Christine's Birthday Gift:Trans-Siberian Orchestra

For her birthday, Keith took Christine to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Times Union Center in Albany on Sunday, Dec. 7th.

She had wanted to go see them for the last couple of years, but the timing was bad 2 years ago and Austin was only 3 weeks old last year...so we had to wait until this year to go see the show.

The performances were very good (second set of songs better than the first) and the light show was spectacular. We had a great time. If you are unfamiliar with the group, we can provide you with a brief (unknown popularly) history:

• Savatage was a band that was in its prime in the mid 80s through the mid 90s
• In 1995, they released a concept album titled "Dead Winter Dead"...the storyline revolved around the Bosnian War and a Serb boy who falls for a Muslim girl. Toward the end of the album, to convey to the listener that the story had progressed to Christmas, Savatage included a heavy-metal version of a medley of the Christmas songs "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". The song, titled "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" went on to be the band's most popular track ever and attained cross-over success...even being featured on Budweiser commercials.
  
• These metal musicians realized that there was more money to be made playing hard-rock versions of Christmas songs, and created a new band/touring company: Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO)
  
• Now...the band has released 4 albums to date and gets together every year for 3 months to tour as TSO. They make a ton of cash...performing 2 shows, almost daily (for 3 months) with 2 separate tours (an east coast tour and a west coast tour). How much do they bring in? Well, figure 2 shows per day, averaging 12,000 people each, at an average of $50 per ticket, at 60 different locations in 3 months. Then double that number, because there are 2 tours simultaneously taking place on each coast.
  
• Meanwhile, the other 9 months out of the year, the players return to their own individual projects until the cash calls the next winter. Who said heavy metal musicians aren't smart?

A lot of people are surprised to know that the same people who perform Trans Siberian Orchestra are this guy (who ironically, softened the music on his sampler for the holiday season--but the album cover pictured is more indicative of his styling), this guy and this guy.

Regardless of their history, however, Christine had a wonderful time and enjoyed the show. Keith even got to enjoy a portion of the set where the played a couple of Savatage songs to honor the former guitarist and founding member, Criss Oliva who died tragically 15 years ago.

We were able to take a few shots with the camera, and figured we would share them with everyone here: