Trans-Siberian Orchestra amps up holidays

Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been producing music for nearly 20 years, but it wasn’t until recently that guitarist Al Pitrelli was convinced the band had really made it.

“The other day we were playing in Des Moines, Iowa,” he said. “I look in the audience and I see the kid in the Slayer T-shirt, I see the grandparents in their Christmas stuff, everybody in between. But I knew we’d arrived when I looked out and there was a section of the arena filled with Amish people. We’ve nailed the Amish market, dude!

“That’s how you know that is doesn’t matter where you come from. I don’t know too many things where you can take your grandkids, your cousin or your boss to, and for two and a half hours you’re all enjoying the same thing.”

The band, which performs at the Spokane Arena on Friday night, combines elements of prog rock, metal and symphonic music and tours with a famously bombastic live show. Spokane has become one of the band’s annual end-of-the-year stops, and Pitrelli said it’s common for the band to revisit the same cities on all of their Christmas tours.

“I’d say 85 to 90 percent of cities we visit we do every year,” he said. “A lot of the communities that we do come back to every year have embraced us as a part of their holiday tradition. It’s almost like a family reunion, albeit a dysfunctional one.”

The group, led by producer and songwriter Paul O’Neill, has released eight studio albums since 1996, but it’s best known for its spectacular live shows that incorporate sophisticated lighting and high-tech visuals.

“We’ve become known for being good musicians in the studio and live, but the production has become such a big part of what we are,” Pitrelli said. “Paul’s creativity on the production side of touring is incredible, and he’s surrounded himself with some of the best department heads on the planet. What these guys are able to do with lasers and pyro and the 3-D imagery they’re projecting onto these screens that move, it really is incredible.”

The band usually tours year round, but its Christmas shows have become its biggest audience draws. Its current tour, “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” is named for a made-for-TV concert special the group released in 1999, which featured appearances by Jewel, Ossie Davis and Michael Crawford.

While Pitrelli doesn’t want to give away too many of the show’s surprises, he said the band essentially immerses itself within the movie.

“Not only are we bringing the soundtrack and the story back to life, but the movie itself is coming back to life,” he said. “People play that movie every year, so now they can see it and see the band. It’s a really beautiful production.”

Shows as grandiose as Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s require a lot of behind-the-scenes assistance, and Pitrelli credits the crew of technicians and engineers for keeping the tour’s moving parts well oiled.

“There isn’t a chance that I’d be able to do my job without the 85 or so men and women that are traveling with us,” he said. “I don’t know how it all gets done, but it’s a choreographed process. I mean, we have 18 tractor trailers, 10 buses. There’s so much going on that the audience doesn’t get to see.”