WHEN THEY first started putting a rock opera twist on holiday tunes in 1996, the music industry definitely didn’t “get” Transiberian Orchestra. “I’m pretty sure they don’t get it now,” says Al Pitrelli, guitarist and musical director for the group. This despite more than a decade of arena shows that earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million annually, putting them among the most successful tours year in and year out. Their first year, they played to about 130,000 people. By the end of this year they’ll have played to 1.3 million, at 140 shows.
The uninitiated might know TSO’s song “Wizards in Winter,” which was everywhere in 2005, especially after a video of Carson Williams’ insane home Christmas light show set to the song went viral on the Internet. The current TSO tour features somewhere around three dozen musicians, vocalists and narrators, along with 17 semis’ worth of equipment. “It’s a couple acres of gear,” says Pitrelli. “It’s absurdly huge.”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Sunday, 3 and 7:30pm
HP Paviion, San Jose
$30-$60
