The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 172

N6 Arts Entertainment Boston Sunday Globe DECEMBER 22, 2002 Pop Music 1 i i uwnmi-wmmmmmtlmMivumMmjmmji hiiju niiniin.it,i nn I It. f-f A Trans-Siberian Orchestra puts on a holiday extravaganza By Joan Anderman GLOBE STAFF Take "0 Come All Ye Faithful." Add a swarm of synthesizers. Get the guitarist from Megadeth to play crunching metal riffs. Mix with a chorale of voices, a swelling string section, and a heartwarming story line. Top it off with a KISS-caliber light show.

It's musical math that shouldn't add up. By any measure of artistic integrity or good taste or even weird humor, the idea of a prog-rock holiday extravaganza makes only the sketchiest sort of sense. Imagine the Boston Symphony breaking into a reggae tune. Or a gospel choir singing "Back in Black." It's beyond cross-pollination. It's the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

And they're here to rock your Christmas world. The New York-based group a fluid lineup of around two dozen members has become a blue-chip holiday franchise. TSO's platinum-selling debut album, "Christmas Eve and Other Stories," remains in the Top 10 on Billboard's holiday-music charts six years after it was released. The live show has become so popular that this year, TSO split into two touring units, West and East coast versions, that will play a combined 60 shows in six weeks. They expect to sell upward of 300,000 tickets and bring in $12 million before the final note is sung.

"I will admit that when it was first presented to us, we said, "No recalls PHOTOSMARK WEISS (ABOVE); JAMES PORTO (RIGHT) Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas show, now in its fourth year, blurs the line between rock and symphony. At right, from left, TSO's Paul O'Neill, Robert Kinkel, and Jon Oliva. Sir Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Lowell Tsongas Arena (tickets 1.50) and on Dec. 30 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.

at the Providence Performing Arts Center (tickets Call 617-931-2000. Dave Marsden, vice president and director of booking for Clear Channel Entertainment in Boston. "The second year they approached us, we were still wary, but we split the date with another promoter and did extremely well with an Orpheum show. This year well sell out two holiday shows in the country. "No matter what kind of music you're into now, we all grew up on these Christmas melodies," says O'Neill, who shares musical brain-trust duties with keyboardists composers Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva.

"I think it's the combination of those familiar melodies and the love of a good story that people respond to." Combine that with O'Neill's spirited new battle cry "If we cant fog it, light it, or blow it up we're not interested" and youVe got a wildly diverse audience base that doubles in size annually. Many of TSO's shows have been moved to arenas this year. The national broadcast of TSO's first holiday special "The Ghosts of Christmas Eve," costarring Jewel, Michael Crawford, and Ossie Davis as a major holiday fund-raising event for PBS stations is broad-ening the group's reach still further. "This project has developed such deep roots it could last 10 or 20 years," says TSO's manager, David Krebs, a veteran who guided the early careers of Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. "TSO's live shows far outpace record sales, and that's an exception to the rule in an industry that's predicated on a smash single.

One cannot put a value on the strength of a show that, with all the paranoia and pessimism going on in the world, is about hope." The core audience for TSO's concerts, according to Krebs, is age 35 to 50 an unusual demographic for live entertainment, which usually targets a more youthful core (for rock) or an older crowd (for the symphony). But TSO blurs the line between rock and symphony, not to mention theater, poetry, and pyrotechnics. Kid Rock, Larry Gatlin, Joan Jett, and members of Guns n' Roses and the Baltimore Symphony have checked out TSO's shows. O'Neill says when the house lights come up, he sees kids in Puddle of Mudd T-shirts, parents in Rod Stewart T-shirts, and grandparents who are dressed for a night at the opera. "A producer project turned touring act that's not based on a traditional product is unusual," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a concert-industry trade magazine.

"But Trans-Siberian Or- a 1995 rock opera about the Balkan conflict by Florida metal outfit Savatage. When the single became a surprise hit, Savatage's label, Atlantic, approached the group's producer and lyricist, Paul O'Neill, and suggested he put out an album of Christmas music. Their goal was clear from the start: Create the next incarnation of seasonal fusion pioneers Mannheim Steamroller. Mission accomplished. "Christmas Eve and Other Sto ries" was released in 1996 under the name Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

A concept album that tells the story of a young angel sent to earth to find the one thing that best represents the spirit of Christmas, it features a father-daughter reunion, a benevolent bartender, and some gnarly guitar work. "The Christmas Attic" followed in 1998. An elaborate live production began the next year. Now in its fourth season, TSO has become one of the top five 1 St MacNAUGHTAN (ABOVE); AP PHOTO (BELOW) shows in Providence matinee and evening shows Dec. 30 at the Providence Performing Arts Center and a night at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell Dec.

28. It's a great success story." Especially considering that Trans-Siberian Orchestra exists because an obscure track on a concept album by a fringe metal band became an unlikely radio hit. "Christmas EveSarajevo 1224" was a cut on "Dead Winter Dead," 1 toming at you live from the LD store: concert albums galore quiem, the Fifth" gives songwrit-ing credit to both Beethoven and O'Neill) with originals Good This that peer into Beethoven's psyche. A live production hits the road in March. "Beethoven was the first hard-rock star," says O'Neill, who sings the famous opening notes of the Fifth Symphony over the phone.

"Listen to that. It's epic. It's got huge dynamics. If you told me Black Sabbath wrote it, I'd believe you. It's a natural for us." Joan Anderman can be reached at andernianglobe.com.

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll critics' Picks DUB STATION at Bill's Bar tonight. Reggae still has a foothold in Boston, in no small part because of the dedicated efforts of this versatile band. The group anchors many kinds of reggae at Bill's on Sunday nights, from roots to dancehall styles. 617-421-9678; www.billsbar.com. CLUTCH GRABWELL at the Middle East Upstairs on Thursday.

Clutch Grabwell has fueled many a party in its home base on the South Shore, but it's always ready to do the same when it steps into the city. Its frolicsome has made the band a club staple. 617-492-9181; www.mideastclub.com. ADDISON GROOVE PROJECT at the House of Blues on Friday. The jam-band movement has been able to keep its respect, and its organic roots, thanks to such gifted bands as Addison.

617-491-2583; www.hob.com. STEVE MORSE For complete listings, visit ae.boston.comevents. IIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMI singer Angie Stone) and Don McLean's tribute to Vincent Van Gogh, "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)." The bonus track of the Christmas carol "0 Holy Night" is stunning. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, "Elektrik Inferno Live," SleazeBox Records. Fans of the punky side of techno-rock shouldnt feel left out this season, thanks to this disc, though the group is definitely an acquired taste.

Vocal processing, digital delays, and wild-sounding samples enhance this theatrical shock-rock CD, which contains such naughty but comedic tracks as "Disko Fleshpot" and "Sexin Wheelz." chestra is the perfect seasonal attraction. Their prices are quite reasonable in today's market a fair number of families go meaning you don't just sell a pair but four or five tickets and a whole lot of promoters are searching for holiday-themed shows." But what about the other 46 weeks of the year? In an effort to expand the group's appeal beyond the six-week runway to Christmas, TSO recorded its first nonholiday-themed rock opera. "Beethoven's Last Night" incorporates some of the composer's noted pieces 1 Earth, Wind Fire, "Live in Rio," Kalimba Records. Although this is a new release, the music is taken from a 1986 Rio de Janeiro concert, the last show the original EWF group did together. It sounds dated, and some of the sound quality is shrill, but the band's boogie-down energy still carries the night It is mostly for EWF diehards, however.

Eric Clapton, "One More Car, One More Rider," Reprise. Clapton's last tour was a model effort to merge the acoustic country-blues side of his repertoire with the electric rave-ups symbolized by "Layla" and "Sunshine of Your Love." The playing is meticulous and magnificent Clapton's singing has never been more moving, especially on "River of Tears," which achieves sheer transcendence. And if a welcome touch to hear veteran Billy Preston back on keyboards. A classy, top-shelf album. Sam Bisbee, "Live at Arlene Grocery," DCN.

The Cambridge-raised, New York-based Bisbee has really come into his own. Anyone who has enjoyed his local shows at Toad and the Lizard Lounge will revel in this record. It captures Bisbee's urban anomie and deftly mixes his many influences, from '80s synth-pop (a cover of New Order's "Age of Consent" is featured) to ruminative guitar-rock originals and even a hip-hop cover of De La Soul's "Eye Know." And the album includes earnest stage conversation that helps keep it real. Josh Groban, "In Concert," 143Reprise. The operatic Groban hit it big this year.

And this live program, taken from PBS's "Great Performances," wont hurt Groban sings in Italian, Spanish, and English. He is a young prodigy who combines a classical and pop synthesis with such tracks as The Prayer" (a duet with soul PHOTOANDREW Alison Krauss Union Station (above) showcase their instrumental wizardry in "Live," while Paul McCartney's "Back in the US" lives up to the high standard he set on a recent tour. 11 fine double-CD that lives up to the standards set by McCartney's recent whirlwind tour. Pushed by a young band of support players, he blends Beatles, Wings, and solo material into a nostalgia-drenched but somehow fresh package. All the song patter is cut out, though, so we miss his onstage discussion of how the civil-rights struggle informed the Beatles tune "Blackbird" and how George Harrison gave him the ukulele he uses on a cover of Harrison's "Something." Dave Matthews Band, "Live at Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado," RCA.

This was actually recorded last year and has tunes that appeared on DMB's subsequent "Busted Stuff" disc. Some of the jams are slow to develop, but it's a good introduction to the virtuosity and hedonism at the heart of a Matthews show. He sings about magic mushrooms Did and getting a good buzz but he also turns pensive on a few tracks that affirm the depth of this uniquely skilled rock-jazz group. And the oblique cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" is a marvel. Alison Krauss Union Station, "Live," Rounder.

Recorded in Louisville, a bluegrass-sawy city that can appreciate the string-band wizardry of Krauss this is a standout double disc Krauss's slap-happy stage comments are deleted (it seems to be a growing trend on live albums to drop any verbalizing and just leave the songs and applause), but hearing her sing like a nightingale is a nice compensation. Krauss is heavenly enough on lead vocals, but the bonus is that she's also a skilled, Emmylou Harris-like harmony singer. And her band, Union Station, can fiat-out play, especially dobro player Jerry Douglas. By Steve Morse GLOBE STAFF Go into a record store these days, and you're blinded by holiday products. New albums, bonus DVDs, compilations, and boxed sets are everywhere you turn, all part of a bewildering dance designed to hoist more money out of your wallet during this shopping season.

And let's not forget the profusion of new live albums. The latest come from some of the biggest names in pop from Paul McCartney and the Dave Matthews Band to Eric Clapton, Alison Krauss, and Josh Groban. Live albums have anchored the pop market since Peter Framp-ton's 1976 breakthrough disc, "Frampton Comes Alive," pushed the megamillion button. Framp-ton's album is still the best-selling live album of all time, but many artists have tried to follow that vapor trail. And they keep following it The new Matthews Band disc is the group's fourth live album.

Today, concert albums are typically a holding-pattern move, as artists and record labels that dont have new music to push try to at least put something different on the shelves during the peak buying season. And because live albums are much cheaper to make than studio discs, don't expect the trend to subside any time soon. Here's a quick guide to some of the latest releases: Paul McCartney, "Back in the US," Capitol. Some media pundits have gone ballistic over McCartney's egotistical decision to invert the Lennon-McCartney songwriting credit on this album to "Paul McCartney and John Len-non" instead. It wont change the course of rock history, though it sure has sparked discussion (and a possible lawsuit from Yoko Ono).

But debate aside, this is a Ui I.