There are 2 groups, the East Coast and West Coast Groups. Like I said before, I prefer East (mostly because most of the original musicians are on that tour, and Chris Caffery is incredible at working the crowd and I think David Z is hot).

ASUADPi, I'll bet that crowd was amazing. I love the show. I heard they are switching the first half from "Christmas Eve & Other Stories" to "Lost Christmas Eve" in 2007. Only one more year of the good ol' story.... If they don't play "Old City Bar" when they switch shows, I think I'll cry.

They started previewing Carmina a few years ago. I LOVE it. I accidentally got some on video (I didn't realize my camera was on video and not picture), and it's fabulous :)

I've heard of this group... I'm not sure I'm familiar with their work.

I hate Christmas music though, so that may be why.

I've heard their stuff on the radio but am really not familiar with them. They seem to pop up on my radar at Christmas time each year. Are they basically a holiday group?

Curious.

3 of their 4 albums are Holiday music. Most members were part of the metal group Savantage. Their second non-holiday CD will be out this spring/summer.

I went to the TSO show last night. While it was good, I hoped they would have played more Christmas music. The narrator/voice guy got annoying after awhile. I feel like there wasn't enough "music" as there should have been during the 1st half of the show (when they were doing Christmas stuff. Some of the Christmas stuff was like whaaaa?)

Our choices this weekend were to see the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and TSO... we chose TSO this year, but we will probably pick Dallas Sym. Orch. for the years to come.

It was a pretty good show, but not quite what I thought it was going to be.

Carol of the Bells is called "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 1996" on their "Christmas Eve and Other Stories" album

T*P, their CDs are all rock operas, which is why they have all the narration. I like that better than regular concerts because there is a good story for the first half of the show. Most of their music is original, not traditional carols, so they don't seem Christmasy to non-TSO fans. You saw the West Coast group, and I definitely think TSO East is better.

For anyone interested, here is the story behind "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo". It's yet another reason TSO is one of my favorite bands :)

They did awesome renditions of the Christmas songs I did know, but some of the other stuff was like whaa? LIke there was one about a Christmas eve in a bar?

I was worried for a minute that the violin chick's head was going to fall off her body from her banging it so hard while playing :p

"Old City Bar" is about the bartender, who was an old grouch, taking all the cash from his drawer and giving it to a young woman who couldn't get home for Christmas Eve. The child who had pointed it out to him vanished when he looked for her to thank her. They also talk about the only light in the sky was from the neon glow of the sign, and the girl who couldn't get home had wished on that light since there were no stars. It's my favorite song by TSO :)

I'm with you, up to a point. There is some good Christmas music out there, mostly in English churches I fear, but the stuff one is hears on commercial radio, on TV "specials," or while shopping turns me into a regular Scrooge.

I seem to be in the minority here. I really don't care for TSO's music.

Robert Earle Keen's "Merry Christmas from the Family" -- now that's good Christmas music.

Bump :)

Presale tickets for Trans-Siberian went on sale today. We're front row center :) Anyone else going to see them this year? THey're definitely worth the money. It's a fabulous show!