Guess Who I'm Seeing Tomorrow?

Drumoid said:
I bet it's an event. From the commercial's and what not there performances are extravaganza's.
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Yeah. I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a rock opera. It’s not just a concert. They have several vocalists who sing different songs at different times. Or, they may all sing as sort of a mini choir.

At this particular concert, one of the male vocalists also played rhythm guitar, from time to time.

The most unique thing is that the whole first half comprises a story. A “Story Teller” will come out at different times and make a short recitation which sets the scene, if you will. The recitation may be a short story or a poem. The song immediately following will tie into what the Story Teller has just described. To me, this was one of the most compelling and captivating parts of the event. It puts a soul in the body, so to speak.

The second half of the event didn’t have the Story Teller and was more of a traditional concert. The entire event was three hours.

Another really cool thing is that they use a seven piece string section, not including the lead violinist. The unique thing is that these seven members are people from the local community where TSO plays. They aren’t permanent members of the band.

So, the instrumentation, not including the visiting seven-piece string section, was as follows.

1. Two electric guitars. Sometimes one electric guitarist would play acoustic. Sometimes they had the third electric guitar I mentioned earlier.

2. Two keyboardists. The second keyboardist is on the riser at the back of the stage. The keyboardist on the main stage is also their music director.

3. Drummer. TSO has only had one drummer. This drummer is their original.

4. Bassist. This dude was very high energy. I thought he was great. He played what appeared to be a Music Man, and it thundered. That’s one thing I particularly noticed. The bass was like thunder. It really punched through you.

5. Lead Violinist. He is the guy playing the electric violin you see in my short video clip. He is a permanent member and leads the seven-piece string section.

The two electric guitar players, Chris Caffery and Joel Hoekstra, CONSTANTLY rotated through guitars. It was a veritable smorgasbord of electric guitars. I couldn’t tell what some were, due to being obscured by shadows and movement. But, throughout the evening they went through a few Les Pauls, a couple Stratocasters, at least one Ibanez, a Friedman Telecaster, a Gibson Modern V, an Explorer, a Gibson Flying V, and a couple different V style guitars. At one point, Hoekstra played a Firebird, as well. They were even more played than these. The third electric guitar player always played the same guitar. It was a single cut guitar, but it wasn’t a Les Paul. I couldn’t tell what it was, but the silhouette of the headstock didn’t look like a Gibson. There were even more guitars played than these, but I couldn’t get a good enough view of them.

One particularly interesting technical tidbit I realized partway through was that, even though it was very loud, it didn’t come away with that ear-ringing, temporary hearing loss you can get from a lot of rock concerts.

So yeah...it was quite the night!
 
Chubbles said:
I've seen them on TV - more fire than a Kiss concert.
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Fer sure!

Your sense of smell even gets involved! In my video clip you can see the Van De Graaf generator at the opposite end of the auditorium. This was synchronized to certain elements of the music. When it energized the buzzing was loud enough to be heard, even while the music was playing. It was so powerful it ionized the air and it smelled like the air smells after a lightning storm.

There’s literally something happening everywhere. In my video clip, at around 1:20, you can see three sections of the rear riser raise and lower while they are playing. The section furthest to the left remained stationary, however. The visiting string section was on that one.

Anyway, all of these different things were introduced gradually as the night progressed. The night didn’t start off with all these things. You never knew what to expect.

It was the fastest three hours of my life.
 
Drumoid said:
Sounds like and old school Blue Oyster Cult concert on steroids. BOC's good ole day concerts where pretty awesome in the day.
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I never saw BOC. Sounds like an awesome time.

I did learn a thing about myself at this event, though.

I learned that I REALLY like over-the-top, multi-sensational, poly-dimensional, heavily-produced events. It's enticing and goes WAY beyond listening to music.

You can't simply "listen" to, or "watch" TSO.

The assault of sound, visuals, feel, and smell pulls you into the experience.

After awhile, I played closer attention to the bassist. When he would reach down to the strings in a certain way, I knew that a millisecond later I would be struck with thunder.

I loved every second.

Even the simple soliloquies of the Story Teller were accompanied by visual effects to reinforce the thought.

Eventually, I began to crave the next Story. The Story Teller became my next hit.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a drug.

I'm hooked!
 
ChasFred said:
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Yup. They went through nearly all of those guitars! I really like how the guitar techs participated in this rig rundown. I’d like to see that more often.

I‘ll go through my pics and post a few, but Chris also played an inca silver Strat, which he didn’t show in the video.

This rig rundown also confirms what I had suspected: They use guitar processors and not physical amps. The reason I suspected this has nothing to do with the sound. It sounded fantastic! But, with a show this massive and all-encompassing, I would be surprised if they didn't use processors. They take just a little more hassle out of doing the show and offer more consistency.
 
So, I suppose I've spent enough time sounding like a total fanboi!

So...let me post up some guitar pics!

I didn't want to spend the whole time staring at the event through my phone, so I only took pictures and short video clips periodically. Besides, they were in such constant motion, sometimes it was tough to get good pictures.

Most of these guitars were in the rig rundown that @ChasFred posted.

This was toward the beginning of the show. This is a good shot of the whole stage. You can just see the Atomic Explorer Joel Hoekstra is playing.

FullStageWithBand_sm.jpg

Here's a better shot of Joel with the Explorer.

Joel_with_Explorer_sm.jpg

Here's a pic of Joel with the chrome Ibanez. You can also just tell by the pickguard shape that Chris Caffery on the far riser is playing his SG.

Joel_with_Ibanez_sm.jpg

Although the band members change locations a lot, Chris spent most of his time on the far riser, so I couldn't get a good look at most of his guitars. But, you can see he's playing an inca silver Strat here:

Chris_with_Strat_sm.jpg


Every now and then, Chris did end up on the riser near me. Here he is with his Jackson Rhoads V:

Chris_with_JacksonV_sm.jpg


Here's a pic of Joel with the blue Jackson:

Joel_with_Jackson_sm.jpg

And... a pic with the white Les Paul Custom:

Joel_with_LesPaul_sm.jpg

It's hard to tell, but in this shot, Chris Caffery is closest to the camera and he is turned so you can just see the Dean Wizard he's playing:

All_Upfront_sm.jpg

Finally, this is a pic I posted earlier showing Joel with the Gibson Modern V:

Joel_with_ModernV_sm.jpg
 
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