![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermore.
.
.
Last night Jeff and I saw Trans Siberian Orchestra in Houston. My father and step-mother bought the tickets before I lost my job and a more pragmatic Christmas gift may have been more in order, but I'm not sorry we went. While a Christmas-themed rock opera may seem like a strange idea, it works surprisingly well. The lazar show and pyrotechnics alone made the stuff I saw at the Pink Floyd show years ago look amateurish. The rock music was louder and harder, too.
If you think that Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 sounds like an instrumental political statement when you hear it over the radio (a mix of the two peaceful Christmas carols God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells played in a driving, violent heavy-metal style), the live show with the background images of multi national flags and world leaders accompanied by the lead in narration leaves no doubt.
The rock opera centers around an angel sent to observe mankind and report back. When he observes Sarajevo and other places (Belfast, Darfur, Rwanda and Palestine all got a mention), the narration intoned: "…And in the gardens where children played, now soldiers only trod. And stranger yet he heard them say they were killing for their God. Now the angel had heard God speak many times, and he'd always paid attention; but this killing of your neighbor was something the Lord had never mentioned."
"Oooooh, that's harsh," Jeff said over my shoulder.
Indeed.
Anyway, if you like your Christmas shows with heavy metal guitars, fire, lazar beams, and blond back-up singers in skirts so short that I’m sure they are illegal in some states, TSO is worth checking out. But don't take your grandmother with you. Unless she's into hard rock, she probably won't dig it.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * # * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
.
.
Last night Jeff and I saw Trans Siberian Orchestra in Houston. My father and step-mother bought the tickets before I lost my job and a more pragmatic Christmas gift may have been more in order, but I'm not sorry we went. While a Christmas-themed rock opera may seem like a strange idea, it works surprisingly well. The lazar show and pyrotechnics alone made the stuff I saw at the Pink Floyd show years ago look amateurish. The rock music was louder and harder, too.
If you think that Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 sounds like an instrumental political statement when you hear it over the radio (a mix of the two peaceful Christmas carols God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells played in a driving, violent heavy-metal style), the live show with the background images of multi national flags and world leaders accompanied by the lead in narration leaves no doubt.
The rock opera centers around an angel sent to observe mankind and report back. When he observes Sarajevo and other places (Belfast, Darfur, Rwanda and Palestine all got a mention), the narration intoned: "…And in the gardens where children played, now soldiers only trod. And stranger yet he heard them say they were killing for their God. Now the angel had heard God speak many times, and he'd always paid attention; but this killing of your neighbor was something the Lord had never mentioned."
"Oooooh, that's harsh," Jeff said over my shoulder.
Indeed.
Anyway, if you like your Christmas shows with heavy metal guitars, fire, lazar beams, and blond back-up singers in skirts so short that I’m sure they are illegal in some states, TSO is worth checking out. But don't take your grandmother with you. Unless she's into hard rock, she probably won't dig it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 09:06 pm (UTC)