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Features, Tours and Festivals

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Announces “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve – The Best of TSO & More” Winter Tour

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The Press Release:
Prepare for a musical journey like no other this winter as Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is set to spread rock vibes throughout its spectacular annual holiday tour. Today, the multi-platinum rock group, which has consistently hit the upper-reaches of the touring charts for the past 15 years, unveiled the exciting details of their highly anticipated 2023 winter tour, titled “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve – the Best of TSO & More.” This year’s tour promises a new and larger presentation of the beloved holiday tradition, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” which has captured the hearts of multiple generations. The tour kick-starts on November 15 with captivating performances in Green Bay, WI, and Council Bluffs, IA. Over the course of the tour, TSO will visit 62 cities, delivering an impressive 104 performances before concluding on December 30 (view the complete itinerary below and on www.trans-siberian.com).

Presales for TSO fan club members will be held on Thursday, Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. local time and Friday, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. local time. The public on-sale is set to begin on Friday, Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. local time. Beginning with the public on sale, special $39* tickets will be available for one week or while supplies last. For more details on tour dates and ticket sales, visit www.trans-siberian.com.
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Features, PiercingMetal Says

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Announces First-Ever Livestream Event For December

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The Press Release:
In August, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) was forced to make the heartbreaking announcement that, for the first time in more than 20 years, the group will not be able to tour during the holiday season. The multi-platinum, critically acclaimed, progressive rock group, is proud to make an exciting announcement today – to keep its rock holiday tradition alive, TSO will bring a performance right into fans’ homes with the world premiere of its first-ever livestream event, “Christmas Eve and Other Stories Live In Concert,” on Fri., Dec. 18.

TSO performing an all-new staging of its beloved album “Christmas Eve and Other Stories,” means that fans, despite missing so much in 2020, won’t have to miss their favorite holiday tradition. This electrifying livestream will bring some much-needed rockin’ Christmas spirit to fans everywhere. In addition to the full album concert, fans will view special pre-show content including behind-the-scenes footage and classic interview segments.
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Features, Tours and Festivals

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Announces 20th Anniversary Winter Tour

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The cooler breeze that’s being enjoyed in my metropolis today was almost the perfect lead into the news about the Winter 2018 tour by the mighty Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Once more, the pair of massive ensembles will be hitting the road to entertain you like few others can ever manage and the full press release and ALL tour dates are below for your examination. Get thee reading.

The Press Release:
Marking the band’s 20th consecutive year of touring, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) today announced its highly-anticipated Winter Tour 2018. TSO’s annual November-December multi-sensory extravaganza, which sells out venues year after year, has cemented the group’s status as a must-attend, multi-generational, holiday tradition. This year’s 20th anniversary tour, a presentation of TSO’s unforgettable “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” featuring founder/composer/lyricist Paul O’Neill’s timeless story of a runaway who finds her way into a mysterious abandoned theater, is set to begin on November 14th and will visit 65 cities across North America, for 100-plus performances, before concluding on December 30th (see full itinerary below). TSO’s Winter Tour 2018 is presented by Hallmark Channel.

Beginning today, August 20th, through August 31st, the Winter Tour 2018 will begin its “12 Days of TSO Verified Fan Registration” where all fans can sign up at tso.tmverifiedfan.com (powered by Ticketmaster Verified Fan) for exclusive access to the best tickets for the best price before tickets go on-sale to the general public. Pre-sales will begin for TSO fan club members on September 5th at 10:00 a.m. local time for November 14th though November 30th tour dates; on September 6th at 10 a.m. local time for December 1 through December 16 tour dates; and on September 7th at 10 a.m. local time for December 17 through December 30th. Fans who are not members of TSO’s fan club, and who have registered during the “12 Days of TSO Verified Fan Registration” will have the opportunity to participate in a presale on September 11thand 12th. General public on sale is set to begin on September 14th. For more details on tour dates and all on sales, visit the link below.
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Features, Milestones

Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Debut “Christmas Eve & Other Stories”; A Modern Classic At 20 Years

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I can hardly believe that I am writing this but I am got for today marks the 20th Anniversary of the release of “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was the group’s first album and it blew me away from the very first listen and I can proudly say that I have been listening to this recording since it was released. My introduction to them is on the amusing side because I had been a longtime fan of the band Savatage and was keeping up with their releases as they appeared at the record shop and found the sounds on the album “Dead Winter Dead” to be something very, very different. In my mind the band always pushed the creative envelope and were more than a typical Heavy Metal band but with this body of work there was a grandiose nature to it and even a sense of cinematic or Broadway drama. This was of course due to the creative genius of Paul O’Neill and Jon Oliva who wrote and composed this one from beginning to end. When that album reached the track of “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” I was floored. Yeah I had listened to Heavy Metal Christmas tracks when I heard them but they were few and far between at the time. Stryper had a good one but most of the rest were just Rock artists. This was new and quite different to my aural senses.
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Music, Reviews

“Return To Wacken” by Savatage

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Artist: Savatage
Title: “Return To Wacken”
Label: Ear Music
Release Date: 6/30/2015
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4/5

It’s been far too long since the Metal world has had new music from the great Savatage and their last recorded work together was on “Poets and Madmen” which hit us hard back in 2001 care of Nuclear Blast Records. Since that time, Savatage has been on a bit of a lengthy hiatus while numerous members focused their creative energies on the holiday touring juggernaut known as the Trans-Siberian Orchestra while others continued on into projects of their own. Now in celebration of the bands return to the live stage for the Wacken Open Air Festival, a rather sound compilation of some of the bands classics has been issued and for the foreseeable future this is as close to “new” as we shall get from the legendary band. My notes on the release come from my relatively long association with their material (since 1988 if memory serves me correctly) and a deep knowledge of their back catalog. I didn’t have a copy of my own and was listening to a digital stream of it online. As a collection, this serves up well as a grouping of very necessary tracks for the listeners who might not be all that up on the bands historic game. Let’s consider this to be “Savatage Primer” since its all expected numbers as opposed to any sort of deep tracks. Perhaps if this was a double CD edition but alas this is only a single disc.
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