TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA bassist Dave Z (ZO2) has filed the following road report, recapping the east coast company's seventh week on tour in North America:

12/8/06: Show #37 Palace Of Auburn Hills – Detroit, MI

"KISS was right on the money when they wrote 'Detroit Rock City'. There were a lot more metal heads and rockers in the audience than usual. There was also a lot more liquor flowing. Several pockets of people forgot they were at a show with little children in attendance and acted, instead, as if they were at a Motley Crue concert. No harm, no foul though. There wasn’t a huge commotion but it was certainly entertaining to watch those people making drunken messes out of themselves; especially the women. Ladies, a bit of advice: the most unattractive thing is a woman who’s shit-faced."

12/9/06: Show #38 & #39 Allstate Arena – Chicago, IL

"Man, it was is cold today. Chicago definitely lived up to its nickname, The Windy City. As I open the door to step off the bus in the morning, the door was ripped open by the wind… with me still attached! There’s a wake-up call: a fierce gust of wind flinging you 5’ across the pavement.

From here on out on the tour there are matinee shows scheduled on both Saturdays and Sundays. And we don’t stay in one city for more than one day each. That means that from now on, on these matinee weekends, the crew will have to load-out at like 1:00 a.m. and then load-in again at like 7:00 a.m. the next morning. It’s times like these I’m reminded to be thankful that I’m on the stage rather than building it."

12/10/06: Show #40 & #41 Van Andel Arena – Grand Rapids, MI

"You may remember I made a special note of the Manchester crowd a while back. Well, the Grand Rapids crowd was like Manchester on steroids. We should change the name to 'Grand Rapids Rock City'. The crowd was on their feet for almost the entire second half of the show. The standing ovations spread like wildfire. It started each time with several enthusiastic fans in the center floor section standing and then quickly spread throughout the arena. They may as well have stood the entire time instead of sitting for the few seconds in between each song. And this was during the matinee show! This was probably the most energetic and excited crowd we’ve had. And the excitement wasn’t just reserved for the band… I found out later that a couple was caught having sex in the ladies’ room during the show. Nothing says lovin’ like the good ol’ 'Prince Of Peace'. It seems they took it literally when the song states, 'an angel CAME down', although I have a feeling that she was calling her man something quite different."

12/11/06: DAY OFF

"Today we fly back home to N.Y. It felt more like we were flying to Japan though. There must have been like 25 Japanese students (mostly women) all sitting in my section of the plane. I imagined it as if ZO2 were playing for the first time in Japan and these were all our hot Japanese fans. MOO SHOO, baby, MOO SHOO. When we landed, the first order of business was to meet up with ZO2 management and pick up more promotional materials because I’m going through postcards, flyers and pins that I currently have like they were condoms in an Amsterdam whore house. The next order of business was to put some food in my stomach seeing as how the last time I ate was earlier in the day at an airport McDonald’s where my air nuggets (chicken nuggets with no chicken in them) cost me double the price. With my full stomach and a bag full of ZO2 promo gear it was time to prepare myself for the online fan chat. If you’re reading this, sorry, you already missed it. It was a huge success for us. We had over 50 people log on to the fan site for the chat. There were many new fans that found out about ZO2 through TSO and we’re glad to have you aboard. This was the first time that Paulie, Joey and I were all on the chat together so it marked a very special occasion for the fan site and we were glad to share it with all our fans, old and new. We hope to see you guys on the weekly Wednesday night chats."

12/12/06: DAY OFF

"We started our day off by appearing on the Regis &Kelly; Show. Other than having to be up at 6:00 a.m., this was a great start to any day! The guest before us was Matthew McConaughey. Needless to say, the women went crazy for him. I walked out onto the set and not a single woman looked at me - which is kind of an oddity (hey, I’m allowed one ego moment per journal). Then again, he was rated the sexiest man alive so I suppose I can’t take it too personally.

I’m not sure if the rest of the day could really be considered a day off when you have to deal with the nightmares of flying. I don’t know if it’s just bad luck or what, but it seemed that every gate, baggage claim and exit from yesterday’s travels and today’s were miles away. I made fun of one of our techs for wearing shorts on the plane in the winter. Meanwhile, he was the only one not sweating from having to carry bags such long distances while wearing sweaters and coats. After being up so early and dragging my heavy bags through the airport, the only thing on my mind was getting to the hotel room, cooling down and chilling out. Unfortunately, the torment was not quite over. As luck would have it, when I got to my room, my key didn’t work. I had to drag all my bags back down to the lobby and get a new one. Mind you, I am drenched with sweat by now and the warm South Carolina weather only added to the schvitzing. And to add insult to injury, the heat was on full blast when I finally entered my room. I quickly turned on the AC, stripped out of my clothes and jumped in a cold shower followed by a well-deserved nap."

12/13/06: Show #42 Colonial Center – Columbia, SC

"Alex Skolnick and I met up with an old friend of mine today for lunch at an Indian restaurant. In fact, it was Alex who spotted the place while we were driving and suggested it. And it will be a while before I forgive him. It seems Indian food goes through me quicker than even coffee. Of course, that didn’t stop me from having seconds and thirds at the buffet. You’ve heard of the In And Out Burger joint? Well, this was the 'In And Out' Curry joint for me…literally.

After lunch, my friend and I headed to Manifest Music, one of the largest record stores in Columbia, to meet with the manager about carrying ZO2 CD’s. After arriving and schmoozing for a bit not only did they agree to carry the new ZO2 CD but they also let me sign and draw a huge ZO2 logo on their ceiling along with many other famous artists. That’s right folks, for all you ZO2 fans in Columbia, SC, you can now pick up the new CD, Ain’t It Beautiful, at Manifest Music. As a thank you, I got the manager a ticket to see the TSO show that night. She had a great time and so did I. South Carolina was a great audience and very pretty to boot. Tonight, my neck was hurting not from the head banging but from looking side to side to check out all the pretty faces."

12/14/06: Show #43 RBC Center – Raleigh, NC

"I woke up on the bus today at around noon and decided like I usually do that it wasn’t worth going into the day room just for a few hours. What I didn’t know was that they weren’t day rooms and that in fact, we would be returning to them after tonight’s show. Just great. I wound up changing on the bus for nothing. That’s what I get for not reading my day sheet which has a daily break down of the exact events taking place that day including whether or not we will be staying the night or driving to the next city.

Even though I didn’t have the comfort of a hotel bed, I felt really good about tonight’s show. I was awake and energized. I did, however, have a spazoid moment at the end of the show. After running back to the stage from the lift, I was feeling on top of the world. The crowd was screaming and I was getting them up on their feet. I proceeded to show them the picks that I had in my hand and taunted them with it with the intention of throwing them out to the audience at the very last hit of the song. Well, the last hit came and I threw the picks way up in the air… and they proceeded to fall right back down on me. There I was, standing in a pool of my own picks looking like a complete spaz…thus the spazoid moment. We had an extremely long line after the show so I was able to give out my picks to some of those people in the front who were expecting them."

To read Dave Z's previous reports click the following links: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6.