“I was worried about the negativity of the election season,” he said. “And the economic situation. People say it’s getting better, but it isn’t for the average person. We’ve always kept our tickets affordable, so if you’re having a speed bump, you can come out and leave your problems in the trunk. I’ve always believed that when the world gets whacky, people turn to the arts. We have to turn it up a notch.”
The TSO will turn it up with two shows on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. It is one of 60 venues the tour will hit.
The TSO is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. To commemorate it, they’ve adapted “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” their 1999 TV special, for the stage. The story is a young runaway who finds refuge in an abandoned theater on Christmas Eve, where she witnesses the ghosts of its past denizens.
“We kept getting letters from fans asking us to do it,” O’Neill said. “It wasn’t something we’d ever considered. Last year, we decided to give it a try, rewrote the poetry to adjust to the arena, and it went over phenomenally well.”
Indeed, one of O’Neill’s oft-repeated mantras is, “The fans own the band.” This means, among other things, that every October without fail the band stops whatever they’re doing to create their enormous holiday production with elaborate staging and the latest visual effects. While O’Neill is grateful that their Christmas trilogy became so wildly popular beyond all expectation, he said that, from an artistic standpoint, it’s a “nightmare.”
“Normally, you write an album for however long it takes,” he said. “Then you record for however long it takes, and then you tour for a couple of years. For us in October, no matter where we are in the process, writing or mixing, we shut down, rent a coliseum and start building this aircraft carrier of a show.”
O’Neill spent many years as a rock promoter and a producer before starting TSO. While he jokingly laments his age, because of the massive changes in the music industry, he’s grateful he came of age in the era he did.
“We’ve gone from over 40 major labels to three,” he said. “And 30,000 record deals per year to 1,000. We were one of the last bands to have old-fashioned artistic development, where we were nurtured until we found our sound. You couldn’t build TSO today. Ninety percent of studios are gone, and you can’t make a TSO album on Pro Tools, and if the first album doesn’t sell, you’re done. I don’t know where the next generation of arena rocks bands is going to come from. The next Steven Tyler will probably go into another business.”
O’Neill also said TSO resists the idea of VIP seating.
“I’ve been to shows where the first 20 rows are empty,” he said. “And it’s because they weren’t sold. They were bought up by corporations for perks, and they’re not watching the show. They’re in the bar, making deals, while the people that really appreciate the music can only afford the nosebleeds.”
In any case, TSO is busy deploying their latest extravaganza, which includes state-of-the-art spark machines that the musicians walk through. (“It looks dangerous but it’s not,” O’Neill said.) O’Neill said the original spirit that inspired TSO to create the Christmas trilogy still lives.
“There’s just something about Christmas,” he said. “You can undo mistakes. It makes you pick up the phone. We feel unbelievably lucky.”
How to go
What: The Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Where: U.S. Bank Arena, 100 Broadway St., Cincinnati
When: 4 and 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21
Cost: $39.50-$75
More info: 513-421-4111 or www.usbankarena.com
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