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tso
One of the things Sawyer put on his birthday wish list this year was tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra performance in Little Rock. They play in LR every year, but yesterday’s performance was the first one we’ve attended.
We stood outside in line, waiting to get into the arena, for over an hour ~ and that was with pre-purchased tickets! Once we were inside and found our seats, the lights dimmed and the performance began.
To be honest, the concert wasn’t what I was expecting. The “Orchestra” part of the name is a misnomer ~ they had 6 violins, a cello and a bass. I’m not sure what the official criteria for an orchestra are, but in my mind 6 violins, a cello and a bass don’t make much of an orchestra! The strings were all tucked back in the corner except for one violinist who had WAY too much energy, bounding here, there, and everywhere else on the stage. Out front were 3 electric guitars and a synthesizer. Another synthesizer and a set of rockin’ drums were also set up towards the back.
The performance began with a man telling a story about an angel flying over the earth on Christmas Eve and the different situations he encountered in different countries. The music tied in with the story. There were 4 male singers and 4 female singers ~ one of the male singers reminded me of Bob Seger. One of the female singers reminded me of a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who just happened to be able to carry a tune in a bucket! She danced all over the place, swinging her hair around and strutting her stuff ~ during one song she did a sort of yodeling part ~ it was very interesting. One of the other female singers sang a solo that was very good. She sounded like a country music singer, and did her best to keep up with the dancing and hair-swinging of the (what I call) Dallas Cowboys cheerleader yodeler.
The light show was huge, and they made good use of strobe lights and pyrotechnics. The concert was really more like a rock band concert than any orchestra performance I’ve ever seen. The group relied heavily on the electric guitars, synthesizers and drums ~ the strings were sort of an afterthought.
Overall the music was decent; there were some fun parts, to be sure. I’m glad that we had the opportunity to go, but I don’t think it’s something that I would go to again. I tried really hard not to show my disappointment ~ until after the concert was over, the lights came up, and Sawyer said, “Well, that was disappointing.” !!!
I think next year we’ll spend the money we spent on TSO tickets to attend an Arkansas Symphony Orchestra performance.
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