What: Trans-Siberian Orchestra, in concert.
When: 3 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27.
Where: The Rose Garden, 300 N. Winning Way, Portland.
Cost: $29-$59.50 through the Rose Quarter, 877-789-7673 or rosequarter.com.
Information: http://trans-siberian.com
With more than 80 performers, a series of bombastic Christmas albums and a decade of successful arena tours, Trans-Siberian Orchestra has developed a reputation for going big. It has also used more fireworks, fire, lasers and other special effects at each performance than any other rock band in history, according to Paul O’Neill, the band’s composer, lyricist and producer.
Now O’Neill wants to move beyond the band’s rock opera performances, into a genre he has dubbed “rock theater.”
The concept: keep the visual effects and lyric-driven songs, but add more story to the stage, taking lessons from the world of Broadway.
“I worship some of these Broadway shows I’ve seen over the years, but they could have been produced in the exact same way in 1920,” O’Neill said. “It’s just the lights, maybe occasionally dry ice, smoke and that’s it. I honestly believe if you looked behind the walls of some of these theaters, you’d see electric (systems) installed by Thomas Edison in 1890.”