Trans-Siberian Orchestra, 13 April, 2012 - MTS Centre

They played for about 2 hours and 40 minutes, with no opening act. Depending on your perspective, the show is all about cheesy spectacle with Disney-like souless vocals and safe, risk-less musicianship, flashy and over the top...perfect for the ADD generation.

Or, you could say that the show was highly entertaining with strong singing, musicianship and was a brilliant visual spectacle with lights, lasers, gasoline bombs and plenty of dry ice.

One of the singers looked like Mylie Cyrus and sang beautifully. Towards the end of the show, another one of the singers sang what could have been TSO original songs or her own. She was more attractive than vocally strong, in my opinion, and the songs were generic and instantly forgettable.

TSO's take on Beethoven was either clever or just what you would expect from this prog-ish metal musical band.

The people around me seemed very pleased with the show. They actually included a minute or two of O Canada as an instrumental, which had everyone standing. Was that a shameless patronizing move or a genuine show of love for their Canadian fans?

Prior to the music starting, they presented one of those large cheques to Osborne House, the charity selected by host radio station 92 CITI FM. One dollar from every ticket went to the donation, which was just shy of 3000, although the Free Press reported that they had around 3500 in attendance.

There were a couple of women in the row behind me who were talking out loud, very likely under the influence, who should have either shut up when they were asked to by one of the audience members or they each should have received a boot to the head. They spoiled the potential of the show for several of us. During parts of the show, a narrator spoke to explain the storyline. Everyone was paying attention save for these two who were laughing at all their own stupid comments.

The 80s metal band Savatage gave birth to the concept of TSO and I dare say TSO are far more successful, with pretty much a guaranteed annual audience for their Christmas shows.

The first time I saw them, they performed a Christmas show, which was a lot of fun. I'm not sure I would see them again. I'm more into substance than style and prefer more challenging music, usually. Still, I had an all right time.