mark of the Quad-Cities on Friday night.

The all-Christmas-music radio stations have gone back to their old playlists. The 50 percent-off wrapping paper is almost gone from the shelves. And the last braggadocio-filled holiday letter arrived days ago.

But even four days after Christmas, the spirit was alive and well and rocking Friday at The Mark of the Quad-Cities.

That was thanks to the return of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, in its fourth straight year of holiday performances at Moline arena. More than 15,000 people saw the Friday afternoon and evening shows in the penultimate performances of the group’s two-month tour.

The first 90 minutes of the 2 1/2-hour-plus concert followed much of the same structure as in previous years — a richly voiced narrator (Anthony Gaynor) telling the story of an angel who appears at an “old city bar” on Christmas Eve and takes an inhabitant on a trip around the world.

The tunes in between may have changed, but they were all a mix of traditional Christmas tunes wrapped up inside of original songs with 1980s-brand hard and progressive rock tying up the bow.

Guitarist and on-stage leader Al Pitrelli — who’s apparently developed his own fan club — fronted a talented group of onstage musicians with seven singers sharing solos throughout the night. Pitrelli and company were greeted with the same enthusiasm and adoration afforded to the likes of Van Halen and Bon Jovi.

The final hour of the concert included selections from the band’s non-Christmas album, “Beethoven’s Last Night,” in which classical music gave way to a credible cover of Eric Clapton’s “Layla” and a finale that featured metal riffs added to the playful “Linus and Lucy” music from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

What’s exponentially impressive each year is the visuals — a cacophony of lime-green and cherry-red lasers, blinding on-stage lights, an overhead lighting system that makes you believe the mother ship has landed and even a hefty amount of snow that melted on the audience a few seconds after contact.

There also were a few onstage pyrotechnics and gas-powered flames both onstage and in the rear of The Mark.

In four years, the TSO has gone from a barely recognizable group with an odd name to a hard-edged holiday tradition in the Quad-Cities.

Don’t look at the Friday shows as leftovers four days after Christmas. Just consider yourself given a 361-day head start for ’07.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.