The Year of Concerts (#26): Trans-Siberian Orchestra

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Dec 17, 2023

I knew “Christmas Eve./Sarajevo 12/24” before Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) existed. The song first appeared on 1980’s hard rockers Savatage’s “Dead Winter Dead,” a concept album about the Bosnian war.

As a rock fan, I owned that album when it released in 1995. It was a year before Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s debut album “Christmas Eve & Other Stories” spun off of the track “Christmas Eve. / Sarajevo 12/24.”

Producer Paul O’Neill brought his storytelling to several Savatage albums, including “Streets: A Rock Opera” and “Wake of Magellan.” And while it gave Savatage a niche for about a decade, Paul’s storytelling needed a bigger outlet. Savatage was too heavy for general audiences, and even in the rock world, it wasn’t a very popular band.

With Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Paul struck gold – and so did millions of people turned onto the band’s music and messages in the past 25 years. With a rock edge, Trans-Siberian Orchestra introduced Paul’s stories about the promise of Christmas.

The man clearly loved Christmas. I say that in the past tense because Paul died way too soon in 2017 from an accidental mixture of prescription drugs for his many chronic illnesses.

But the stories he left us are his legacy.

Like the Savatage records, O’Neill weaved intricate stories into Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas trilogy (“Christmas Eve & Other Stories,” “The Christmas Attic,” and “The Lost Christmas Eve”). These stories about redemption, connection and love have resonated with audiences for a good reason: the messages are timeless.

I’ve seen the band more times than I can count, all the way back to its first large-scale tour in 2000. At that time, the band played a small theater, performing the entire “Christmas Eve & Other Stories” album. Through the years, the band moved into arenas and added more and more production as word-of-mouth of its incredible live show introduced new fans.

I remember when the big deal was that they added a few lasers. Today, the stage shows include not only lasers but extensive use of pyrotechnics and lighting rigs choreographed to move with the music.

One year, it was a big deal that they had LED light panels that added graphical elements (in a single color). Today, huge screens display high-definition full-color imagery to help tell the story.

Paul O’Neill was a rock guy, and he had a vision of bringing bombastic arena rock to Christmas music. The image he developed for the band brought together the elements of 70s rock and 80s excess. The band embraced the latest technology to continually up their game and deliver an impressive live experience.

Narrator Bryan Hicks and TSO’s elaborate stage | Photo by MGS

But at the end of the day, the music matters, and TSO’s core of O’Neill, Al Pitrelli, Jon Oliva and Bob Kinkel had a natural talent for mixing traditional with rock.

Pitrelli and Oliva are also from Savatage, as are TSO’s longtime East Coast touring guitarist Chris Caffery, drummer Jeff Plate and West Coast touring bassist Johnny Lee Middleton. Savatage lead singer Zachary Stevens has also been singing with the East Coast tour for the last several years.

At the heart of TSO remains Savatage, even if many audience members have no idea. Only a few of us cheered when Caffery dropped a reference to Savatage in this year’s show.

But Savatage was present.

In the show's opening, an image of a ship on fire flashed onto the screen, tossing in the waves. I knew immediately it was the ship from “Wake of Magellan.” Indeed, the first two songs of the night were “The Storm” and “The Hourglass” from the Savatage concept album.

In addition, Stevens sang “This Isn’t What We Meant” from “Dead Winter Dead” during the show’s memorial tribute to its founder.

All three seemed to go over most people's heads in that audience, but it was a nice connection to the band’s roots.

This year, the band performed its “Ghosts of Christmas Eve” story, which was a television special that aired on “Family Channel” many years ago. The story focuses on a young girl who ran away from home and wants to return but doesn’t know how to repair the damage done. She falls asleep in an old theater, where an old man takes her on a journey to find her innocence again. In the end, she awakens to the money she needs to fly home.

The story weaves in songs from all three Christmas albums. There’s not much I can say about the live show itself that hasn’t been said thousands of times before: It’s a spectacle of lights, pyro, elevated platforms, large nutcrackers and a woman in a snow globe.

The band played a nice mix of songs from the Christmas trilogy, plus a few from “Beethoven’s Last Night.” It was a pleasant surprise to hear a few additional tracks from “The Christmas Attic,” which is often the least represented album live (except the one year they played the entire album for the first half of the show).

It’s tough sometimes to see the band and not think of some of those performers who are no longer there. Steve Broderick (nobody sang “Old City Bar” like him), Alex Skolnick (that guitar tone was killer), and Jennifer Cella (best female vocalist they’ve ever had, hands down) come to mind. As do the late singer Darryl Pettiford (that voice…) and bassist David Z. (what a positive vibe on stage).

That’s not to take away from the current performers. TSO always brings out a group of top talent to sing and play.

John Brink nailed “What Child is This?” and performed it better than the album version. Newcomer Mackenzie Meadows blew me away with “Music Box Blues,” a song that only Pettiford could give justice to in my mind until now.

But the biggest missing presence remains O’Neill. He gave us amazing music and stories that continue to touch millions. I interviewed and met Paul several times in my past life as a journalist, and he was always an incredibly gracious, appreciative and simply kind man.

The first time I interviewed him, he talked my ear off for more than an hour, not even for the story, just to chat. He invited me to stand with him at the soundboard the night of the show and hang out (I regret not doing that now).

He also seemed to have ADHD. In my only photo with him, Bob Kinkel couldn’t get Paul to look at the camera no matter how many times he told him to focus. So, Paul is looking to his side because he seemed to be that easily distracted.

He was also a perfectionist (aren’t most geniuses?), always trying to get everything just right. One time he told me they had all these different mixes of Christmas Eve. / Sarajevo 12/24” with different drums because they wanted it just right. That’s good because TSO’s albums all have a high level of production and quality.

That’s bad because we don’t have as much music as we might have. Its album “Night Castle” took years to come out. At one time, there was talk of the band doing its version of Savatage’s “Streets: A Rock Opera.” That never came out. He told me several times in interviews that they recorded a version of “Promises to Keep” with Jennifer Cella. That was never released.

I’m guessing there might be a bit of music in the vaults, unfinished because that’s how he operated. He wanted nothing but the best - not only for the band, but for its fans.

It was quality over quantity.

But what we do have – especially in the Christmas albums – is special. The world is richer for having had Paul O’Neill in it. The people who listen to his stories – really listen to them – will be moved. Maybe their soul will be touched to yearn for the promise of Christmas that Paul so eloquently and masterfully understood and embraced. And maybe – just maybe - they will even be moved to action to make the world just a little better in their little corner.

“And so it’s good that we remember

“Just as soon as we’ve discovered

“That the things we do in life

Will always end up touching others…”

You are missed, Paul. Thank you for the music.