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Celebrating 20 years of playing live, six successful studio albums, by now donating millions of dollars to a combination of local and national charities every tour, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra made its annual stop to the NY/NJ area at the Prudential Center in Newark on December 26th.  This year’s tour titled as The Ghosts of Christmas Eve – The Best of TSO & More. 

Known for their hit song (and let’s not forget originally recorded by Savatage on the album Dead Winter Dead in 1996), “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24”, the band are still comprised of members of the ‘Tage between both east and west coast. As a bonus, for all you hard rock and heavy metal readers…depending on the year, other rockers perform with the band. This year on the east coast returning on leads vocals for a couple songs was Russel Allen from Symphony X, and Zak Stevens of Savatage.  Alumni from the beginning are Chris Caffery on guitar and Jeff Plate on drums from Savatage, with the edition of the incendiary playing (as David Coverdale, in his British accent, would say) of Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake) for a second year. 

Now fellow BraveWords readers, if you may not like much Christmas music, the songs that are electric do pack a hard rock/metal crunch. This is definitely a rock show with an edge, and the second half of the show reflects this. You can really see, and feel, the change on the huge video screens and stage as a fire breathing dragon and pyro introduces the Savatage song “Prelude To Madness” (off Hall Of The Mountain King), disguised as “The Mountain” from the TSO album Night Castle. The musical/creative father of TSO, Paul O'Neill - producer, composer, and lyricist, “still the orchestra plays”.  

Setlist: 

“Time And Distance (The Dash)”
“Winter Palace” 
“The Lost Christmas Eve” 
“The Ghosts of Christmas Eve”
“O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night” 
“Good King Joy” 
“Christmas Dreams” 
“Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” 
“Christmas Canon Rock” 
“What Child Is This?” 
“Music Box Blues” 
“First Snow” 
“Promises To Keep” 
“This Christmas Day” 
“Siberian Sleigh Ride” 
“Christmas Nights In Blue” 
A Mad Russian's Christmas 
“For The Sake Of Our Brother” 
“Wizards In Winter” 
“Madness Of Men” 
“Beethoven” 
“Carmina Burana” 
“The Safest Way Into Tomorrow” 
“The Night Conceives” 
“The Mountain” 
“Find Our Way Home” 
“Requiem (The Fifth)” 
“Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) (Reprise)”