TSO is More Metal Than Your Mom

So, on the 23rd me and the fam went and saw the Transiberian Orchestra. My parents have been doing it alone for the past four years and this is the first year my sister and I have been off at the same time a show happened so we could go. Felt a tad like intruding on their date night at first, then I remembered they have lots of date nights and are going to Hawaii in February anyway. Yes, my parents have a vacation fund. It's their 25th anniversary this December. I turn 25 in May, ha ha, do the math.

Now, I generally hate most Christmas music. Seriously, I do. Years of being in band and having to do a freaking Christmas concert and then helping with the school choir's 4 hour holiday monstrosity has put me off to most of it. I nearly had a panick attack playing the flute part for "March of the Toys" one year, so yeah. I still like some of the "Christmas" type music like "Carol of the Bells" and "I Saw Three Ships" in their instrumental forms, because it's pretty music. And Drak got me a CD with a lot of artists I like singing very good versions of Christmas Carols that make them less grating. But my general tolerance is low to none. I go so far as to avoid public places that may be playing said music and walk around with headphones on to avoid it when I can't avoid the places.

Yeah yeah, bah humbug, whatever. I think I have enough goodwill throughout the rest of the year to be a crankypants during this time of year.

Transiberian Orchestra, however, rocks really hardkore. There's some Christmas music in there, but it's like... they really do a good job with the orchestrations so that it's not fucking annoying and instead fucking awesome. It's more like really high energy classical music, which I have a huge friggin soft spot for, as I used to be a total snob and only listen to like, Bach. They also are REALLY super theatrical, which is a good 85% of the reason I like a lot of artists that I do (I'm a glam and prog rock girl at heart, and those bitches can put on a SHOW). Oh and we have floor seats which were epic.

It's also probably one of the most diverse crowds you will ever see anywhere. Ladies in their best pearl sitting next to dudes with band shirts and tattoos next to teeny boppers next to really old people--also awesome. My favorite kinds of crowds aren't full of people just like me, but full of everyone.

So how about some blurry concert pictures, eh? I wasn't allowed to bring my awesome DSLR camera, so I had to make due with Mom's point-and-shoot, and some of the pics she took, but there were some good ones and for the most part captured that really fucking hot electric violin player chick some of the awesome. As always, click to embiggen.

( lots of pics ahoy! )

In conclusion, go see TSO if you have the chance. They're even doing a non-holiday tour for their Nightcastle CD, which I've listened to since my parents are such huge fans and it's pretty awesome. I mean, fucking "O Fortuna" and an extremely fast rendition of Beethoven via piano and guitar in the same album? Ah yes.

ALL THE PICS, INCLUDING SOME I DIDN'T PUT IN THIS ENTRY